24 BREEDS. 



horse is often as fast as a large one ; indeed a very large strong 

 horse, however well bred, is rarely fast enough for the purpose : 

 there must be quality, but. there need not be quantity. Any extra 

 weight about the feet and legs which are moved at a great 

 meehanical disadvantage (18) is fatal to the pace that alone can 

 win in a fast race. A mere weed that is unsafe to ride at a 

 walk may be a better gambling machine than a horse fit to carry 

 a dake weighing sixteen stone over a five feet fence. Here 

 fortunately another human weakness has helped to save the race- 

 horse from hopeless degeneration. The breeder is never sure 

 that any horse he may breed will be fast enough to race 

 successfully : six out of seven that are bred for the purpose are 

 not so ; consequently he looks to the hunting field as a possible 

 destination for the horse he breeds, and the huntsman will have 

 nothing to do with him unless his action is safe and his foi'e 

 legs strong. Thus a potent motive is always at work to induce 

 the I.iroeder of Tlioroughbi-eds to select horses fit to carry a 

 heavy weight in the hunting field, and if fit for that they are 

 fit for any fast work. 



44. — But much as the race course and the hunting field 

 have done to keep up the quality of the Briiish Thoroughbred 

 Horse, he has never been left entirely to their unaided influence. 

 During the two and a half centuries that he may be said to 

 have existed, we have never been without men of means 

 and patriotism, and judgment, whose love of the horse for his 

 own sake has made them something tar more than mere race- 

 horse breeders. 



Xot a few lords of the British soil have made the improvment 

 of the horse the chief business of their lives, the one channel 

 through which they have sought distinction, and whilst such 

 men have tried hard to win races, they have tried to do so with 

 really good horses. The late Earl of Glasgow made it a business 

 rather than a hobby, and often failed on the turf because his 

 horses were too strong and useful. The valuable stud he collected 

 has done much since his death to improve the size, power, beauty, 

 and usefulness of the light horses of the world. Such studs supply 

 the material by which all the valuable quality and pace of the 



