RANGE OF CLIMATE. O 



equator, but the horse can only be said to flourish in temperate 

 regions, and reaches his finest proportions only in those countries 

 where green grass can be obtained during the greater part of the 

 year. T^ven on the vast, dry, though temperate Australian plains 

 where light horses are so abundant and so good, the size of the 

 heavy cart horse cannot be sustained, so that he is regularly 

 imported from the colder climates of Tasmania and New Zealand. 

 There is ia the climate of New Zealand something specially 

 favourable to the development both of the cart horse and the 

 race horse. No finer cart horses can be seen in any part of the 

 world than at the New Zealand agricultural shows. Some of the 

 very first race horses bred in New Zealand were from Flora 

 Mc. Ivor, when about twenty years of age, yet they surpassed in 

 speed anything that she bred in her prime in Australia. During, 

 the year 1883, a three-year-old colt, bred in New Zealand, and 

 undergoing a voyage to Australia, has carried off the two 

 principal races in Melbourne, in the shortest time they have 

 ever been accomplished. This colt (]\Iartini-Henry) won not only 

 the Derby, for three-year-olds, but the Melbourne Cup, beating 

 a field of no less than 29 of the very best Australian horses of all 

 ages, doing the mile and a half in 2 minutes and 39 seconds, 

 and the two miles in 3 minutes 30^ seconds. 



Though capable of his greatest speed and of the utmost 

 endurance when fed chiefly on dry fodder, with a large proportion 

 of corn, the horse only attains his utmost growth, continuous 

 health, aud natural age, when fed on somewhat bulky and 

 succulent food, 



8. — Under good treatment he reaches his full growth and 

 utmost power at five years old, continues in perfection until 

 twelve, and is capable of moderate work until over twenty. 

 After that age his powers fail fast, although there are a few 

 cases on record in which he has attained the age of forty, and 

 both sexes have been known to retain fertility until after thirty. 

 Excessively fast work over hard roads, excited l^y stimulating 

 concentrated food, often wears him out in a few months, so that 

 stage coach horses, although skilfully selected, with great natural 

 powers of speed and endurance, only stand their cruel work two 



