HORSE. 



HORSE. 



bial. " The Bedouins," adds Burckhardt, " when 

 a horse is born, never let it drop down to the 

 ground, bat receive and keep it for several 

 hours upon their arms, washing it, stretching 

 and strengthening its limbs, and hugging it 

 like a baby." (Quart. Journ. of dgr. vol. vii. p. 

 577.) None were found either on the conti- 

 nent or on the islands of the New World. And 

 yet the large droves of wild horses which have 

 descended from the two or three mares and 

 stallions left by the early Spanish voyagers, 

 and which now abound in the plains of South 

 America, prove very clearly that the climate 

 and the soil of the New World are not adverse 

 to the propagation of the wild horse. 



" The horse," says Professor Low (Illustra- 

 tions of the Breeds of the Domestic Jlnimals, part 

 ix.), " is seen to be affected in his character 

 and form, by the agencies of food and climate, 

 and it may be by other causes unknown to us. 

 He sustains the temperature of the most burn- 

 ing regions ; but there is a degree of cold at 

 which he cannot exist, and as he approaches 

 to this limit, his temperament and external 

 cunt.'i-mation are affected. In Iceland, at the 

 arctic circle, he has become a dwarf; in Lap- 

 land, at latitude 65, he has given place to the 

 reindeer; and in Kamtschatka, at latitude 52, 

 he has given place to the dog. The nature 

 and abundance of his food, too, greatly affect 

 his character and form. A country of heaths 

 and innutritious herbs will not produce a horse 

 so large and strong as one of plentiful herbage. 

 The horse of the mountains will be smaller 

 than that of the plains ; the horse of the sandy 

 desert than of the watered valley." 



Leaving, however, these interesting, but for 

 this work too extensive, researches, I propose 

 to direct my attention to the English breed of 

 horses, and more especially to those which 

 come particularly within the farmer's pro- 

 vince. 



From a very early period there appears to 

 have existed in England a powerful, active, 

 useful, and numerous breed of horses. Caesar, 

 perhaps with the natural inclination of a con- 

 qneror to elevate the prowess of his defeated 

 enemies, gives a very lively account of the 

 horses used by the early Britons in their war 

 chariots ; which, armed with iron scythes 

 affixed to their axletrees, were driven furiously 

 and destructively amid the ranks of their ene- 

 mies. And if it be true, that when Cassibel- 

 launus had disbanded the chief portion of his 

 army, he yet retained 4000 war chariots 

 to harass the foraging parties of the Roman 

 army ; the supply of good horses able to work 

 these heavy war chariots with sufficient speed 

 over the open country, and bad roads of that 

 period, must have been pretty considerable. 



Of such imperfect materials is constituted all 

 the accounts in our possession, of the native 

 breed of English horses. That they were 

 valuable, is proved, amongst other things, by 

 the fact, that the Roman generals carried many 

 of them to Italy. The improvement of the 

 breed was an object of the early Saxon princes 

 of England. Aihelstan imported several Ger- 

 man running horses, and he even (930) prohi- 

 bited the exportation of those bred in England, 

 a decree, which of itself proves that they were 



then in demand abroad. It is supposed that 

 oxen were, in his days, solely used for the 

 plough ; there is no early record of the horse 

 being used for such a purpose. The first no- 

 tice of a horse being employed in agriculture, 

 is in tapestry of Bayeux (woven in 1066), 

 where one is depicted drawing a harrow. 



With William of Normandy came many 

 Spanish horses. His army was furnished with 

 a powerful cavalry, to whom he might well 

 attribute his hard-earned victory of Hastings. 



In 1121, we have the first notice of an Ara- 

 bian horse being in Great Britain ; for in that 

 year, I find that Alexander I. of Scotland pre- 

 sented one to the church of St. Andrews. 

 King John procured from Flanders 100 stal- 

 lions, and is to be gratefully remembered for 

 other efforts to improve the English breed of 

 horses. Edward II. and Edward III. also im- 

 ported horses from Lombardy, France, and 

 Spain. Henry VIII. did all he could to encou- 

 rage the breed. Race-courses were now esta- 

 blished at Chester and at Stamford. But ii 

 was not till the time of James I. that the mo- 

 dern system of racing, under certain rules and 

 regulations, commenced, and a peculiar breed 

 of race-horses began to be formed; for previous 

 to that time fast horses of all breeds ran in the 

 same race. 



This noble breed of race-horses, which now 

 excels in beauty, speed, and endurance that of 

 all other nations, has been gradually formed 

 by the introduction of the best blood of Spain, 

 of Barbary, of Turkey, and of Arabia. It would 

 be a grateful task to follow the English race- 

 horse through his entire history, to trace his 

 progress by gradual yet steady degrees towards 

 perfection, his generous properties, his con- 

 tests, and his triumphs over the best horses of 

 Arabia, of Persia, and of the New World ; out- 

 footing the fleetest, and in endurance excelling 

 all that the proud nobles cf Russia could pro- 

 duce of the best and most celebrated Cossack 

 horses of the banks of the Don. But in a work 

 devoted to agriculture, my attention must be 

 more directed to those valuable breeds of 

 horses generally employed by the farmer. 



The Arabian horse is represented in PI. 13, 

 a the English racer, b, reduced, from Profes- 

 sor Low's splendid work on British animals. 

 The English improved hackney, d. 



The Cart Horse. Of this description there 

 are several varieties, the principal of which are 

 the Cleveland, the Clydesdale, the Northamp- 

 tonshire, the Suffolk punch, and the heavy 

 black or dray horse. 



The Clydesdale is a valuable breed of cart- 

 horses, bred chiefly in the valley of the Clyde 

 (hence their name). They are strong and 

 hardy, have a small head, are longer necked 

 than the Suffolk, with deeper legs, and lighter 

 carcasses. PI. 13, h. 



The Suffolk Punch is a very valuatde breed 

 of horses, especially for farms composed of 

 soils of a moderate degree of tenacity. They 

 originated by crossing the Suffolk cart mare 

 with the Norman stallion. PI. 13, g. 



"The true Suffolk," says the author of the 



Lib. of Useful Know. (" The Horse," p. 38), " like 



the Cleveland, is now nearly extinct. It stood 



from 15 to 16 hands high, of a sorrel colour 



3H 637 



