'A 



16 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



of the stables and the farms — the homes of the horse among 

 civilized man. 



In England, for the last two or three centuries, the rich 

 .and noble have been engaged in improving the breeds of 

 horses, and bringing out all their fine qualities ; and during 

 all this time he has improved backward — has actually de- 

 generated — ^gone back a hundred years; and, with the ex- 

 ception of a few, gathered from all parts of the land in the 

 stables of rich and noble gentlemen, he is not to day what 

 he was in the days of Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell. And 

 if we are to take the statements of the most learned and re- 

 liable English authors upon the horse, there has been a very 

 great falling off in the last fifty years, more than at any 

 former period. We refer to the statements of Mr. Castley, 

 and of Youatt in his work on the horse, pp. 248-9. This is 

 the condition of the farmer's horse : A very few fine horses 

 are to be found among the rich, who gather them up from 

 all parts of the land ; and the number of these have become 

 80 few, and are held at such enormous prices, that the farmers 

 can not procure them at all. And many a rich gentleman in 

 England may be seen riding a horse now not so good as the 

 common farmer rode to his fair fifty or a hundred years ago. 

 It used to be common for the old English farmer to ride his 

 fine blooded horse to the fair, but that day has passed. All 

 such have been appropriated by the rich and great, and so 

 poorly has the supply kept pace with the demand, that there 

 is not near enough to meet it, and the disparity is becoming 

 greater every year. 



This is the case, also, in Spain. In the days of Spanish 

 chivalry, the Andalusian horse was the finest and noblest the 

 world has ever seen, and the crusader was mounted upon the 

 noblest steed that ever trod the soil. But what are the An- 

 dalusians now ? Mere ponies. Their former greatness is gone. 

 They possess no points of resemblance of former days. They 

 were collected from their native hills and valleys to the 

 haunts and service of civilized man, and they have sunk into 

 obscurity and almost extinction from the earth. 



