Import Trade in Horses. 109 



It appears from the returns of tax-paying horses in 1S73, that there was an increase in licensed horses 

 and unbroken horses and mares of 24,000 over 1872, and 50,000 more than in 1870. 



In 1874, the duty on this class of horse having been repealed, there was no return of their numbers, but 

 the increase of unbroken horses and mares over 1873 was nearly 5,000; 1876 showed a further increase of 

 17,000, so that it is wkhin reason to estimate our horse stock for 1877 at fully three and a half millions, with 

 a steady increase, stimulated by a steady demand at double the prices of 1866. It must be noted that the 

 increase of half a million in horses bred and imported has not materially diminished prices. 



The General Omnibus Company of London, whose working horse stock — exactly the class required for 

 artillery — numbers above 8,000, and requires an annual purchase of from 1,800 to 2,000, pays as much 

 for each horse as it did in 1873, within, at most, ten shillings. In 1873 '1''^ average price was within a 

 trifle of ;^4o apiece; in 1877 it averaged ^^39 los. 



But within that five years, although importation of foreign horses has nearly quadrupled, the Omnibus 

 Company is able to provide its service with ninety per cent, of English horses instead of, as in 1873, with 

 only forty per cent. 



Their English horses come from Yorkshire, and from Wales; their foreign horses chiefly from Normandy. 



Between 1861 and i86g the average number of foreign horses imported did not exceed fifteen hundred. 

 In 1870 the importation was three thousand four hundred; in 1871 three thousand five hundred, and in 1872 

 it had mounted to twelve thousand six hundred; in 1873 to seventeen thousand eight hundred; 1874, twelve 

 thousand six hundred ; in 1875, twenty-five thousand six hundred; and 1876, forty thousand seven hundred; 

 and since that date it is supposed to have exceeded fiRy thousand. 



Our importations were originally confined to heavy draught horses trom Holland, Belgium, and France ; 

 but since 1870 every horse-breeding country of Europe has been put under contribution. Lots of ponies used 

 by tradesmen have been imported from Eastern Russia, from Poland, and even Finland; good riding and 

 driving horses from Hanover and from Hungary, a superior class of riding and driving horses from the 

 United States and Canada, and a very common class of small animals from Texas and South America ; and 

 as long as the prices keep up the cry will be " still they come." 



Deterioration of the British Horse. 



But although only the remunerative prices created by a steady demand can increase the number of horses 

 in this country, something practical may be done to improve their quality, and check the mischievous 

 deteriorating influence of the unsound stallions yearly manufactured by our' six-furlong races. The evil of 

 unsound thoroughbred stallions is set out very plainly in the evidence of Mr. John Mannington, veterinary 

 surgeon of Brighton, and the late Mr. Stanley, veterinary surgeon of Leamington. Mr. Mannington said : 

 "There are a lot of stallions travelling the country that poison the breed of horses. There are perhaps every 

 year six or seven thoroughbred racehorses as good or better than they ever were, but the generality of 

 thoroughbred racehorses are not so sound as when I first went into practice. There are diseases amongst 

 them that we never heard of then. Lameness in the knees was a disease almost unknown before Wild 

 Dayrell. Ever since his stock have been about the country we have lots of horses lame in the knee, bred from 

 him and his descendants. There are more roarers than ever there were. Blair Athol gets an enormous 

 number of roarers. If you get a superior racehorse that happens to be unsound, people send mares to him, 

 irrespective of his unsoundness. Perhaps he gets some very good (winning) horses as two-year-olds or three- 

 year-olds; then, although they are unsound, they are used as stallions," and the evil spreads. 



Mr. Stanley, although not so plain-spoken about individual horses, v/as equally decided. He said : " The 

 owners of half-bred mares cannot afford to put them to the best horses, which can command heavy fees," such 

 as the horses that carry off the thoroughbred prizes at the meetings of agricultural societies. "So the farmers 

 put their mares to any advertised brute that men take about the country with a long pedigree — brutes with 

 spavins and ringbones, roarers, or whistlers — being led away by the long pedigree." 



Lord Calthorpe, in 1874, addressed letters to the principal masters of foxhounds, inquiring how their 

 districts were off for stallions. The replies were placed by his lordship at my disposal for publication in a 

 pamphlet printed for private circulation. The following is the substance of the more important of those replies. 

 They fully confirm the evidence of Messrs. Mannington and Stanley. The Earl of Macclesfield, Master of 

 the South Oxfordshire Hounds, writes : " I am sorry to inform you that there are no sound well-bred stallions 

 standing within the limits of my county." 



Another M.F.H. writes : "I send the names of five thorough-bred stallions covering in my county. I do 



