YAEIETIES OP THE HOESE. 



THE ARAB. 



As tlie success or otherwise of breeding horses in Eng- 

 land for particular purposes is to be ascribed in a great 

 measure to tlie grand principle of " fluking/^ as it is 

 termed by some — or_, as tlie thinking portion of the com- 

 munity have it_, to Providence — the writing of an essay on 

 the varieties of the horse_, in England at least, is an 

 undertaking fraught with a certain amount of difficulty. 

 Even the uninitiated can understand this when it is ex- 

 plained that horses bred for one purpose, and found at 

 maturity to be wholly useless for such object, may never- 

 theless take honours as first class for other purposes 

 entirely different from their original destination. For 

 example : the object of every horse-owner in the country 

 is to get the best-bred animal he possibly can for his own 

 particular purpose — that is to say, at any rate, every 

 horse-owner whose work is not of that sort absolutely 

 the speciality of the cart or dray horse. And as horses 

 of similar breeding, half-breds especially, vary much, both 

 in appearance and powers of performance, it happens at 

 length that the varieties of English horses are not so much 

 varieties of breed as of individual form and qualities. 

 Take the thorough-bred horse for example. In his best 

 and most successful form he is a Derby winner, and pro- 

 genitor subsequently of a numerous and distinguished 

 family. If too slow for racing, he is probably a hunter.: 



