CHOICE OF STALLION. 19 



of pace ; to come again to work day after day, week after 

 week, and year after year, with undiminished vigor. And 

 it is scarcely needful to say that, under all ordinary circum- 

 stances these conditions are only compatible with the 

 highest form and highest physical health of the anim al. Mal- 

 formation must necessarily detract from speed and power ; 

 hereditar}^ disease or constitutional derangement must nec- 

 essarily detract from all powers whatsoever. Under usual 

 circumstances it would hardly be necessary to undertake to 

 show that quickness of working, or, in other words, speed, 

 is necessary to a high degree of excellence in a horse of 

 any stamp or style, and not one iota less for the animal 

 which draws the load or breaks the glebe, than for the 

 riding horse or the pleasure traveller before light vehicles. 

 But it has of late become the fashion with some parties to 

 undervalue the advantages of speed, and to deny its utility 

 for other purposes than for those of mere amusement; and, 

 as a corollary from this assumption, to disparage the effect 

 and deny the advantage of bloody by which is meant 

 descent, through the American or English race-horse, 

 from the oriental blood of the desert, whether Arabian, 

 Barb, Turk, Persian or Syrian, or a combination of two 

 or more, or all of the five. 



The horse which can plough an acre while another is 

 ploughing half an acre, or that which can carry a load 

 of passengers ten miles while another is going five, indepen- 

 dent of all considerations of amusement, taste, or what is 

 generally called fancy, is absolutely worth twice as much 

 to his owner as the other. 



Now the question for the breeder is simply this : By 

 what means is this result to be obtained ? The reply is, 

 by getting the greatest possible amount of pure blood com- 

 patible with size, weight and power, according to the pur- 



