2O LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



do with the Turf and its associations, the welfare of the 

 thoroughbred horse means a great deal. He is the founda- 

 tion of our hunting stock ; his blood is represented in our 

 hacks, polo ponies, van horses, and nearly all our harness 

 horses, not to mention the remounts for our cavalry. If it 

 were proposed in Parliament to-morrow to make racing 

 illegal, a thousand tongues would make answer that one of 

 the objects of racing is to improve the breed of horses. This 

 is perfectly true ; and by having a good stamp of blood horse 

 we improve, in nearly every particular, hunter, hack and 

 harness horse, in their several types, whatever may be the 

 case on the Turf. 



If, then, it be seriously contended that one of the aims and 

 objects of racing is to improve the breed of horses gener- 

 ally ; to enable us to boast that we possess the finest horses 

 in the world ; to enable us to possess ourselves of the gold of 

 the foreigner ; to put money in the pocket of the long-suffering 

 and much suffering agriculturist if these arguments are seri- 

 ously advanced, surely the first step towards accomplishing 

 all this is to try and breed a sound horse. Yet infatuated 

 people were found to try and bring back Ormonde, regardless 

 of the fact that nearly every veterinary surgeon of note has 

 declared roaring to be one of the hereditary diseases. Surely 

 there is something anomalous in disqualifying for roaring a 

 horse whose chief mission it will be to serve mares at two 

 guineas apiece, while others are willing to pay three hundred 

 guineas for the service of a confirmed roarer like Ormonde, 

 not to mention trying to buy him at a price that would pur- 

 chase several high-class sound horses. If people like to 

 breed from a roarer, let them ; only let them at the same 

 time cease talking about racing tending towards the improve- 

 ment in the breed of horses. 



The importance of breeding from sound parents only has 

 been considerably emphasised since the breeding of hunters 

 and other half-bred stock has been made, though to a com- 

 paratively small extent only, a State question. As every one 



