LIGHT HORSES. 



BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

 THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE. 



IT is by no means easy to frame a succinct definition of the 

 thoroughbred horse. We know that no horse is accepted as 

 thoroughbred unless he appears duly registered in the Stud 

 Book, and so, to save trouble, we may take this as the 

 criterion. The blood horse, however, like the fox-hound, is 

 after all an animal of composite breed ; that is to say, time 

 was when he did not exist ; and no horse presenting the 

 features of the modern English thoroughbred was, at one 

 period, to be found in England. 



To show this conclusively, would be to write in detail the 

 history of the English horse an unnecessary task, inasmuch 

 as this subject has already been fully dealt with in many books. 

 It will, therefore, be sufficient for our present purpose, if we 

 take the time of King Charles II. as an important landmark, 

 and briefly trace the history of the English horse up to that 

 reign, before entering into any sort of disquisition upon what 

 we now call the thoroughbred horse. 



We need spend no time in enquiring what sort of horses 

 they were which so excited the admiration of Julius Caesar ; 



