n8 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



terms to those which are observed to-day. Then it was for 

 four-year-old horses carrying 10 stone 4 Ibs.; for five-year- 

 olds with ii stone 6 Ibs. ; and for a few aged horses with 1.2 

 stone, and it was decided in jour-mile heats. Such races were 

 a great inducement to breeders to endeavour to get horses of 

 size and substance ; and so long as these prizes and the 

 Queen's Plates were given to horses carrying heavy weights, 

 strong thoroughbred horses continued to be bred and kept 

 upon the Turf. 



" For many years past our stock of really sizeable riding 

 horses, and of true-actioned, well-matched driving horses, 

 has been notoriously deficient. To make up for this de- 

 ficiency, large numbers are imported from abroad, and we 

 are sending away vast sums of money which ought to go into 

 the pockets of British farmers and breeders. The Govern- 

 ment returns for the six months ending June, 1892 show 

 that there were 3,932 horses move imported than in the cor- 

 responding six months of the previous year ; viz., 12,343 for 

 the six months of 1892, as against 8,411 in the six months, 

 January to June, 1891. 



" It is curious to learn that we have been doing in the im- 

 mediate past exactly what was done in this country between 

 the years 1154 and 1702. In order to prove this, an interest- 

 ing article, headed 'Antiquity and Progress of Horse Racing,' 

 should be examined, which appears in one of the volumes of 

 the Sporting Magazine, published in 1810. In this is briefly 

 described the commencement of English horse racing. The 

 article states that it was 



" ' Only after the reign of Henry II. (1154) that gentlemen 

 began, among other feats of sporting, to try the fleetness 

 of their horses against one another. . . . Gentlemen 

 went on breeding their horses so fine, for the sake of shape 

 and speed only. Those animals which were only second, 

 third, or fourth-rates in speed, were considered to be quite 

 useless. This custom continued until the reign of Queen 



