THE HORSE. 9 



sportsmen and horsemen. The cob, a denomination 

 perhaps of twenty years standing, refers to a truss, 

 short-legged nag, able to carry weight. The pack- 

 horse has long since disappeared from among us, 

 perhaps entirely, by virtue of the great modern im- 

 provements in roads and carriages. The cocktail, 

 a new term in the slang of the inferior turf, indicates 

 a racer not thorough bred. The welter horse, 

 a term of long standing, but of unknown derivation, 

 points to either racer or hunter, master of the highest 

 weight. The designation thorough bred belongs 

 to the racer of pure Arabian or Barb blood; and 

 the term is likewise applicable to the horses of other 

 nations of the South East, as will be hereafter eluci- 

 dated. A nag, in which the show of blood predomi- 

 nates, is styled blood-like, or a blood-horse. The degrees 

 of blood in an English horse are thus expressed, half 

 bred, three parts, and seven eighths bred, which last 

 term probably, I supplied. The first, or half bred, 

 being the produce of a racer and a common mare, 

 or vice versa, (the last cross not so frequent, nor 

 deemed so successful) ; the second of the racer and 

 half bred, and the third of the racer and the three 

 part bred mare. This last may, and has raced capi- 

 tally, as in the case of the Yorkshire black horse, Old 

 Sampson, which about four score years since beat all 

 England. Several other similar examples of success- 

 ful seven eighths bred racers, have occurred at various 

 periods. Perhaps no instance has ever occurred, of 

 a three part bred horse saving his distance in running 

 two miles with thorough bred racers. 



The horse and mare, in course of nature, are 



b 2 



