K AGING IN INDIA. 135 



quite as good as the average English horses imported, 

 such as Savile, Earl Godwin, or Vichy, are fully 7 Ibs. 

 inferior to the English horses, Metal, Blanchland, and 

 Presto, and to the Australians, Kingcraft, Statesman, 

 Myall King, Moorhouse, and Little Prince, when fit 

 and over their own respective distances. With the 

 increase of railways and of the gold " output " at 

 the " Band," the future of racing in South Africa looks 

 bright. At the same time, I must say that it will have 

 no chance, for many years to come, of successfully 

 competing against Australasia in the Indian horse 

 market, whether with blood stock, or remounts. 

 Although there are some fair horses bred in South 

 Africa, strange to say there are hardly any smart 

 ponies produced there. The only exception I saw was 

 that brilliant chasing pony, Coachman. 



I may mention that the old Cape Town hero, the 

 ch. c.h. Echo, 9 st., at Calcutta, December, 1871, won 

 the Stand Plate, 1 mile in 1 m. 48 s., when he was 

 about thirteen years old. 



There is a sort of fatality about English horses in 

 India ; for few out of the many that are imported, 

 prove, either as racers, or as ordinary riding horses, 

 to be worth their passage-money out to this country. 

 Their feet and legs are far more liable " to go to 

 pieces," on our hard ground, than those of Australia, 

 New Zealand, or the Cape. The chief reason for this, 

 as far as I can judge is, that the drier climate of our 

 Southern colonies is more favourable to the development 

 of soundness in wind and limb, as regards horses, than 

 is the moister one of Great Britain. I am inclined to 

 go so far as to think that horses bred in a dry climate, 



