BOOK THE THIRD. 



ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND MANAGEMENT OF HORSES. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY AND COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT BREEDS 



OF HORSES. 



WE have no knowledge of the form and prohahle qualities of the 

 primitive horse, except what we can gather from figures of him 

 on the friezes of the ancient Egyptian and Grecian temples, and from 

 some of the remains of Roman architecture. He seems to have been a 

 strongly-formed, courageous, and noble animal ; but, in the early 

 periods of the world's history, he was used only in the chase and in 

 war, and was never disgraced, as such use would then have been 

 deemed, by the labours of commerce or of agriculture. 



The wild horses of the present day are descended from those which 

 had escaped from the tyranny of man, and wandered uncontrolled over 

 desert regions in both the Old and New Worlds. Many of them retain 

 evident traces of the noble blood from which they sprang. Generally 

 speaking, they are easily subdued, and become the valuable, docile, 

 and attached servants of man. 



For an admirable account of the origin and early history of the 

 most valuable of our domesticated quadrupeds, the reader may be 

 referred to Professor W. H. Flower's article on " The Evolution of the 

 Horse " in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. i., third 

 series, 1890. From many points of view, observes the author, the 

 horse is one of the rngst interesting of animals. In utility to man 

 it yields to no other. It was his domestic companion, friend, and 

 servant before the dawn of histor}\ It has accompanied him in his 

 wanderings over almost every part of the surface of the earth, perform- 

 ing duties, both in peace and war, which no other animal could have 

 done, and giving man facilities for the exercise of dominion over 

 nature which otherwise would have been impossible to him. The 

 role of the ass, the ox, the camel, and the llama, in performing 

 similar duties, has been of a limited and subsidiary nature compared 



