368 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK HI. 



with that of the horse. It is only in very recent times that the progress 

 of mechanical invention has begun to supersede some of the uses for 

 which the strength and the speed of the horse for many thousands of 

 years have alone been available. How far this incipient disestablish- 

 ment of the horse from its unique position, as the main agent by which 

 man and his possessions have been carried and drawn all over the face 

 of the earth, will go, it is difficult to say at present. 



In no country have the various qualities of the horse, in relation to 

 the turf, the field, and the road, been brought to such perfection as in 

 the British Isles. At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England, held at Newcastle in June, 1908, horses were arranged in 

 the following sections : Polo and Riding Pony, Cleveland Bay, Hackney, 

 Hackney Pony, Shetland Pony, Highland or Fell Pony, Dales Pony, 

 Shire, Clydesdale, Suffolk, Draught Horses, Hunters. This list may be 

 taken to include the breeds or varieties of horses which are of agricul- 

 tural interest, and which, therefore, should receive notice in this volume. 



The most important event of recent years in connection with 

 Thoroughbred Horses was the establishment of the Royal Commission 

 on Horse Breeding in 1887. Through the Commission the money 

 previously spent upon Queen's Plates is offered in the form of twenty- 

 two " Queen's Premiums " of ;200 each for thoroughbred stallions 

 (three years old and upwards), on condition that each stallion winning 

 a premium shall serve not less than fifty half-bred l mares, if required, 

 during the current season, and shall stand or travel at the owner's 

 option in the district for which he is exhibited, at a fee not exceeding 

 forty shillings for each mare, and two shillings and sixpence to the 

 groom. This work had previously engaged the attention of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, the first Spring Show of Thoroughbred Stallions 

 having been held exclusively under the auspices of the Society at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne in January, 1887, on which occasion there were 

 45 horses in the catalogue, competing (in the Society's northern district) 

 for three premiums. The first joint Show of the Royal Commission and 

 the Royal Agricultural Society, for the whole of "England, was held 

 in February, 1888, at Nottingham. In 1889, and again in 1890, 1891, 

 and 1892, the joint Show was held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, 

 Islington, in March, in conjunction with the shows of the Hunters' 

 Improvement Society and the Hackney Horse Society, the whole form- 

 ing the Annual (Spring) London Horse Show. Premiums for Hunter 

 Mares are offered by the Hunters' Improvement Society, which may 

 claim to have been first in the field in the improvement of hunter 

 breeding. This society, indeed, inaugurated (in 1885) the premium 

 system for thorough-bred stallions, before the matter was taken up by 



1 In a comprehensive paper, ' ' Half-bred Horses for Field or Road : their Breeding and 

 Management," by Earl Cathcart (Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. XIX., 

 s. s., 1883), the following passage occurs : " It is only with a view to scientific accuracy 

 that it is necessary to define the term Half-bred which is not rendered literally. In the 

 language of horsemen that term implies only some stain in the traceable pedigree hardly to 

 be detected : in appearance and qualities a horse may be, to all intents and purposes, 

 thoroughbred, yet, from some slight stain in the pedigree, unqualified for entry in the 

 Stud-book." 



