OHAP. i. THOROUGHBREDS AND HUNTERS. 369 



the Royal Agricultural Society and the Royal Commission on Horse 

 Breeding. 



Our illustration of a Thoroughbred Horse (Fig. 77) is that of 

 "Truefit" (by " Outfit," dam ""Eleanora" by "Wild Dayrell"), the 

 property of Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P. He was foaled in 1880, 

 and the following description of him is given in the Hunters' Improve- 

 ment Society's Volume III. (1889) : " His shoulders are grandly 

 placed, and his back and quarters first-rate. He is exceptionally good 

 in bone, his forelegs possessing 8| inches of it below the knee, and in 

 addition being wonderfully clean and flat. He shows plenty of muscle 



Fig. 77. Thoroughbred Stallion, " Truefit. '" 



on his thighs. " Truefit," moreover, possesses that great desideratum 

 in a stallion, plenty of heart room, as he has great depth of chest, and 

 he is also a grand horse to meet or follow. One other great feature 

 in this horse is that he is a splendid walker, a virtue that he transmits 

 to his offspring to a remarkable extent, while he trots with that easy 

 powerful swing which at once takes the eye of every hunting man." 



THE HUNTER. The report of the 1890 Show of the Hunters' 

 Improvement Society, " established to promote the breeding of riding, 

 driving, and military horses," contains a series of valuable notes by 

 Mr. Charles Armstrong, in the course of which he defines the type 

 from which to breed. He says : 



A class of horse greatly in demand at the present day is the sixteen- 

 hand blood hunter, up to about 14 stone. He should be thick and 

 strong on the back and loin, with long powerful quarters and muscular 

 thighs, the sudden and repeated contraction of which will strain the 



B B 



