262 HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 



by a horizontal line drawn from the upper end of the straight 

 line made by the hamstring, which proceeds towards the thigh 

 from the point of the hock. 



Thoroug-hbretl. The natural aristocrat of the equine 

 race. It means that a horse's pedigree can be traced for gen- 

 erations from sires and dams of English pure blood, or from 

 Arabs, Barbs, (Barbary States), or Persians, recorded in the 

 stud-book. While this is the former well understood definition, 

 its meaning has become somewhat modified in recent years. 

 It now generally means a horse whose pedigree contains the 

 requisite number of crosses to insure freedom from any consid- 

 erable contamination of cold blood. One possessing five 

 crosses to animals of pure blood, untainted with mongrel 

 strains, is regarded a thoroughbred. The difference between 

 thoroughbred and standard bred, is that the former is bred to 

 run and the latter to trot, — hence the terms running bred and 

 trotting bred, frequently used in referring to the two classes. 

 Strictly speaking, however, no horse is thoroughbred that does 

 not trace, without contaminating blood, to Oriental origin. 

 In other words, the horses of the first blood, or such as are 

 nearest possible to the Eastern stock, are : Those immediately 

 produced from an Arabian or Barb ; any stallion crossed with 

 an English mare, which has already been crossed with a Barb 

 or Arabian stallion, in the first degree ; or that which has 

 sprung from two crosses in the same degree. 



The term thoroughbred was orij^iiially used exclusively as the name 

 by wliicli the English race-horse was designated. Tlie thorough- 

 bred horse is peculiarly a British procUiction. * * * The term 

 tlioroughbred, as applied to horses, is used to designate the run- 

 ning liorse. * * * A recent cross with an imported Arab or Barb, 

 while it does not vitiate the blood nor render an animal ineligible 

 as a tlioroughbred, is not usually regarded as desirable, from the 

 fact that the course of selection which has been practiced by the 

 breeders of thoroughbred horses in England and America for the 

 last one hundred years, has given us a race that is generally coii- 

 sitlered to be far superior to the Oriental horse of to-day for speed, 

 size and stoutness.— Horse Breeding, J. H. Sanders. 



The race-horse, or, rather, the tlioroughbred liorse, from his symmetry, 

 power, graceful action, light, elastic form, speed and stamina, is, 

 beyond question, the highest type of the equine family. He pos- 

 sesses more of the beaut it-s of formaticm than any animal which 

 approximates to him in size and shape; he excels all others in the 

 intelligent expression of his countenance and shape of his head; 

 and in the simplicity, compactjiess and com|>leteness of his digest- 

 ive organs, the great leverage of his hocks and hind quarters, and 

 the wonderful mechanism (1is])layed in the construction of his legs 

 and feet.— The Thorough l)red Horse, S. D. Bruce. 



The advantages of thor(jughbreil blood, as they seem to me, are that it 

 gives higher finish, better quality of bone,* better joints and sui)e- 

 rior wind and lung power. I do not base my claims for thorough- 

 bred blood on gameness. INIy belief is that gameness comes, in 

 great part, from pure, frictionless action. It is practically a truth 

 that speed makes gameness. Some thoroughbreds have more trot- 

 ting action than others. In selecting a thoroughbred mare to 



