of his investigations on this subject are not new; for a 

 long time practical horsemen have been anxious because 

 the type best adapted to the saddle is not seen so fre- 

 quently, and have complained that the model is deterio- 

 rating. But on account of the scientific methods applied 

 by Colonel Couste, what had been a pure matter of 

 impression, assumes a much greater importance. 



" According to him the changes which he noticed in 

 the skeleton of the horse came from his adaptation to 

 greater and greater speed ; he lays the blame for this 

 upon the present system of racing. 



" Like many authors of indisputable ability and, as 

 did Professor Barrier, much more positively at the last 

 Horse Congress, he believes that breeding formerly con- 

 ducted with a view to raising horses adapted to distance 

 racing is now conducted with a view to speed, and it is to 

 this difference of point of view that he attributes the dif- 

 ferences he notes in the model. Thirty years ago the con- 

 struction of the old-time horse made him suitable for 

 running at long distances ; his present conformation gives 

 him higher speed, but takes away from him the qualities 

 of equilibrium which make the true saddle horse. 



" Succinctly summed up, these are the observations 

 of the distinguished writer. While we bow to the ability 

 of Colonel Couste concerning the facts noted, we cannot 

 see the same causes as he for the changes in the model. 

 He attributes them to an evolution in the system of rac- 

 ing and in the changing purposes of breeding, while in 

 our opinion, the system of racing, in its principal lines, 

 and the object of the breeders are the same as they were 

 formerly. 



" As long ago as one hundred and thirty years in Eng- 

 land, and seventy years in France, when the Derbys were 

 established, serious minded breeders have taken these 

 races as the principal goal of their efforts, and it is to- 

 ward the production of the Derby horse that they have 



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