MEANING OF THE TERM ••' BLOOD.'' 1 1 



last half century, from the importation of foreign 

 blood. The fact is, that having once gotten posses- 

 sion of the essential constitutional parts necessary 

 to form the race-horse, and which will be described 

 hereafter, we ourselves have, by a superior know- 

 ledge of the animal, and the means of atailing our- 

 selves of his capabilities, not only by rearing and 

 training, but by riding him also, brought him to a 

 pitch of excellence which will not admit of further 

 improvement. Superior as is the air of the Desert, 

 which is said to be so free from vapours, that the 

 brightest steel is not affected with rust, if exposed 

 to it for a night, to that of our humid and ever- 

 varying climate ; and propitious as it must be to 

 animals found, as the horse teas found, in the great- 

 est perfection when reared in it ; yet were the 

 finest Eastern horse that could be procured, brought 

 to the starting-post at Newmarket, with the advan- 

 tage of English training to-boot, he w^ould have no 

 chance at any weight, or for any distance, with 

 even a second-rate English race-horse. It may not, 

 however, be uninteresting to point out what are the 

 essential racing points originally imparted to the 

 horse of our own breed by these foreign stallions 

 and mares, and without which they never would 

 have arrived at any thing approaching the excel- 

 lence which they have, for the last century, at- 

 tained. 



A good deal of pains has been taken to define 

 the meaning of the term '' blood,"' as applied to the 

 horse called thorough-bred. Osmer, an old but 

 accredited writer on the Horse, pronounced it to 



