

CLASSES AND BREEDS OF BRITISH HORSES. 513 



horses of this caste or family being macle to breed with one 

 another, its characters became permanent, and a distinct 

 breed, in the proper sense of the word, was produced. The 

 triumph of art was complete, and the breed produced, for 

 a combination of strength with the power of rapid motion, 

 became unequalled in the world, excelling in fleetness the 

 horses of the Arabian deserts, and surpassing in strength 

 and beauty the chariot steeds of the Olympic games. It 

 was not merely by mixing the blood of the African and 

 Asiatic horses with those of England that the full end was 

 arrived at. It was by continued reproduction between the 

 descendants of the mixed stock, selecting for breeding those 

 which possessed the characters required. Foreign nations 

 are desirous to obtain the Race-Horse of England for im- 

 proving the native breeds, and to this end these noble horses 

 are eminently suited ; but this of itself will not form a race 

 of horses possessed of permanent characters. To effect this, 

 the long-continued care of breeding is required, until a race 

 shall be formed having that identity and permanence of pro- 

 perties which constitute a true breed of any kind. To the 

 class of characters which distinguish the horses of Africa 

 and the southern parts of Western Asia from those of the 

 colder countries is applied the technical term " blood ;" and a 

 horse is termed a " blood-horse" which possesses these cha- 

 racters in an eminent degree. Thus, while many of our horses 

 possess more or less of the characters denoted by the term 

 blood, the term Blood-horse is limited to the race whose espe- 

 cial destination is the Course ; and to this race of horses is 

 likewise applied the term Thoroughbred, which is regarded 

 as the more precise and sportsmanlike. 



The formation of this race of horses, of mixed lineage, yet 

 moulded to a common standard, and capable of transmitting 

 the characters acquired to their remoter descendants, has an 

 . important relation to the history of the breeds of horses 

 existing in the British Islands. Not only have the indige- 

 nous races their peculiar characters, acquired by the in- 



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