588 THE HORSE. 



country, having partaken of that tendency to a lighter form, 

 of which all the horses used for the saddle have partaken, 

 and this in an increasing degree within the last half century. 

 The same means, although with certain modifications, have 

 been employed to form the Hunter as those used for the 

 Race-Horse. The lighter and more agile horses of the 

 warmer countries have been mixed in blood with the pre- 

 existing races, so that the form of the latter has been moulded 

 to a new standard. But this has not been done with the 

 same system in the case of the Hunter as of the Race-Horse, 

 nor with the same exclusive reference to the properties of 

 speed. No breed of distinct lineage has been formed, whose 

 descendants, mixing only with one another, have at length 

 approached to a common type. The Hunters have been 

 mixed not only with one another, but with every other race 

 which seemed fitted to give the conformation and characters 

 required. The Horses of Spain, Italy, and Turkey, nay, of 

 Barbary and Arabia, have been resorted to in the case of the 

 Hunter as of the Race-Horse ; but the greatest and most 

 direct effect has been produced through the medium of the 

 Race-Horse itself, which has been employed ever since the 

 institution of the regular Course to communicate its proper- 

 ties to the Hunter, as to the other classes of saddle-horses of 

 the country. This mixture of the blood of the Race-Horse 

 with that of the horses designed for the chase has been con- 

 tinually increasing, so that the characters of the modern 

 Hunter have been more and more approximating to those of 

 the thoroughbred horse. Yet a great distinction has hitherto 

 existed, and ought still to be preserved, between them. The 

 Race-Horse is designed essentially for the exercise of the 

 property of speed : the Hunter is also required to possess a 

 degree of speed sufficient for the uses to which he is des- 

 tined, but with this he should be possessed of endurance, 

 and of the strength required for carrying the weight of his 

 rider over an unequal surface. We may, if we please, so 

 alter the character of the chase as to render it a rapid gallop 



