598 THE HORSE. 



the exercise of the hunting-field, but they are used for the 

 ordinary purposes of the saddle, for military chargers, for 

 the lighter wheel-carriages which luxury has multiplied, and 

 even for many of the innumerable public vehicles which the 

 improvement of roads has brought into operation in every 

 part of the kingdom. 



From the Race-Horse, which occupies one extremity of the 

 chain, and the Hunter, which, though inferior to him in speed, 

 is superior in useful properties, down to the races in which 

 either no admixture, or a slight one, of foreign blood exists, 

 the varieties of horses used for the saddle, or for the lighter 

 carriages of all kinds, are without definable boundaries. 

 Each individual, indeed, may be said to form a variety, 

 according to the degree of crossing with those of higher 

 breeding. A common mare with a thoroughbred stallion, a 

 hunter, a coach-horse, or any male of an intermediate degree 

 of breeding, will give birth to a different variety in each case, 

 and each of these varieties again will produce another, ac- 

 cording to the race or breeding of the male employed. Hence 

 it is that we see in this country horses of such endless variety 

 in size, form, aspect, and properties. In other countries, the 

 horses of a large district usually present a certain similitude, 

 which connects them together as a breed or family. In Eng- 

 land, every kind seems to be collected, with no greater re- 

 semblance between the individuals than if they were brought 

 from different parts of the globe. 



In general, the saddle and carriage horses of this country 

 have been tending, for a period past, to the lighter form cha- 

 racteristic of superior breeding, and many of the older varie- 

 ties have either become rare or extinct. This change has 

 been proceeding in an accelerated ratio since the commence- 

 ment of the present century. It may be ascribed to the in- 

 creasing taste for the lighter and more elegant forms of the 

 Horse ; but in an important degree also, to the improvement 

 in the means of internal communication, and a change in the 

 modes of travelling. 



