*5 



tirmcd in favor until the time of the Emperors, and the young men of 

 the rank of chevaliers, devoted themselves diligently to this occupation 

 Dangerous feats and obstacles, as in Greece, were not customary with 

 the Roman races. The Romans are probably the inventors of the curb 

 bit. Emperor Theodosius is represented on an antique monument, and 

 his horse carries in its mouth a curb with levers of enormous length. 

 Among the Roman authors, Yarro, who lived about 70 years 13. C, gave 

 a description of a horse, which afterward was hardly surpassed. He 

 savs "excellent results may be expected of a colt when in running on 

 past tire, it strives to keep at the lead of the herd, and if, when brought 

 to a stream, it plunges into it first; if its head be small; the limbs clean 

 and firm; the eyes clear and brilliant; the nostrils wide and the ears 

 moderately close together; if the mane be strong and thick; the chest 

 broad and the shoulders flat and slender; if the barrel be round and firm ; 

 the loins broad and strong and the tail full and bushy; if the legs be 

 straight and even, and if the hocks be broad and well j ointed; if the hoofs 

 be hard and tough, and the veins visible everywhere." 



Virgil, the Roman poet, gives some interesting remarks on horses, 

 about eighty or ninety years later, and soon after, that is in the middle 

 of the fourth century B. C, Yegetius wrote his book on veterinary 

 science. The symptoms of diseases as a -whole are acceptable enough 

 in their descriptions, but the methods of cure as stated in his book, are 

 hardly such as to inspire esteem for the learning of the period. Near- 

 ly at the same time the invasions of the Goths began, and soon after- 

 wards all traces of the state and condition of science disappear in both 

 the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. The sources of the general 

 history of the horse have now been considered. The special history of 

 the horse comprizes mainly the races of the horse and their peculiar- 

 ities in size form build, expression and ability of performing the duties 

 which our service demands, and it is closely related to the breeding of 

 horses of the different countries. 



{Jistory of the English florse. 



The earliest communication on the horse of Great Britain, is con- 

 tained in the accounts of the invasion of that Island by Julius Caesar. 

 The British army was accompanied by numerous war chariots drawn 

 by horses and provided at the axles with short scythes which swept 

 everything before them and spread terror among the enemy. The con- 

 queror gives a vivid description of the skill, with which the horses 

 were trained. It is useless to inquire as to what type of horse Britain 

 then possessed, but judging from the clumsy construction of the char- 

 iots, and the rage with which they were driven, as well as from the 

 bad condition, or total absence of streets, it is evident, that they 

 must have been uncommonly powerful. 



The views of some naturalists, stating, that the ponies of Cornwall, 

 Devonshire or of Wales and the Shetland Islands were the original 

 type of the English horse, are incorrect. The horse was then, as it is 

 now, the product of the region in which it lived; small and tough, it ex- 

 isted where it had little food and was exposed to influences of weather; 

 but in the marshes of Witham and on the borders of the Tees and the 

 Clyde, the body and the strength of the horse were probably as well 

 developed as they are to-day. Caesar considered them good enough to 



