Origin of the Thoroughbred 



I have been frequently asked ''What is a thoroughbred horse?" and "Wherein 

 does he differ from other horses?" Of course, such a question could only emanate 

 from a person ignorant of the use of the word "thoroughbred," as a generic term. 



My answer to this query is that the thoroughbred horse is of Oriental extraction 

 and an animal developed through centuries of cultivation by enlightened nations. You 

 go out upon the hillsides in June and pick the wild strawberries, than which nothing 

 could be of richer taste or more delicate flavor, but the fruit seldom has exceeded one- 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, while under careful cultivation it often attains four 

 "times that size. The Thoroughbred horse is the result of a similar degree of industry 

 on the part of mankind. Good food, careful housing from stress of weather and ample 

 care of mares during their period of gestation, have made the thoroughbred horse what 

 he is today, while his Oriental prototype in Asia and Northern Africa is just what 

 he was, so far as concerns size, power and liberty of action, five centuries ago. The 

 stride of the average Arabian or Barbary horse is about seventeen feet, at the very apex 

 of his speed, while almost any American or English thoroughbred will cover from 

 twenty-one to twenty-three feet when fully extended. The famous Alabama mare, 

 Peytona, so called from having won the $44,000 Peyton Stake at Nashville in 1843, ran 

 on twenty-eight feet, but the effort was so great that she could not be relied upon to 

 run more than two good races in any one year. 



The first instance given us in history of any attempt to improve the breed of 

 horses in England, which is just as much the cradle of the thoroughbred horse now as 

 ever it was, was in the ninth century when Hugh Capet, King of France, sought the 

 hand of the English princess, Ethelwilda, in marriage and sent some horses, bred in 

 France from sires of Oriental nativity, as a present to her brother, Athelstane, then 

 King of Great Britain. Later, during the reign of William the Conqueror, we find 

 that Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, sent to Spain for stallions to breed- cavalry horses on 

 his estates at Powisland. It is almost certain that these Shrewsbury horses were bred 

 from the "Barbs" introduced into Spain by the Moors, in the days of the "Cid Cam- 

 peador." In the reign of the first Richard matches were run for large sums of money 

 but there seems to have been a hiatus between that period and the reign of Edward III 

 who, in 1326, received a present of two fleet coursers from the King of Navarre and 

 bestowed some valuable gifts upon the messenger who brought them. It was not until 

 1509 that King Henry VIII (who was a victim to the matrimonial habit) conceived the 

 idea of establishing a Royal Stud at Bushey Park near where Cardinal Wolsey held 

 forth in the zenith of his power. It is quite probable that the interregnum in the 

 breeding of fine horses in England was caused by the "War of Roses" between the 

 rival horses of York and Lancaster ; and that the revival of breeding of high-class 

 horses had its inception with the receipt of some mares by "Bluff Hal" from the Duke 

 of Mantua. 



