282 THE ENGLISH TURF 



to improving the breed, and the way this improvement 

 has been brought about forms the most interesting and 

 profitable study to which the breeder of thoroughbreds 

 can devote himself. It is not by mere haphazard chance 

 that we have gone on improving the racehorse since, say, 

 the time when public racing came into existence in the 

 reign of James I. until the present day, when our best 

 strains of blood are in demand all the world over, wherever 

 the breeding of the thoroughbred is scientifically under- 

 stood. The French, German, and all other Continental 

 breeds, as well as the American and Australian racehorses, 

 are all bred from English strains, and this English blood 

 was in the first instance obtained by crossing the mares 

 of Great Britain with sires imported from the East. 



Although the modern Arabian horse cannot live with the 

 English thoroughbred, his ancestors were the original founders 

 of our breed, and it is to them that we owe the present 

 standard of excellence. The pedigree of every thoroughbred 

 horse in this country can be traced back to strain after strain 

 of Eastern blood, the stud book showing the names of no 

 fewer than one hundred and seventy-four Eastern sires, eighty- 

 nine of whom have been classified as Arabians, forty-seven 

 as Barbs, thirty-two as Turkish horses, four as Persian, and 

 two as "foreign horses," i.e. horses that could not be more 

 definitely classified. The importation of all of these dates 

 from the reign of James I.; and although a very large pro- 

 portion did not do much for posterity, amongst them were a 

 few gems that are responsible for the thoroughbred of to-day. 



A very interesting development has been the marked 

 increase in size that has taken place. The imported Arab 

 was usually some 14 hands high, occasionally an inch or 

 two higher, but seldom above 14 h. 2 in. Whereas nowa- 

 days the average thoroughbred horse is seldom less than 

 1 6 hands at maturity, the height of the mare being about 

 \\ inches less. No doubt climate is mainly responsible for 

 this increase, for over the greater part of Northern Europe 

 the horse is on an average about two hands higher than the 

 animal indigenous to warmer countries, such as the Arabian, 

 the Barb, or the Mustang. So excellent an authority as 



