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FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



horses, and running stock was improved ' 

 by crossing with the oriental horse of 

 Barb, Arab or Turkish type. In the 

 early days of horse breeding in England 

 the draft horse and the running horse 

 were established. Several kings took an 

 active interest in the matter and govern 

 ment assistance in the work was se 

 cured in this way. 



In France, likewise, breeding had 

 tended to the production of the heavy 

 draft horse and the lighter type, but with 

 more signal success in the former. The 

 Percheron is the French horse, as the 

 Thoroughbred is the English, and the 

 trotter the American horse. Nearly all 

 books on the horse contain an elaborate 

 discussion of the history of the horse in 

 European countries. It is, therefore, 

 unnecessary for us to give more atten- 

 tion to this point. 



As stated in Part I, although the pre- 

 historic ancestors of the horse originated 

 on this continent, they subsequently be- 

 came extinct here after being dispersed 

 in Asia, Europe and Africa. There 

 were no horses in America, therefore, 

 until the coming of the Spaniards. Co- 

 lumbus brought horses on his second 

 voyage in 1493, but these horses ap- 

 parently found their way to Central 

 America. Cortez and De Soto also 

 brought over horses, but apparently the 

 first horse to be landed in the United 

 States was brought to Florida in 1527 b,y 

 Cabeza de Vaca. Some of these Span- 

 ish horses had oriental blood in them. 

 Many of them escaped, multiplied rap- 

 idly and spread first over the central 

 states and later throughout the West, 

 where their blood was mingled with 

 that of other horses of Spanish origin 

 coming from Mexico. 



The modern descendant of these horses 

 is the mustang, which once roamed over 

 the plains in thousands and was captured 

 and used by the Indians. These so- 

 called wild horses have, at times, been 

 a veritable plague in the destruction of 

 range grasses, and even now are such 

 a nuisance as to require repressive meas- 

 ures (rounding up and shooting) from 

 time to time, especially in parts of Utah 

 and Nevada. Common horses were in- 

 troduced into Virginia in 1609, into 

 New York in 1625, and into New Eng- 

 land in 1629. In 1730 the first thorough- 

 bred, Bulle Rock, was brought to Vir- 

 ginia from England. Virginia, and later 

 the Carolinas and Kentucky, became the 



home of the thoroughbred horse in this 

 country. 



Before taking up the most important 

 aspects of the subject; viz, feeding and 

 management of the horse, it is neces- 

 sary to characterize the breeds with 

 which we have to deal. The Thorough- 

 bred should be discussed first. 



BREEDS OF HORSES 



The Thoroughbred was the first breed 

 of horses to be definitely established and 

 was, therefore, for some time "the Thor- 

 oughbred" as contrasted with other half- 

 blood or grade horses. This name has 

 persisted and the breed, therefore, has 

 no really characteristic name as have 

 the Shire, Percheron, etc, which are 

 equally as thoroughbred as the "Thor- 

 oughbred." Our Thoroughbred come3 

 from England, where it was produced by 

 mingling many different strains of ori- 

 ental blood. The English Thoroughbred 

 stud book was established in 179*1. In 

 this the standard of admission required 

 purity of breeding from the original 

 Libyan or oriental blood. The modern 

 Thoroughbred is thus the oriental horse, 

 developed and improved by centuries of 

 breeding and selection. 



Three oriental horses are mentioned by 

 all authorities as having contributed 

 most to the formation of the modern 

 Thoroughbred; viz, Darley Arabian, 

 Byerly Turk and Godolphin Arabian, the 

 only existing male line from these 

 horses tracing their ancestry to Eclipse, 

 Herod and Matchem, respectively, all 

 from the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. As stated by Sanders, however, 

 while the oriental horse furnished good 

 material as basis for the breeder, the 

 skill of the English and American breed- 

 er has done more than the blood of 

 Arabian and Barb horses. The Arabian 

 is docile and possesses great beauty of 

 form, but he is inferior to our Thorough- 

 bred in size, height, speed and endur- 

 ance. Our Thoroughbreds are imported 

 from England or are descendants of 

 horses thus imported, with an occasional 

 mixture of Arab or Barb, which is not 

 considered as vitiating the pedigree. In 

 this country, horses are entitled to en- 

 try in the stud book if they show in 

 their ancestry an unmixed descent from 

 Thoroughbred sires for five generations. 



The Thoroughbred has been bred for 

 the race course and similar purposes for 

 centuries. In this long course of breed- 

 ing certain defects have crept into his 



