HORSES AND MULES 



285 



make-up "which unfit him for farm uses. 

 He has become tall, lithe, light and too 

 nervous for everyday use Nevertheless 

 the Thoroughbred has been used in the 

 improvement of all kinds of horses. The 

 favorable influence of a cross with a 

 Thoroughbred is recognized on every 

 hand. Trotters have been built largely 

 on Thoroughbred blood and this same 

 blood is at the foundation of nearly 

 every fine roadster and driving horse in 

 America. A heavy Thoroughbred makes 

 an excellent cavalry horse, general sad- 

 dle horse or carriage horse. 



The height of the Thoroughbred varies 

 from 15 to 17 hands, the average of the 



siderable interest in the Thoroughbred 

 horse for military purposes. Moreover, 

 many authorities attribute the superior- 

 ity of the confederate cavalry in the 

 early stages of our civil war to the 

 Thoroughbred blood in nine of every ten 

 of the southern saddle horses. 



As is familiar to readers of the daily 

 newspapers, the running records have 

 been gradually lowered until a Thor- 

 ougbbred like Orthodox makes a mile 

 in 1.38. The number of registered Thor- 

 oughbreds in the United States is 

 42,000 and the number living about 25,- 

 000. (For secretary, see appendix.) 



The trotter — There were trotting or 



191 



.EX MCGREGOR, 18 MONTHS OLD 



best animals being about 15 hands 3 

 inches. The head and neck should be as 

 light as may be, with a lean jaw, full 

 forehead, pricked ears not too short, full 

 eyes, large nostrils, loose windpipe, long 

 body, wide, long hips, oblique shoulder, 

 full thigh and flat leg bones. The skin 

 is thin and the hair silky. Bay, brown 

 and chestnut are the common colors with 

 an occasional gray or black. Somewhat 

 different standards are set up in the dif- 

 ferent countries, where the Thorough- 

 bred is held in favor. Thus we have 

 the English, American, French, Austrian 

 and Australian Thoroughbred. The 

 Russian government has also taken con- 



ambling horses in England 600 years ago 

 but it was not until 1818 that an authen- 

 tic record of a mile in three minutes was 

 made. In 1S06 a horse named Yankee 

 is said to have trotted in 2.59, but the 

 record is doubtful. The aim of the 

 breeder of trotters is to secure a fast 

 trotting gait and the speed of these 

 horses has been gradually increased dur- 

 ing the past century. 



Naturally this reduction of the time 

 is partly due to the use of a lighter 

 vehicle, ball bearings, pneumatic tires, 

 improvement of the track, etc, but a 

 steady increase of speed has been brought 



