CHAPTER XII. 



BACING, OB TUBF HOBSES. 



KARLT fllSTORY OP THB KNGLISH BLOOD HORSE. HOW HE WAS IMPROVBD. - — THB 



AKKRICAN BLOOD HORSK.- CELEBRATED AMERICAN HORSES. HISTORY OT THEIR 



■PERFORMANCES. 



The care taken in the breeding and training of horses for the chase 

 and for racing in Great Britain, extends back, according to the best au- 

 thority, to long before this people were converted co Christianity ; in 

 fact, to long before the Christian Era. \ 



Just when and how horses were introduced into Great Britain is not 

 certain, but it seems clear that they were well known there long before 

 the Roman conquest, and that they bred horses not only for domestic pur- 

 poses but also for war and for racing, seems true, from words in the 

 ancient British language, as rhediad^ a race ; rheda^ to run — from the 

 Gaulish language rheda^ a chariot, showing that these words applied to 

 the racing of horses. Hence the inference that horses came by way of 

 Gaul, and that chariot races were anciently one of the pastimes of the 

 people. 



The Romans found different vehicles in use in Britain, includinsr the 

 war chariot. Youatt infers that from the cumbrous structure of the car, 

 the hardness of the roads, and the furious manner in which the drivins 

 was done, that the ancient British horses must have been not only active, 

 but powerful in a wonderful degree ; and he says that Caesar thought 

 them so valuable that many of them were carried to Rome, where they 

 were much esteemed. 



After the evacuation of England by the Romans and its occupation by 

 Ihe Saxons, increased attention was paid to the breeding of English 

 horses, and after the reign of Alfred running horses were brought thew 



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