The warm-blooded group is characterized by "extreme refinement, 

 breediness, beauty of form and intelligence, speed, stamnia, grace of 

 movement and an active nervous temperament; contrasting with 

 these are the characteristics of the cold-blooded group ; great scale 

 and grossness, slow awkward movement, sluggish lymphatic temper- 

 ament, black and dun color, and much development of hair. ' ' 



From the investigations of Prof. Ridgeway it is largely to be 

 deduced that "the Libyan horse flourished before the end of the 

 second millennium, B. C, They were superior in speed to other 

 known breeds of Europe and Asia and were distinguished by their 

 bay color, and star in the fore-head, which is the characteristic of 

 the Libyan to this day." The highest pedigree of the Arab is still 

 to-day traced to the Keheilet Ajuz family as the most distinguished 

 of the five foundation families of the Arab stock and generally this 

 strain of Arabs are of a bay color. "The swiftest horse known in 

 Homeric days was a bay with a star in the fore-head. In Greek 

 classical days the dark horses of Lybia were the swiftest known and 

 they also bore the palm of victory from all others in the Roman 

 circus in the first century or our era." According to Ridgeway 

 the Arabs, Barbs and Persian breeds owe their origin to this light, 

 fleet-footed bay horse of Libya. As is generally known the Eng- 

 lish thoroughbred has been developed from one or from all of these 

 breeds and present day runners and breeders of note still trace their 

 pedigree to these great founders of the thoroughbred stock. The 

 Oriental horses imported to England which more than any other 

 have contributed in establishing the Thoroughbred are : the Byerly 

 Turk, (1689) bay, the Darley Arabian, (1700) bay, the Godolphin 

 Barb, (1730) bay, and with them are generally reckoned as the 

 ultima tliule of racing pedigree their great and illustrous sons 

 Herod, (1758) bay, Eclipse, (1764) chestnut, Matcham (1748), bay, 

 respectively." The three great ancestors were all bays and fourteen 

 hands or less than fourteen hands high ;' although their famous sons 

 of half a century later stood much higher. These stallions and 

 their progeny were crossed with mares of various breeds and colors, 

 yet it is remarkable and a fact of great value how the bay color be- 

 came stamped upon most horses of note. Within a century and a 

 half the bay horse had ousted in all the great tests almost every 



(6) General Stud Boole, Vol. I, London 1808. 



(7) Sir Walter Gilbey "Small Horses in Warfare." 1906. 



