CHAPTER I. 



HISTORY OF HORSE BREEDING IN SOUTH AFRICA 

 (a) ITS ORIGIN. 



There is always something new from Libya (Africa)." — Aristotle. 



In most of the great works on the horse, the Cape Horse has 

 briefly been alluded to as possessing a strong strain of Oriental 

 blood into which Spanish blood and later English blood has been in- 

 fused ; that he possessed great stamina, hardness and endurance, 

 but was lacking in size, conformity and beauty.^ 



Experts and great breeders at home are agreed that the Cape 

 Horse reached its highest point of development and efficiency 

 toward the middle of the last century, but that since then a gradual 

 decline has set in and the good quality of the stock has deteriorated. 



The Cape Horse in the palmy days of its existence and to a 

 very limited extent to-day shows very distinctive elements and char- 

 acteristics in its inheritance. These heriditary qualities have never 

 been traced satisfactorily, and in rehabilitating our horse stock too 

 little attention has been paid to this very important factor, and in 

 the attempt to reform to the old efficient and very excellent type and 

 to regain the reputation and high standard of half a century ago, 

 the deteriorated stock has been harmed to a further extent by un- 

 intelligent cross breeding and bad selection, 



A knowledge, therefore, of the Cape Horse 's lineage and of the 

 several strains that united in producing the best type is indispens 

 ible and a first necessity. 



It would not be necessary perhaps to go into much detail on the 

 original stock from which, it is contended, the Cape Horse sprung ; 

 but it would be well to make use of such facts and conjectures, taken 

 from the vast domain of research, as would throw light on a sub- 

 ject that is as yet comparatively obscure. 



(1) Sir Humphrey de Tr afford ''The Horse of the British Empire." London 

 1908. 

 Graf E. von Wrangel "Die Rassen des Pferdes." SttUtgart 1908. 



