To my mind no other name is more appropriate and it is only 

 for the sake of uniformity that I would suggest the name Cape Horse 

 for the light South African bred horse. Mr. Lee is probably labor 

 ing under the impression that ' ' Boer Horse ' ' designates the mongrel 

 type of horse in South Africa — this type is called the "Kaffir 

 horse, ' ' which is, tlirough careless breeding and bad keeping a mis- 

 erable animal and in spite of his original descent from Oriental and 

 English blood is to-day the "misera plebs" of the horse tribe; 

 luckily, however, there are not too many of them and have next to 

 no influence on the horse stock in general."^ 



The Cape Horse certainly owes much to the Thoroughbred ; but 

 as we know from previous chapters the foundation stock rests on 

 very pure Oriental strains. The first colonists under the Dutch rule 

 who took up farming were called "Boeren" (farmers). They took 

 up horse-breeding as early as 1665 and we know that their horses 

 were of a splendid type even before the importation of Thorough- 

 breds and should they have chosen to call their breed of horses 

 "The Boer Horse" nothing would be more natural and appropri- 

 ate. Sir Robert Wright on South African live stock remarks : ' ' the 

 'Boer Horse' and 'Basuto Pony' are native types and 13.2-14 

 hands high, stout in build and rounded in frame. The predomi- 

 nant colour is bay or brown. They are very hardy, possess much 

 'staying power' and capable of doing much saddle work and light 

 cart work on coarse fodder and in comparison with their size carry 

 heavy weights. ' '^ 



Mr. Lee covered up his sweeping statement by saying that ' ' the 

 whole question of registration of horses is so beset with difficulties 

 that it might be left alone until the Stud Book is in a stronger po- 

 sition and those responsible for it had a little more experience." 



A systematic and scientific discussion of the characteristics 

 of the Cape Horse is well nigh impossible. Up to the present the 

 breed has not been thoroughly established and with the exception 

 of a few private registers no reliable records exist. 



Accounts of the Cape Horse since 1652 are frequently inter- 

 spersed with every variety of description in a very casual way. 



The old Archives and Records of the Cape of those days make 

 frequent mention of "beautiful stallions" and useful "little ani- 



(2) Graf C. G. von Wrangel "Die Eassen des Pferdes" 1908- 



(3) Frof. E. Patricio Wright " The Standard Cyclopedia of Modern Agriculture 



and Eural Economy 1911. 



85 



