THE PLEASURE HORSE 229 



tell us, in order to secure a stock of working 

 horses. So let us encourage yachting to give 

 us ships for cargo. Let us breed guinea-pigs 

 as material to coin guineas. " If a yard of 

 soap will make a flannel waistcoat for a pig, 

 how far is it from the dome of St. Paul's to 

 Christmas Day ? " So mental confusion verge 

 upon madness. 



The mettle of our pastures, and perfect 

 artistry in selective breeding, have given to the 

 British Isles the leadership of nations with 

 almost every type of domestic livestock. But 

 the high specialization of each type for a single 

 function disables it for every other use. We 

 have never bred a horse specialized for that 

 single purpose of rapid and sustained marching, 

 which is mobility. Our pleasure horses, excel, 

 lent for sport, are expensive, deUcate, unsound- 

 lacking in endurance when we put them to 

 serious work. As yeast is to dough, blood is to 

 any livestock, and there must be thoroughbred 

 blood in any working horse who has to face the 

 terrors of modern war ; but if there is any 

 guidance in the origin and natural history of 

 horses, the one type to give mobility to an 

 army must be bred away from all green 

 grasses and soft ground, on those arid plains 

 which alone can make sound limbs, hard hoofs. 



