7 
WILLIAM RUFUS (1087-1100). 
It was probably during the reign of 
William Rufus that the first endeavour to 
improve the British breed of horses was 
made. Giraldus Cambrensis informs us 
that Robert de Belesme brought Spanish 
stallions to his property in Powysland, 
Central Wales, and that to these importa 
tions many years afterwards the district 
owed its reputation for a superior stamp of 
horse. The results of this enterprise were 
certainly of a lasting character, for ‘a 
Powys horse” occurs among the purchases 
made by Edward I]. (1272-1307), indicating 
clearly that the locality still produced a good 
stamp of animal. 
HENRY I. (1100-1135). 
King Henry I. would appear to have 
taken an interest in the work of horse-breed- 
ing. The scanty existing records of his 
reign contain mention of a visit paid in 1130 
to the royal manor at Gillingham, in Dorset- 
shire, by a squire “with a stallion to leap 
the king’s mares.” In this king’s reign the 
first Arabs were received in England from 
Eastern Europe, in the shape of two horses, 
with costly Turkish armour, as a gift. One 
