26 HORSE-BREEDING FOR FARMERS CHAP. 
“In common breeds, their orzg7z (being plebeian, 
low, mixed, or unknown) is the source of their 
imperfections and vices. This origin has a tendency 
to oppose all other influences, including those of soil, 
climate, and food, and can only be counteracted or 
its power minimised by a constant weeding out of 
bad animals, or by introducing the more potent 
blood of a higher and purer caste” (vide the works 
of Messieurs Moll and Guyot). 
Racing and love of a good horse gave us the 
foundation. The Stud Book has for a century 
recorded pedigree, and the Racing Calendar per- 
formance ; and whatever the earliest horse was like, 
it is man that has said, I will have a racehorse, 
a war horse, a hack, a hunter, a coach horse, a 
carriage horse, a draught horse, and has proved that 
it is the “horseman makes the horse.” 
In other days the Thoroughbred could be de- 
pended on more than at present to transmit sound- 
ness and stamina to his half-bred descendants as 
well as quality ; for the racehorse was then required 
to run long races and repeated heats under heavy 
weights. He had to be a horse of great power and - 
mature age to support the test, and to this end the 
Arab blood was called in. Now stamina, soundness, 
and strength are sacrificed to speed over short 
distances, and abnormal maturity—with ‘the conse- 
quence that the Thoroughbred ‘no longer maintains 
its reputation for stoutness and soundness; and the 
user of the blood for getting half-bred stock must 
carefully select his sires+ | The Hunters’ Improve- 
1 « There is little doubt the English racehotse of the present day is 
far more remarkable for speed than for stamina. . . It may well be, 
