THE SADDLE BREEDS OF HORSES 109 
and a consequent broader usefulness, or as marking some 
special achievement in the breeding art, we may justly 
assign to one breed more importance than to others. 
The importance of the Thoroughbred is attested by the 
following facts: It was the first breed improved and the 
one on which the principles of breeding have been most 
systematically practiced; barring the Oriental, from 
which the Thoroughbred is derived, his is the purest 
lineage possessed by any breed, and for it the first stud- 
book for the recording of pedigrees was established ; 
Thoroughbred blood has been most freely drawn upon 
in the improvement of other breeds and types — in fact, 
there is scarcely a harness or saddle horse that does not 
owe its merit indirectly to the Thoroughbred crosses in 
its ancestry ; the Thoroughbred has been a most impor- 
tant means of indulging a love of sport on the turf and 
in the field for three centuries. 
125. History in Great Britain — A knowledge of the early 
horse history of Great Britain is necessary for a complete 
understanding of the origin of the Thoroughbred. It is 
interesting to note first, that there are no indications of 
any horses having been indigenous to Britain, although 
the most recent researches reported by Ridgeway indi- 
cate that horses of the north African type were in 
Ireland as early as the sixth century. The horses with 
which Britain was first stocked are generally held to 
have been derived from the pony types native to northern 
Europe, and consequently were small in stature. We 
know that the first efforts at improvement were in the 
way of increasing the size. The Norsemen were the first 
to introduce the war horse, and the blood of Normandy 
and Flanders was thereafter drawn on in an attempt to 
produce horses of a sufficient size and strength to carry 
