EARLY MATURITY. 57 



quick work, they are generally replaced by the Vermont horse, or 

 some nondescript of mixed blood, with which America is com- 

 pletely overrun. 



In color they follow the Flemish horses, except that black is rare 

 among them, but like the Flemish they are free from chestnut, and 

 the larger proportion of them are bay, brown, or iron grays. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE THOROUGH-BRED HORSE. 



Early Maturity — Object of Encouraging the Breed — Essentials in 

 the Thorough-bred — Purity of Blood — External Formation — 

 Height — Color — Coat, Mane, and Tail. 



EARLY MATURITY. 



It is an undeniable fact, as I believe, that preternaturally 

 early maturity is incompatible with lasting qualities of any kind ; 

 but, though the same rule generally holds good throughout nature, 

 there are some exceptions. Thus, the oak is more lasting than the 

 larch, and the elephant outlives the horse, but the goose and the 

 duck, which arrive at maturity in the same number of months, do 

 not live through a corresponding series of years. The forcing pro- 

 cess in gardening is always productive of tenderness, whether the 

 produce be the cucumber or the sea-kale, and this tenderness is 

 only another name for imperfect formation to resist decay. In the 

 days of Eclipse and Childers they were permitted to attain their 

 full growth without forcing, and, not being wanted till five years 

 old, their ligaments, tendons, and bones had plenty of time to be 

 consolidated before they were submitted to the strains and jerks of 

 the extended gallop. There is also reason to believe that they 

 were not nearly so much or so soon stimulated by large feeds of 

 oats, as is now invariably the custom, but that they were allowed 

 to remain at grass, with the shelter of a hovel, during the first 

 three or four years of their lives. All this is now changed; the 

 foal is filled with corn as soon as he will eat it, and at the end of 

 the first year he is furnished as much as the old-fashioned three- 

 year-old. One chief difficulty of the trainer now is to keep his 

 horse sound, and, unfortunately, as disease is in most cases heredi- 

 tary, and too many unsound stallions are bred from, the difficulty 

 is yearly on the increase. Without doubt roaring is far more 

 common than it used to be, and the possession of enlarged joints, 

 and back sinews, is the rule instead of the exception. During the 



