250 Next to the Ground 



fact. Even more than men, horses are the 

 product of environment. Running blood, 

 otherwise thoroughbred blood, had its begin- 

 nings in Arabs and Turks bred amid desert 

 stretches, w^ithout bush or brake to stint their 

 rattling gallops. Trotting blood contrariwise 

 traces most directly to Barbs or Barbary 

 horses, bred in rough and ragged country, 

 where sweeping gallops are impossible, and 

 speed is attainable only at the trot. The 

 Barb blood has of course been largely rein- 

 forced by that of the thoroughbred ; further 

 trotting action is not unknown among de- 

 scendants of even the Godolphin Arabian. 

 Indeed Mambrino, sire of Messenger, the 

 corner-stone of trotting pedigrees, had more 

 than one cross of that prepotent strain. 



If all flesh is grass, how much more all 

 horseflesh ? Bone from animals bred in the 

 open, running upon grass and feeding upon it 

 solely, though smaller and slenderer, weighs 

 more, section for section, than bone from 

 animals reared within stable walls. It is the 

 bone, the coat, the hair which make up what 

 is known as quality, and distinguish the 

 thoroughbred from the common cold-blooded 

 stock. A straw can hardly be thrust within 

 the hollow of a thoroughbred or Arab or Barb 

 bone, yet a forefinger will go inside that in the 

 bone of a Conestoga, or Clydesdale, or Perche- 



