as though blood necessarily gives substance. This was the case 

 a hundred years ago and less, but is true no longer, and we must 

 divest ourselves of the idea so resolutely held that the Thorough- 

 bred is the only strain which can improve our horses. Like 

 foreign breeders, we must seek bone and substance where those 

 qualities exist and not where they only used to exist. 



Height of Race-Horses from 1700 to 1900 



About the year 1700, when the foundations of our 

 Thoroughbred stock were laid, our race-horses averaged 

 14 hands or thereabout. The three " foundation sires " — the 

 Byerly Turk (imported i68g), the Darley Arabian (imported 

 1706), and the Godolphin Arabian (imported 1724) — were each 

 ■of them horses of about 14 hands ; and the race-horses of that 

 and subsequent generations were no larger. Some, indeed, 

 were smaller ; Mixbury, by Curwen's Bay Barb out of an Old 

 Spot Mare, was only 13.2 in height. 



The weights small horses were asked to carry were 

 greatly in excess on those in vogue on the race-course now. 

 In 171 1, the conditions for a six guinea Plate at Newmarket 

 imposed a burden of 10 stone on the horse, mare or gelding of 

 14 hands, with weight for inches if below or above that 

 height — which, clearly, was the average height of the racehorse 

 of the time. The weights, prescribed by law, for the Royal 

 Plates ranged from 10 to i2 stone, according to age. 



The usual length of a race — run in heats be it noted — was 

 four miles; but six mile races were not unusual in 1700-1800 

 until the later years of that century. These longer races 

 then fell into disuse, but four miles continued to be the 

 distance for the Royal Plates during the earlier years of the 

 19th century. 



As the years passed, the race-horse became higher. The 

 scale for "Give and Take" Plates, framed in 1770, gives the 

 weights to be carried by horses of from 12 to 15 hands; the 



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