and trained for ultimate issue as Remounts. From 1889 one 

 thousand young horses have been purchased every year, but 

 when the number was thus increased it was found necessary 

 to take the animals at a much earlier ^age, and the minimum 

 was, in the year mentioned, fixed at six months. 



It must be added, in this connection, that the question 

 •of mounting the native cavalry had in i88g reached an acute 

 stage.* 



Colonel Hallen's description of the stock got by the 

 several imported breeds of stallion is exceedingly instructive. 

 It will be borne in mind that his observations were made after 

 the new system had been twelve years in operation, and there 

 had been, therefore, time to see what impression had been 

 made on the native stock. 



The animal got by the English Thoroughbred 



"is, as a rule, handsome in top and outlines of back, hind quarters, and 

 carriage of head and tail, but is often shallow in girth and back rib, light 

 in barrel, and from 70 to 80 per cent, are leggy and deficient in bone of 

 limb. Diseases of legs are more common among Thoroughbred stock — 

 e.g., curb, bone spavin, bog spavin and ring-bone are not infrequently 

 shown. Few of this stock prove fit for British cavalry, and hardly one 

 for horse or field artillery, but some are purchased for native cavalry. 

 Many native breeders are distrustful of this class of sire, as they find their 

 ■stock do not realise a good price in the market." 



Of the stock got by Australian sires, which are English 

 Thoroughbreds foaled and reared in the Colony — 



"The young stock often prove better-boned in limb than the stock of 

 imported Thoroughbreds from England, but in other points are similar 

 to the stock of the English Thoroughbreds." 



Turning to the Report of Colonel Queripel, the Inspector- 

 General, ten years after the foregoing remarks were written, 

 we find the complaint that English Thoroughbreds of the 

 stamp required to get Remounts grow scarcer and harder to 

 obtain each recurring year. " Breeders aim at long-legged, 

 striding animals," which are exactly what India does not 

 require ; and, though treated with the most jealous care, the 

 English Thoroughbred is liable to develop unsoundness in 



* Opinions on the Supply of Remounts to British and Native Cavalry, and on 

 Hone-breeding in India; expressed at an Informal Meeting held at Simla on 

 20th August, i88g. 



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