so hot and dry a climate. Specific objection is made to their 



feet, which " appear to be getting smaller and weaker every 



year.'' In Beluchistan, which has the driest climate of any 



region in which the Department conducts its work, the dryness 



and rock soil combine to ruin their feet, which. Colonel 



Queripel says, " break away until there is absolutely nothing 



left." On the other hand, a better stamp of Australian 



Thoroughbred had been obtainable in small numbers ; seven 



imported during the official year 1897-8 were between 15.2 



and 15.3!- in height, girthed from 68 to 72I inches, and only 



one had less than eight inches of bone below the knee. 



Reverting to Colonel Hallen's paper of 1888, that officer 



said of the Hackneys and Trotters : — 



" These have, with country-bred mares, produced stock of good bone 

 and power, proving suitable and sufficiently well-bred for Army work in 

 India. I may mention that, as a rule, most of the best-boned stock in the 

 late Stud Department had half-bred blood in them. The Special Stud 

 Commissioners bore this fact in mind, and advised the employing of more 

 half-bred sires, these to be of pure breeds and showing quaUty.* Some of 

 the half-bred sires that had been imported from England were, in the 

 opinion of the Commissioners, of not sufficient quality, but they found 

 their produce proving excellent for artillery purposes. I, of course, do not - 

 wish to imply that every stallion has proved a success ; but I do most 

 distinctly affirm that at least gc per cent, of the half-bred sires have fully 

 realised the expectations formed of them." 



After referring to the prejudice with which these horses 

 were first regarded by men accustomed only to the Thorough- 

 bred and Arab, Colonel Hallen said : — 



" The practical results of horse-breeding that have obtained and are 

 obtaining in India, indicate that such horses (horses capable of doing good 

 work by having bleed, bone, and power to enable them to carry and 

 draw the heavy weights of British cavalry and artillery) cannot be produced 

 from the present country-bred mares by mating them with Thoroughbred 

 or Arab stock; that very few per cent, of Remounts so bred prove fit for 

 those branches of the service ; but we are having, day by day, more proof 

 that the produce of these mares by half-bred English horses (or, as they 

 are now called in England, Hackneys) of pure breed, is well adapted for 

 general army work in India, thuS' indicating that the more this class of sire 

 — the well-bred half-bred — is employed, a greater chance will be afforded of 

 securing larger-framed country-bred brood stock, which in turn will yield 

 still larger framed and boned produce. The mares of this improved and 

 developed stock may in time become large enough in bulk to allow of their 

 being mated to Arab sires, should it be deemed desirable to add more 

 quality and compactness in bone w ith powers of endurance, which are the 

 well-known characteristics of the true Arab." 



* In writing of pure breeds, Colonel Hallen means those breeds which 

 have Stud Books in England. 



56 



