120 



THE 



I had brought him over on false pre- 

 tences ! 



When I suggest to Italian and Spanish 

 breeders to come to this country for their 

 horse-breeding stock, and I have to own 

 to the presence of white legs, feet, and 

 blaze, they shake their heads and at once 

 decline. In this way the chance of a 

 foreign market for some of our surplus 

 stock is reduced, and this is a fact that 

 should be regarded seriously by our 

 breeders. 



These markings are known to be detri- 

 mental to the lasting powers of a horse, 

 and yet no attempt is made to limit them 

 or breed them out. They are wonder- 

 fully on the increase in many strains of 

 the Shire horse, and, as far as legs are 

 concerned, they now sometimes reach the 

 stifle and beyond. 



White, when it once appears, is diffi- 

 cult to confine within given limits. I 

 speak from experience as a breeder in 



former years, and winner at Smithfield 

 of " improved" (?) Berkshire pigs, a large 

 proportion of which would always appear 

 with white spots on the body and white 

 ears. , , 



I know I shall be told that a chesnut 

 horse, which is a fine goer, and is dis- 

 figured with the hideous accompanimeuts 

 of white legs, feet, and blaze, brings more 

 money in Paris than anywhere else. This 

 is true enough, as Mr. Bartlett will tell 

 you ; but Monsieur de Paris is not a 

 breeder, and fortunately for France, her 

 breeders are more long-sighted. The 

 Government haras on the Continent are 

 mainly established for the production of 

 hardy, wearing horses f^r the various 

 armies. 



Let us, before it is too late, wake up 

 from our wonderfully self-satisfied posi- 

 tion and take a lesson from the foreigner. 

 We can learn much from him, and more 

 still from the United States of America. 



African Horses. 



a i FRANK CRITIC" has been sound- 

 A ing the praises of the African-bred 

 borse in the Daily Telegraph. He says 

 that the management of remount depots 

 is no such very difficult business if run, 

 as it should l)e, in the African way. Half- 

 a-dozen Basutos, with a white man over 

 them, will look after a hundred horses. 

 "Your African horse does not require 

 regular exercise. Turn him out to graze, 

 and give him plenty of grub when he 

 comes in at night, and he will get himself 

 much fitter than if you pursue the stereo- 

 typed army rule, and tie him up to the 



lines day and night I think 



there is little doubt that the campaign has 

 proved the African horse to be vastly 

 superior to any other for the particular 

 work required of Mounted Infantry. He 

 will find a living where others will starve, 

 and when dead-beat will come up again 

 fresh and well after a day's rest, whereas 

 the foreigner takes weeks to pull round — 

 weeks he cannot get — with the conse- 

 quence that he dies. He is small, but will 

 carry surprising weights. The most con- 

 vincing proof of his abilities in this re- 

 spect is the way ho carries the Boer, for 

 the average Boer must be at least a stone 

 heavier than the average English soldier. 



A further most important point in the 

 African pony is that he is so quiet that 

 there is much less risk of his stampeding 

 when under fire than there is with the 

 English or foreign horse." In comparing 

 the^veights of Briton and Boer the writer 

 seems to overlook the quantity of things 

 the former has to carry on his saddle, 

 whereby the average weight the British 

 horses carry is probably two or three 

 stone more than that carried by the Boer 

 pony. The "Frank Critic" puts in a 

 good word again for the Basuto pony, 

 which, he says, is much the best breed in 

 South Africa. " Efforts should be made 

 to buy every horse that is rideable in 

 Basutoland. Some battalions of Imperial 

 Yeomanry have been mounted on these 

 from the first, a year ago now, and are 

 devoted to their ponies, most of which, 

 in spite of the enormous amount of work 

 done, still survive. If it should be de- 

 cided to mount the men now going out 

 on African horses, it should not be for- 

 gotten that they are small and require a 

 small saddle. The enormous saddles 

 brought out by the first lot of Yeomanry 

 smothered these small ponies, and added 

 unnecessarily to the burden they had to 

 carry." 



