Breeding Horses. 
267 
important class to our national welfare, have been very much 
neglected. The prizes given to every class of bullock, sheep, 
and pig, male and female of every age, have so far exceeded 
those given to thorough-bred horses, that the latter have not been 
worth competing for. That is not the only reason ; there is 
another important one. It is that formerly the Royal Plates of 
100/. each were given for competition all over England for four- 
year-old horses carrying 10 stone 4 lbs., five years old, 11 stone 
6 lbs., six and aged, 12 stone, and decided in four-mile heats. 
These prizes were a great inducement to breeders to endea- 
vour to get horses of size and substance, and to keep them 
when got. As long as these Royal Plates were given to horses 
carrying these high weights, strong thorough-bred horses were 
bred and kept, which in the end broke down, and became the 
most valuable acquisition to breeders of horses in all parts of 
the country. Having become blemished, they were no longer 
desired by foreigners, and continued the remaining portion of 
their lives at home, helping to produce a race of horses with 
size, substance, blood, and action. From their stock the most 
valuable hunters, hacks, and carriage-horses were selected, and 
from the less well-favoured the cavalry was especially well 
mounted. 
Our horses were then the envy of the whole of Europe. 
These Royal Plates for high weights and long distances brought 
up our horses to this point of excellence : so long as they were 
so given, so long we kept our supremacy ; but, by some unfor- 
tunate influence, the conditions A/ere altered, and lighter weights 
and shorter distances allowed. From this point I date, under 
my own observation, the commencement of the deterioration 
of our thorough-bred horses, and consequently of those of every- 
day use. I saw the commencement of the evil ; I now see 
the consequence. There was no longer any inducement to 
breeders to retain their great strong two-year-old colts ; they 
could not run at that age, neither could they at three years 
old struggle with moderate-sized horses. The best horse ever 
produced in England could not race at two nor at three years 
old ; he was not only the fastest and the stoutest of any period, 
but he was one of the most powerful — this horse was Eclipse. 
If he had been of these days, in all probability his fate would 
have been sealed at three years old ; he would have been sold 
as a great slow brute to some foreigner, coming among us to 
make such purchases at a small sum, as most of our large-sized, 
unfurnished horses have been, till there is hardly one left. Since 
there is nothing further to run for at four years old, they must be 
5old. I can speak positively from my own knowledge to this state 
