THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXVII, 
No. 320. 
AUGUST, 
1854 . 
Third Series, 
No. 80. 
ON BREEDING HORSES. 
By J. T. Hodgson. 
In your Journal, vol. xxiii, to which I beg to refer the 
reader, I made a few observations on the 6 Remount of 
Cavalry. 5 I should not now revert to the subject had I not 
seen your pertinent review of a pamphlet on the ‘Deteriorated 
Condition of our Saddle Horses, 5 &c. The author being 
supposed to be a cavalry officer, I do not expect him to be 
acquainted with the subject physiologically, or to be able to 
render an account of the causes of this deterioration. Having 
written against the use of Arab stallions for breeding horses 
in India for European cavalry, 1 only intend to give some 
further explanation, as well as practical information in sup- 
port of this opinion, which arose solely on the question of 
size and substance ; for no sooner did a small colt appear 
before a committee than “native cavalry 55 was denounced. 
The native cavalry, however, got in these smaller horses those 
best adapted, from being of Arab blood, to the uses of light 
native cavalry service. In regard to form, they varied like 
larger horses half English blood, because this depended upon 
the form of sire or dam, not on breed. 
Captain Nolan, being a light cavalry officer, in a pamphlet, 
in his remarks on horses, is in favour of such horses. So am 
I ; but he also admitted there should be heavy cavalry horses 
and for this branch, and horse artillery, size and substance 
is expected, and horses are taken with less blood to get it. 
Whoever has seen Dragoons upon small horses, or these in 
the limbers of a gun, would refer, as you have done at 
p. 6 18, to the difference in their qualifications for such uses. 
Having served my time with a V.S. of the corps, I can agree 
with you about the valuable horses of that time, but to what 
purpose ? The remount of cavalry in all countries has ever 
xxvii. 55 
