Horse

HORSE

PART I—ZOOLOGY AND ANATOMY.

Zoology.

THE horse and its near allies, the several species of asses and zebras, constitute the genus Equns of Linnaeus, a small group of animals of the class Mammalia, so distinct in their organization from all other existing members of the class that in many of the older zoological systems they were placed in an order apart, under the name of Solidungula or Monodactyla.

Investigations in comparative anatomy have, however, demonstrated that their structure, at first sight so singular and exceptional, is really but a modification of the same general plan upon which the tapirs and rhinoceroses are formed, and the discovery and restoration of the characters of extinct species, inaugurated by Cuvier during his fruitful researches into the fauna of the Paris basin, continued in various European localities by Kaup, Riitimeyer, Gervais, Gaudry, Huxley, and others, and recently conducted on a more ample scale in the prolific fossiliferous strata of North America by Leidy, Marsh, and Cope, have revealed numerous intermediate stages through which the existing horses appear to have passed in their modification from a very different ancestral form.

We shall best understand what a horse really is if we first consider its origin and lineage; and this we are in a better position to do than with almost any other animal, as it is one of the few whose history (if the evidence afforded by palaeontology can be relied upon) can be traced back through an almost unbroken chain of links as far as the earliest Tertiary age.

We have as yet no cognizance of the history of any mammals of the group to which the horse belongs before the dawn of the Eocene period. Of where they lived and what they were like, from what earlier forms and by what stages of modifications descended, our actual knowledge is an absolute blank. Conjecture helps us but little, and why none of their remains have not ere this been discovered is a palaeontological mystery. We have, however, certain knowledge that when the land which formed the bottom of the great cretaceous ocean which flowed over a considerablepart of the present continents of Europe and North America was lifted above the level of the water and became fitted for the habitation of terrestrial animals, it was very soon the abode of vast numbers of herbivorous mammals belonging to the group now called Ungulata or “hoofed animals.” Wherever they came from, they had existed sufficiently long to have become already completely differentiated into two·

principal forms, separated from each other by many distinct points in their organization, among which one of the most externally conspicuous was the structure of their feet. From this character the one form has received the name of Artiodactyla or “even-toed,” the other Perissodactyla or “odd-toed.” It is only of the latter that we shall have to speak in this article.

Perhaps the best notion of a perissodactyle ungulate of the Eocene age can be derived from the tapir of the present day, an animal which has changed less from the primitive and generalized type of the group of that time than any other existing member of the order. These early forms had all the complete number of teeth found in so many of the mammals of that period of various orders, arranged according to the well-known formula— incisors ∣ -, canines γ, premolars ⅛, molars ⅜ = τγ on each side, or 44 in all. The molar teeth had very short square crowns, with transverse or oblique ridges on tfie grinding surface. In the fore limbs the radius and ulna, and in the hind limbs the tibia and fibula, were distinct and well-developed bones. Whatever the number of toes on each foot, the one corresponding to the middle or third digit of the generalized pentadactyle limb was the longest; its ungual phalanx was symmetrical in itself, and it formed the centre of the foot, on each side of which the other toes were arranged in complete or partial symmetry according to the stage of development. In the hind foot in all known cases the symmetry was complete, only one toe on each side of the middle digit being present (fig. 3, c); but in the fore foot the primitive symmetry, formed by the presence of two toes on each side of the middle toe, had been lost in nearly all, by the disappearance of one of the outer toes (the first), the condition still retained by the tapirs (fig. 3, a); or it had been replaced by the second stage of symmetry, in which both outer toes are absent, and only three remain, as in the modern rhinoceros (fig. 3, c). By no animal of this period had the third, or most highly specialized stage of symmetry, that which, as we shall see, characterizes the modern horses (fig. 3, e), been attained.

By various and gradually progressing deviations from the common original type, these animals began at a very early period to break up into several groups, some of which (as Macraucheniaf after undergoing a considerable degree of specialization, have become extinct without leaving successors; but three of these modified types, already distinct at the close of the Eocene period, have continued up to the present day, gradually, as time advanced, becoming more and more divergent from each other. These are now represented by the three families of the rhinoceroses, the tapirs, and the horses. Great as may be the differences between these animals as we see them now, we can trace their history step by step, as revealed by the fragments preserved from former ages, further and further back in time, their differences continually becoming less marked, and ultimately blending together, if not into one common ancestor, at all events into forms so closely alike in all essentials that no reasonable doubt can be held as to their common origin.

Leaving out of further consideration the two collateral branches, it will be our purpose now to follow the history of the special subject of this article.

The remains of the earliest known animals to which it is possible to trace back the modern horse by a series of successive modifications are found in the lowest strata of the great lacustrine formations assigned to the Eocene period, spread over considerable portions of the present territories of New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah in North America. That similar animals may have existed in other parts of the world is extremely probable. Negative evidence in such cases is of little value, as may be judged by the fact that it is only within a very few years that the existence of these deposits teeming with fossil remains of previously unsuspected forms has been brought to light, and their systematic exploration has scarcely yet commenced. A little animal, not larger than a fox, Eohippus of Marsh, presented the most generalized form of the perissodactyle type as yet discovered, as besides the four well-developed toes of the fore foot, found in so many others, it had at least a rudiment of a fifth. All analogy leads to the supposition that this must in its turn have been represented at a still earlier period by another form with all five toes complete, but direct evidence of this is at present wanting.

The transition from this horse-like animal of the early period to the horses of modern times has been accompanied by a gradual increase in size. The diminutive Eocene Eohiρpus and Orohippus were succeeded in the Miocene period by other forms to which the names of Anchitherium and Miohippus have been given, of the size of sheep; these again in Pliocene times by Hipparion and Pliohippus, as large as the modern donkeys; and it is only in the Pleistocene period that Equidoe appeared which approached in size the existing horse. Important structural modifications have also taken place, with corresponding changes in the mode of life of the animal. The neck has become elongated, the skull altered in form, the teeth greatly modified, and the limbs have undergone remarkable changes. The last two require to be described more in detail.

The teeth in the Eocene forms had, as mentioned above, the characteristic number of forty-four. This number has been retained throughout the series, at least theoretically; but one tooth on each side of each jaw, the anterior premolar, which in all the Eocene and Miocene species was a well-developed tooth, persisting through the life time of the animal, is in all modern horses rudimentary, functionless, and generally lost at an early period of life, evidently passing through a stage which must soon lead to its complete disappearance. The canines have also greatly diminished in size, and are rarely present in the female sex, so that practically a very large number of adult horses of the present day have eight teeth less than the number possessed by their predecessors. The diastema or interval between the incisor and premolar teeth, of essential importance in the domesticated horse to his master, as without it there could be no room for inserting the special instrument of subjugation to his commands, the bit, already existed in the earliest known forms, but has gradually increased in length. The incisors have undergone in comparatively recent times that curious change producing the structure which will be more fully described hereafter, and which distinguishes the horse’s incisors from those of all other known animals. Lastly, the molars have undergone a remarkable series of modifications, much resembling in principle those that have taken place in several other groups of herbivorous animals. Distinctions in form which existed between the premolars, at least the anterior members of the series, and the true molars have gradually disappeared, the teeth becoming all very uniform in the shape and structure of their grinding surface. The crowns of all these teeth in the early forms were very short(see fig. 2, α); there was a distinct constriction, the neck, between the crown and roots; and when the tooth was developing, as soon as the neck once rose fairly above the alveolar margin, the tooth remained permanently in this position. The term “brachyodont” expresses this ’ condition of teeth, the mode of growth of which may be illustrated by those of man. The free surface had two nearly transverse curved ridges, with valleys between (fig. 2, α); but the valleys were shallow and had no deposit of cementum filling them, the whole exposed surface of the unworn tooth being formed of enamel. When the ridges be-cameworndown the dentineof the interiorwas exposed,forming islands surrounded by enamel. With the progress of time the crowns of the teeth gradually become longer, the valleys deeper, and the ridges not only more elevated but more curved and complex in arrangement. To give support to these high ridges and save them from breaking in use, the valleys or cavities between them became filled up to the top with cementum, and as the crown wore down an admirable grinding surface consisting of patches and islands of the two softer substances, dentine and cement, separated by variously reduplicated and contorted lines of intensely hard enamel, resulted (fig. 2, c). The crown continued lengthening until in the modern horses it has assumed the form called “hypsidont” (fig. 2, b). Instead of contracting into a neck, and forming roots, its sides continue parallel for a considerable depth in the socket, and as the surface wears away, the whole tooth slowly pushes up, and maintains the grinding edge constantly at the same level above the alveolus, much as in the perpetually growing rodent’s teeth. But in existing horses there is still a limit to the growth of the molar. After a length is attained which in normal conditions supplies sufficient grinding surface for the lifetime of the animal, a neck and roots are formed, and the tooth is reduced to the condition of that of the brachyodont ancestor. It is perfectly clear that this lengthening of the crown adds greatly to the power of the teeth as organs of mastication, and enables the animals in which it has taken place to find their sustenance among the comparatively dry and harsh herbage of the open plains, instead of being limited to the more succulent vegetable productions of the marshes and forests in which their predecessors mainly dwelt.

The modifications of the limbs which took place pari passu with those of the teeth must have been associated with increased speed, especially over firm and unyielding ground. Short, stout legs, and broad feet, with numerous toes, spreading apart from each other when the weight of the creature is borne on them, are sufficiently well adapted for plodding deliberately over marshy and yielding surfaces, and the tapirs and the rhinoceroses, which in the structure of the limbs have altered but little from the primitive Eocene forms, still haunt the borders of streams and lakes and the shady depths of the forests, as was probably the habit of their ancient representatives, while the horses are all inhabitants of the open plains, for life upon which their whole organization is in the most eminent degree adapted. The length and mobility of the neck, position of the eye and ear, and great development of the organ of smell, give them ample means of becoming aware of the approach of enemies, while the length of their limbs, the angles the different segments form vzith each other, and especially the combination of firmness, stability, and lightness in the reduction of all the toes to a single one, upon which the whole weight of the body and all the muscular power are concentrated, give them speed and endurance surpassing that of almost any other animal. When surprised, however, they are by no means helpless,both fore and hind feet becoming at need powerful weapons of defence.

If we were not so habituated to the sight of the horse as hardly ever to consider its structure, we should greatly marvel at being told of a mammal so strangely constructed that it had but a single toe on each extremity, on the end of the nail of which it walked or galloped. Such a formation is without a parallel in the vertebrate series, and is one of the most remarkable instances of specialization, or deviation from the usual type, in accordance with special conditions of life. It can be demonstrated, both by the structure of the foot itself, and also by an examination of the intermediate forms, that this toe corresponds to the middle or third of the complete typical or pentadactyle foot, the “ring finger” of man; and there is very strong evidence to show that by a gradual concentration of all the power of the limb upon this toe, and the concurrent dwindling away and final disappearance of all the others, the present condition of the horse’s foot has been produced.

The small horse-like animals of the Eocene period with four, or rudiments at least of five, toes on the fore foot have been already mentioned. In the early Miocene period the animal most like an existing horse was the Anchιthemum y the remains of which are found in a fossil state both in Europe and in America. In this genus there were three well-developed toes reaching the ground on each foot, and the radius and ulna, and the tibia and fibula of the hind leg, were complete and distinct. This was succeeded on the European and Asiatic continent by Hiρparion and in America by Pliohipρus, perhaps more directly in the line of descent, as Hipparion has some special characters of its own in the teeth and skull, which make it probable that it is a collateral branch which became extinct without leaving descendants. In these and other forms which flourished at this period, the lateral toes, though containing the full number of bones, were much reduced in size, and did not reach the ground, but were suspended to the outside of and rather behind the large middle one, like the rudimentary ou'er toes of the deer, or the short first digit (“dew-claw”) of the dog. Horses, or rather horse-like creatures, with this structure of feet were no longer met with in the Pleistocene period, but then for the first time appeared the true horse in its development exactly or very nearly as we know it now. The outer toes were reduced to rudiments of the metacarpals or metatarsals only, the so-called “splint bones” entirely concealed beneath the skin (fig. 3, e, π. and ιv.), the middle toe (in.) greatly elongated, and with its ungual phalanx and hoof expanded, and the stability of the forearm and leg increased by the complete subordination of the ulna and fibula to the larger bones, the radius and tibia, which alone are concerned in the formation of the wrist and ankle joint.

Fossil remains of true horses, differing but very slightly from the smaller and inferior breeds of those now existing, are found abundantly in deposits of the most recent geological age, in almost every part of America, from Escholz Bay in the north to Patagonia in the south. In that continent, however, they became quite extinct, and no horses, either wild or domesticated, existed there at the time of the »Spanish conquest, which is the more remarkable as, when introduced from Europe, the horses that ran wild proved by their rapid multiplication in the plains of South America and Texas that the climate, food, and other circumstances were highly favourable for their existence. The former great abundance of Equidoe in America, their complete extinction, and their perfect acclimatization when reintroduced by man, form curious but as yet unsolved problems in geographical distribution.

The existing species of the genus Equus are the following

(1.) The Horse, Eqnus caballus, Linn., is distinguished from the others by the long hairs of the tail being more abundant and growing quite from the base as well as the end and sides, and also by possessing a small bare callosity on the inner side of the hind leg, just below the “hock” or heel joint, in addition to the one on the inner side of the forearm above the carpus, common to all the genus. The mane is also longer and more flowing, and the ears shorter, the limbs longer, and the head smaller.

Though the existing horses are usually not marked in any definite manner, or only irregularly dappled, or spotted with light surrounded by a darker ring, many examples are met with showing a dark median dorsal streak like that found in all the other members of the genus, and even with dark stripes on the shoulders and legs indicating “the probability of the descent of all the existing races from a single dun-coloured, more or less striped, primitive stock, to which our horses still occasionally revert.”

In Europe wild horses were extremely abundant in the Neolithic or polished-stone period. Judging from the quantity of their remains found associated with those of the men of that time, the chase of these animals must have been among his chief occupations, and they must have furnished him with one of his most important food supplies. The characters of the bones preserved, and certain rude but graphic representations carved on bones or reindeers’ antlers, enable us to know that they were rather small in size, and heavy in build, with large heads and rough shaggy manes and tails, much like, in fact, the present wild horses of the steppes of the south of Russia. These horses were domesticated by the inhabitants of Europe before the dawn of history, but it is doubtful whether the majority of the animals now existing on the Continent are derived directly from them, as it is more probable that they are descendants from horses imported though Greece and Italy from Asia, derived from a still earlier domestication, followed by gradual improvement through long-continued attention bestowed on their breeding and training. Horses are now diffused by the agency of man throughout almost the whole of the inhabited parts of the globe, and the great modifications they have undergone in consequence of domestication and selective breeding are well exemplified by comparing such extreme forms as the Shetland pony, dwarfed by uncongenial climate, the thoroughbred racer, and the London dray-horse. In Australia, as in America, horses imported by the European settlers have escaped into the unreclaimed lands, and multiplied to a prodigious extent, roaming in vast herds over the plains where no hoofed animal ever trod before.

(2.) Equus asinus, Linn.—The Domestic Ass is nearly as widely diffused and useful to man as the horse. It was known in Egypt long before the horse, and is probably of African origin, indeed its close resemblance to the existing wild ass of Abyssinia, E. tcenιopus, Heuglin, leaves little doubt as to its identity with that species.

(3.) The Asiatic Wild Asses, which roam in small herds in the open plains of Syria, of many parts of Persia, of the north-west of India, and the highlands of Tartary and Tibet from the shores of the Caspian to the frontiers of China, differ from the last in being of a more rufous or isabelline colour, instead of pure grey, in wanting the dark streak across the shoulder, and having smaller ears. They have all a dark-coloured median dorsal stripe. Ίhough it is considered probable by many zoologists that they form but a single species (E. hemionus, Pallas), they present such marked variations in size and form that they have commonly been divided into three—the Syrian Wild A s« (A. hemippus, Geoff.), the Onager (A. onager, Pall.) from Persia, the Punjab, Scinde and the desert of Cutch, and the Kiang or Dzeggetai (E. hemionus, Pallas) of the high table-lands of Tibet, where it is usually met with at an elevation of 15,000 feet and upwards above the sea-level. The last is considerably larger than either of the others, and differs from them in external appearance, having more the aspect of the horse. They are all remarkably swift, having been known to outstrip the fleetest horse in speed.

Lastly, there are three striped species, all inhabitants of South Africa. These constitute the genus Hippotigris of Hamilton Smith, but they are not separable except by their coloration from the true asses, and one of them (4), the Quagga {E. quagga, Gmel.), may be considered as intermediate. This animal has the dark stripes limited to the head, neck, and shoulders, upon a brown ground. In (5) the Dauw or Burchell’s Zebra (E. burchellii, Gray), the ground colour is white, and the stripes cover the body and upper part of the limbs. This is the commonest species in the great plains of South Africa, where it roams in large herds, often in company with the quagga and numerous species of antelope. It ranges from the Orange River to the confines of Abyssinia. In (6) the Mountain Zebra {E. zebra, Linn.) the contrast between the clear white of the ground and the black of the stripes is most marked, and the latter - extend quite down to the hoofs. This is, consequently, the most beautiful species of the group as regards colour, if the horse may bear the palm in elegance of form. It frequents mountainous districts rather than the open plains which are the dwelling-places of the other two species, and as it appears to be limited to the southern portion of the continent, within the confines of the Cape Colony, its numbers are rapidly diminishing under the encroachments of European civilization.

There are thus at least six modifications of the horse type at present existing, sufficiently distinct to be reckoned as species by all zoologists, and easily recognized by their external characters. They are, however, all so closely allied that each will, at least in a state of domestication or captivity, breed with perfect freedom with any of the others. Cases of fertile union are recorded between the horse and the quagga, the horse and the dauw or Burchell’s zebra, the horse and the hemionus or Asiatic wild ass, the common ass and the zebra, the common ass and the dauw, the common ass and the hemionus, the hemionus and the zebra, and the hemionus and the dauw. The two species which are perhaps the farthest removed in general structure, the horse and the ass, produce, as is well known, hybrids or mules, which in some qualities useful to man excel both their progenitors, and in some countries and for certain kinds of work are in greater requisition than either. Although occasional instances have been recorded of female mules breeding with the males of one or other of the pure species, it is doubtful if any case has occurred of their breeding inter se, although the opportunities of doing so must have been great, as mules have been reared in immense numbers for at least several thousands of years. We may therefore consider it settled that the different species of the group are now in that degree of physiological differentiation which enables them to produce offspring with each other, but does not permit of the progeny continuing the race, at all events unless reinforced by the aid of one of the pure forms.

The several members of the group show mental differences quite as striking as those exhibited by their external form, and more than perhaps might be expected from the similarity of their cerebral organization. The patience of the ass, the high spirit of the horse, the obstinacy of the mule, have long been proverbial. It is very remarkable that, out of so many species, two only should have shown any aptitude for domestication, and that these two should have been from time immemorial the universal and most useful companions and servants of man, while all the others remain in their native freedom to this day. It is, however, still a question whether this really arises from a different mental constitution causing a natural capacity for entering into relations with man, or whether it may not be owing to their having been brought gradually into this condition by long continued and persevering efforts when the need of their services was keenly felt. It is quite possible that one reason why most of the attempts to add new species to the list of our domestic animals in modern times have ended in failure is that it does not answer to do so in cases in which existing species supply all the principal purposes to which the new ones might be put. It can hardly be expected that zebras and quaggas fresh from their native mountains and plains can be brought into competition as beasts of burden and draught with horses and asses, whose naturally useful qualities have been augmented by the training of thousands of generations of progenitors.

Not uufrequently instances occur of domestic horses being produced with a small additional toe with complete hoof, usually on the inside of the principal toe, and, though far more rarely, three or more toes may be present. These malformations are often cited as instances of reversion to the condition of some of the earlier forms of equine animals previously mentioned. Such explanations, however plausible they appear at first sight, are nevertheless very doubtful. All the feet of polydactyle horses which we have examined bear little resemblance to those of the extinct Hipparion or Anchitheriuτm, but look rather as if due to that tendency to reduplication of parts which occurs so frequently as a teratological condition, especially among domestic animals, and which, whatever its origin, certainly cannot in many instances, as the cases of entire limbs superadded, or of six digits in man, be attributed to reversion.

Anatomy.

The anatomical structure of the horse has been described in great detail in several works devoted to the subject, which will be mentioned in the bibliography, though these have generally been written from the point of view of the veterinarian rather than of the comparative anatomist. The limits of the present article will only admit of the most salient points being indicated, particularly those in which the horse differs from the other Cngulata. Unless otherwise specified, it must be understood that all that is stated here, although mostly derived from observation upon the horse, applies equally well to the other existing members of the group.

Skeleton.— The skull as a whole is greatly elongated, chiefly in consequence of the immense size of the face as compared with the hinder or true cranial portion. The basal line of the cranium from the lower border of the foramen magnum to the incisor border of the palate is very nearly straight. The orbit, of nearly circular form, though small in proportion to the size of the whole skull, is distinctly marked, being completely surrounded by a strong ring of bone with prominent edges. Behind it, and freely communicating with it beneath the osseous bridge (the post-orbital process of the frontal) forming the boundary between them, is the small temporal fossa occupying the whole of the side of the cranium proper, and in front is the great flattened expanse of the “cheek,” formed chiefly by the superior maxilla, giving support to the long row of molar teeth, and having a prominent ridge running forward from below the orbit for the attachment of the masseter muscle. The lacrymal occupies a considerable space on the flat surface of the cheek in front of the orbit, and below it the malar does the same. The latter sends a horizontal or slightly ascending process backwards below the orbit to join the under surface of the zygomatic process of the squamosal, which is remarkably large, and instead of ending as usual behind the orbit, runs forwards to join the greatly developed post-orbital process of the frontal, and even forms part of the posterior and inferior boundary of the orbit, an arrangement not met with in other mammals. The closure of the orbit behind distinguishes the skull of the horse from that of its allies the rhinoceros and tapir, and also from all of the perissodactyles of the Eocene period. In front of the cerebral cavity, the great tubular nasal cavities are provided with well-developed turbinal bones, and are roofed over by very large nasals, broad behind, and ending in front by a narrow decurved point. The opening of the anterior nares is prolonged backwards on each side of the face between the nasals and the elongated slender premaxillae. The latter expand in front, and are curved downwards to form the semicircular alveolar border which supports the large incisor teeth. The palate is narrow in the interval between the incisor and molar teeth, in which are situated the large anterior palatine foramina. Between the molar teeth it is broader, and it ends posteriorly in a rounded excavated border opposite the hinder border of the penultimate molar tooth. It is mainly formed by the maxillae, as the palatines are very narrow. The pterygoids are delicate slender slips of bone attached to the hinder border of the palatines, and supported externally by, and generally ankylosed to, the rough pterygoid plates of the alisphenoid, with no pterygoid fossa between. They slope very obliquely forwards, and end in curved, compressed, hamular processes. There is a distinct alisphenoid canal for the passage of the internal maxillary artery. The base of the cranium is long and narrow; the alisphenoid is very obliquely perforated by the foramen rotundum, but the foramen ovale is confluent with the large foramen lacerum medium behind. The glenoid surface for the articulation of the mandible is greatly extended transversely, concave from side to side, convex from before backwards in front, and hollow behind, and is bounded posteriorly at its inner part by a prominent postglenoid process. The squamosal enters considerably into the formation of the temporal fossa, and, besides sending the zygomatic process forwards, it sends down behind the meatus auditorius a post-tympanic process which aids to hold in place the otherwise loose tympano-periotic bone. Behind this the execcipital gives off a very long paroccipital process. The periotic and tympanic are ankylosed together, but not with the squamosal. The former has a wide but shallow floccular fossa on its inner side, and sends backwards a considerable “pars mastoidea,” which appears on the outer surface of the skull between the post-tympanic process of the squamosal and the exoccipital. The tympanic forms a tubular meatus auditorius externus directed outwards and slightly backwards. It is not dilated into a distinct bulla, but ends in front in a pointed styliform process. It completely embraces the truncated cylindrical tympanohyal, which is of great size, corresponding with the large development of the whole anterior arch of the hyoid. This consists mainly of a long and compressed stylohyal, expanded at the upper end, where it sends off a triangular posterior process. The basi-hyal is remarkable for the long, median, pointed, compressed “glossohyal” process, which it sends forward from its anterior border into the base of the tongue. A similar but less developed process is found in the rhinoceros and tapir. The mandible is largely developed, especially the region of the angle, which is expanded and flattened, giving great surface for the attachment of the masseter muscle. The condyle is greatly elevated above the alveolar border; its articular surface is very wide transversely, and narrow and convex from before backwards. The coronoid process is slender, straight, and inclined backwards. The horizontal ramus, long, straight, and compressed, gradually narrows towards the symphysis, where it expands laterally to form with the ankylosed opposite ramus the wide, semicircular, shallow alveolar border for the incisor teeth.

The vertebral column consists of seven cervical, eighteen dorsal, six lumbar, five sacral, and fifteen to eighteen caudal vertebrae. There may be nineteen rib· bearing vertebrae, in which case five only will be reckoned as belonging to the lumbar series. The odontoid process of the atlas is wide, flat, and hollowed above, as in the ruminants. The bodies of the cervical vertebrae are elongated, strongly keeled, and markedly opisthocoelous, or concave behind and convex in front. The neural laminae are very broad, the spines almost obsolete, except in the seventh, and the transverse processes not largely developed. In the trunk vertebrae the opisthocoelous character of the centrum gradually diminishes. The spinous processes of the anterior thoracic region are high and compressed. To these is attached the powerful elastic ligament, ligamentum nuchoe, or “paxwax,” which passing forwards in the middle line of the neck above the neural arches of the cervical vertebrae, to which it is also connected, is attached to the occiput and supports the weight of the head. The transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae are long, flattened, and project horizontally outwards or slightly forward from the arch. The metapophyses are moderately developed, and there are no anapophyses. The caudal vertebrae, except those quite at the base, are slender and cylindrical, without processes and without chevron bones beneath. The ribs are eighteen or nineteen in number on each side, flattened, and united to the sternum by short, stout, tolerably well ossified sternal ribs. The sternum consists of six pieces; the anterior or praesternum is extremely compressed, and projects forwards like the prow of a boat. The segments which follow gradually widen, and the hinder part of the sternum is broad and flat.

As in all other ungulates, there are no clavicles. The scapula is long and slender; the supra-scapular border is rounded, and slowly and imperfectly ossified. The spine is very slightly developed; rather above the middle its edge is thickened and somewhat turned backwards, but it gradually subsides at the lower extremity without forming any acromial process. The coracoid is a prominent rounded nodule. The humerus is stout and rather short. The ulna is quite rudimentary, being only represented by little more than the olecranon. The shaft gradually tapers below and is firmly ankylosed to the radius. The latter bone is of nearly equal width throughout. The three bones of the first row of the carpus (the scaphoid, lunar, and cuneiform) are subequal in size. The second row consists of a very broad and flat magnum, supporting the great third metacarpal, having to its radial side the trapezoid, and to its ulnar side the unciform, which are both small, and articulate distally with the rudimentary second and fourth metacarpals. The pisiform is large and prominent, flattened, and curved; it articulates partly with the cuneiform and partly with the lower end of the radius. The large metacarpal is called in veterinary anatomy “cannon bone”; the small lateral metacarpals, which gradually taper towards their lower extremities, and lie in close contact v ith the large one, are called “splint bones.” The single digit consists of a moderate-sized proximal(os suffraginis, ox large pastern), a very short middle (os coronae, or small pastern), and a wide, semi-lunar, ungual phalanx (os pedis, or coffin bone). There is a pair of large nodular sesamoids behind the metacarpo-phalangeal articulation, and a single large transversely-extended sesamoid behind the joint between the second and third phalanx, called the “navicular bone.”

The carpal joint, corresponding to the wrist of man, is commonly called the “knee” of the horse, the joint between the metacarpal and the first phalanx the “fetlock,” that bet·ween the firstand second phalanges the “pastern,” and that between the second and third phalanges the “coffin joint.”

In the hinder limb the femur is marked, as in all other known perissodactyles, by the presence of a “third trochanter,” a flattened process, curving forwards, arising from the outer side of the bone, about one-third of the distance from the upper end. The fibula is reduced to a mere styliform rudiment of the upper end. The lower paι t is absent or completely fused with the tibia. The os calcis has a long and compressed calcaneal process. The astragalus has a large flat articular surface in front for the navicular, and a very small one for the cuboid. The navicular and the external cuneiform bones are very broad and flat. The cuboid is small, and the internal and middle cuneiform bones are. small and united together. The metapodals and phalanges resemble very closely those of the fore limb β but the principal metatarsal is more laterally compressed at its upper end than is the corresponding metacarpal.

The joint betweeu the femur and tibia, corresponding to the knee of man, is called the “stifle joint”; that between the tibia and tarsus, corresponding to the ankle of man, is called the “hock.” The bones and joints of the foot have the s une names as in the fore limb. The horse is eminently “digitigrade,” standing on the extremity of the single digit of each foot, which is kept habitually in a position approaching to vertical.

The muscles of the limbs are modified from those of the ordinary mammalian type in accordance with the reduced condition of the bones and the simple requirements of flexion and extension of the joints, no such actions as pronation and supination, or opposition of digits, being possible or needed. The muscles therefore which perform these functions in other quadrupeds are absent or rudimentary.

Below the carpal and tarsal joints, the fore and hind limbs correspond almost exactly in structure as well as function. On the anterior or extensor surface of the limb a powerful tendon (7 in fig. 5), that of the anterior extensor of the phalanges (corresponding to the extensor communis digitorum of the arm and extensor longus digitorum of the foot of man) passes down over the metacarpal bone and phalanges, to be inserted mainly into the upper edge of the anterior surface of the last phalanx or pedal bone. There is also a much smaller second extensor on the outer side of this in each limb, the lateral extensor of the phalanges. In the fore leg the tendon of this muscle (which corresponds with the extensor minimi digiti of man) receives a slip from that of the principal extensor, and is inserted into the first phalanx. In the hind leg (where it is the homologue apparently of the peroneus brevis of man) the tendon becomes blended with that of the large extensor.

A very strong ligamentous band behind the metapodium, arising from near the upper extremity of its posterior surface, divides into two at its lower end, and each division, being first connected with one of the paired upper sesamoid bones, passes by the side of the first phalanx to join the extensor tendon of the ph Ranges. This is called in veterinary anatomy the “suspensory ligament of the sesamoids,” or of the “fetlock” (10 in fig. 5); but its attachments and relations, as well as the occasional presence of muscular fibres in its substance, show that it is the homologue of the interosseous muscles of other mammals, curiously modified both in structure and function, to suit the requirements of the horse’s foot. Behind or superficial to this are placed the two strong tendons of the flexor muscles, the most superficial, or flexor perforatus (8), dividing to allow the other to pass through, and then inserted into the middle phalanx. The flexσr perforans (fl) is as usual inserted into the terminal phalanx. In the fore leg these muscles correspond with those similarly named in man. In the hind leg, the perforated tendon is a continuation of that of the plantaris, passing pulley-wise over the tuberosity of the os calcis. The perforating tendon is derived from the muscle corresponding with the long flexor of man, and the smaller tendon of the oblique flexor (tibialis porticus of man) is united with it.

The hoof of the horse corresponds to the nail or claw of other mammals, but is so constructed as to form a complete and very solid case to the expanded termination of the toe, giving a firm basis of support formed of a nonsensitive substance, which is continually renewed by the addition of material from within, as its surface wears away by friction against the ground. The terminal phalanx of the toe is greatly enlarged and modified in form to support this hoof, and the size of the internal framework of the foot is further increased by a pair of lateral fibro-cartilaginous masses attached on each side to the hinder edges of the bone, and by a fibro-cellular and adipose plantar cushion in the median part. These structures are all enclosed in the keratogenous membrane or “subcorneous integument,” a continuation of the ordinary derma of the limb, but extremely vascular, and having its superficial extent greatly increased by being developed into papillae or laminae. From this the horny material which constitutes the hoof is exuded. A thickened ring encircling the upper part, called coronary cushion (13), and the sole (15), are covered with numerous thickly-set papillae or villi, and take the greatest share in the formation of the hoof; the intermediate part constituting the front and side of the foot (14), corresponding with the wall of the hoof, is covered with parallel, fine longitudinal laminae, which fit into corresponding depressions in the inner side of the horny hoof.

The horny hoof is divided into a wall or crust consisting of the front and sides, the flattened or concave sole, and the frog, a triangular median prominence, notched posteriorly, with the apex turned forwards, situated in the hinder part of the sole. It is formed of pavement epithelial cells, which are mainly grouped in a concentric manner around the vascular papillae of the keratogenous membrane, so that a section near the base of the hoof, cut transversely to the long axis of these papillae, shows a number of small circular or oval orifices, with cells arranged concentrically round them. The nearer the surface of the hoof, or further removed from the seat of growth, the more indistinct the structure becomes.

Small round or oval plates of horny epithelium called “chestnuts,” growing like the hoof from enlarged papillae of the skin, are found on the inner face of the fore arm, above the carpal joint in all species of E guider, and in the horse (E. caballus') similar formations occur near the upper extremity of the inner face of the metatarsus. Their use is unknown.

Dentition.— The dentition of the horse, when all the teeth are in place, is, as stated before, expressed by the formula t. f, c. γ, p. ⅜, wι. ¾ = 44. The incisors of each jaw are placed in close contact, forming a semicircle. The crowns are broad, somewhat awl-shaped, and of nearly equal size. They have all the great peculiarity, not found in the teeth of any other mammal, and only in the Eguidoe of comparatively recent geological periods, of an involution of the external surface of the tooth (see fig. 6), by which what should properly be the apex is carried deeply into the interior of the crown, forming a fossa or pit, the bottom of which becomes partially filled up with crusta petrosa or cementum. As the tooth wears, the surface, besides the external enamel layer as in an ordinary simple tooth, shows in addition a second inner ring of the same hard substance surrounding the pit, which of course adds greatly to the efficiency of the tooth as an organ for biting tough, fibrous substances. This pit, generally filled in the living animal with particles of food, is conspicuous from its dark colour, and constitutes the “mark” by which the age of the horse is judged, as in consequence of its only extending to a certain depth in the crown it becomes obliterated as the crown wears away, and then the tooth assumes the character of that of an ordinary incisor, consisting only of a core of dentine, surrounded by the external enamel layer. It is not quite so deep in the lower as in the upper teeth.

The canines are either quite rudimentary or entirely absent in the female. In the male they are compressed, pointed, and smaller than the incisors, from which they are separated by a slight interval. The teeth of the molar series are all in contact with each other, but separated from the canines by a considerable toothless space. The anterior premolars are quite rudimentary, sometimes not developed at all, and generally fall by the time the animal attains maturity, so that there are but six functional grinding teeth,—three that have predecessors in the milk dentition, and hence are considered as premolars, and three true molars, but otherwise, except the first and last of the series, not distinguishable in form or structure. These teeth in both upper and lower jaws are extremely long-crowned or hypsidont, successive portions being pushed out as the surface wears away, a process which continues until the animal becomes advanced in age. The enamelled surface is infolded in a complex manner (a modification of that found in other perissodactyles), the folds extending quite to the base of the crown, and the interstices being filled and the surface covered with a considerable mass of cement, which binds together and strengthens the whole tooth. As the teeth wear, the folded enamel, being harder than the other constituents, the dentine and cement, forms projecting ridges on the surface arranged in a definite pattern, which give it great efficiency as a grinding instrument (see fig. 1, b and e). The free surfaces of the upper teeth are quadrate, except the first and last, which are nearly triangular. The lower teeth are much narrower than the upper.

The milk dentition consists of i. ∣ , c. ⅞, m. § = 24,—the canines and first or rudimentary premolars having apparently no predecessors. In form and structure they much resemble the permanent teeth, having the same characteris tic enamel foldings. Their eruption commences a few days after birth, and is complete before the end of the first year, the upper teeth usually appearing somewhat earlier than those of the lower jaw. The first teeth which appear are the first and second milk molars (about five days), then the central incisor (from seven to ten days); this is followed by the second incisor (at one month), then the third molar, and finally the third incisor. Of the permanent teeth the first true molar appears a little after the end of the first year, followed by the second’ molar before the end of the second year. At about two and a half years the first premolar replaces its predecessor. Between two and a half and three years the first incisor appears. At three years the second and third premola*s, and the third true molar have appeared, at from three and a half to four years the second incisor, at four to four and a half years the canine, and, finally, at five years, the third incisor, completing the permanent dentition. Up to this period the age of the horse is clearly shown by the condition of dentition, and for some time longer indications can be obtained from the wear of the incisor teeth, though this depends to a certain extent upon the hardness of the food or other accidental circumstances. As a general rule, the depression caused by the infolding of the surface of the incisor (the “mark ”) is obliterated in the first or central incisor at six years, in the second at seven years, and in the third at eight years. In the upper teeth, as the depressions are deeper, this obliteration does not take place until about two years later. After this period no certain indications can be obtained of the age of the horse from the teeth.

Digestive Organs.— The lips are flexible and prehensile. The membrane that lines them and the cheeks is quite smooth. The palate is long and narrow; its mucous surface has seventeen pairs of not very sharply defined oblique ridges, extending as far back as the last molar tooth, beyond which the velum palati extends for about 3 inches, having a soft corrugated surface, and ending posteriorly in an arched border without uvula. This embraces the base of the epiglottis, and, except while swallowing food, shuts off all communication between the cavity of the mouth and the pharynx, respiration being, under ordinary circumstances, exclusively through the nostrils. Between the mucous membrane and the bone of the hard palate is a dense vascular and nervous plexus. The membrane lining the fauces is soft and corrugated. An elongated raised glandular mass, 3 inches long and 1 inch from above downwards, extending backwards from the root of the tongue along the side of the fauces, with openings on the surface leading into crypts with glandular walls, represents the tonsil. The tongue, corresponding to the general form of the mouth, is long and narrow. It consists of a compressed intermolar portion with a flat upper surface, broad behind and becoming narrower in front, and of a depressed anterior part rather shorter than the former, and which is narrow behind and widens towards the evenly rounded apex. The dorsal surface generally is very soft and smooth. There are two large circumvallate papillae near the base, rather irregular in form, about a quarter of an inch in diameter and half an inch apart. The conical papillae are very small and close set, though longer and more filamentous on the intermolar portion. There are no fungiform papillae on the dorsum, but a few’ not very conspicuous ones scattered along the sides of the organ.

Of the salivary glands the parotid is by far the largest, and elongated in the vertical direction, and narrower in the middle than at either upper or lower extremity. Its upper extremity embraces the lower surface of the cartilaginous ear-conch; its lower end reaches the level of the inferior margin of the mandible, along the posterior margin of which it is placed. Its duct leaves the inferior anterior angle, at first descends a little, and runs forward under cover of the rounded inferior border of the mandibular ramus, then curves up along the anterior margin of the masseter muscle, becoming superficial, pierces the buccinator, and enters the mouth by a simple aperture apposite the middle of the cι∙ewn of the third premolar tooth. It is not quite so thick as a goosequill when distended, and nearly a foot in length.

The submaxillary gland is of very similar texture to the last, but much smaller; it is placed deeper, and lies with its main axis horizontal. It is elongated and slender, and flattened from within outwards. Its posterior end rests against the anterior surface of the transverse process of the atlas, from which it extends forwards and downwards, slightly curved, to beneath the ramus of the jaw. The duct which runs along its upper and internal border passes forwards in the usual course, lying in the inner side of the sublingual gland, to open on the outer surface of a distinct papillae, situated on the floor of the mouth, half an inch from the middle line, and midway between the lower incisor teeth and the attachment of the fraenum linguae. The sublingual is represented by a mass of glands lying just beneath the mucous membrane of the floor of the mouth on the side of the tongue, causing a distinct ridge, extending from the fraenum backwards, the numerous ducts opening separately along the summit of the ridge. The buccal glands are arranged in two rows parallel with the molar teeth. The upper ones are the largest, and are continuous anteriorly with the labial glands, the ducts of which open on the mucous membrane of the upper li P∙

The stomach of the horse is simple in its external form, with a largely developed right cul de sac, and is a good deal curved on itself, so that the cardiac and pyloric orifices are brought near together. The antrum pyloricum is small and not very distinctly marked off. The interior is divided by the character of the lining membrane into two very distinct portions, right and left. Over the latter the dense white smooth epithelial lining of the oesophagus is continued, terminating abruptly by a raised crenellated border. Over the right part (rather the larger portion) the mucous membrane has a greyish-red colour and a velvety appearance, and contains very numerous peptic glands, which are wanting in the cardiac portion. The oesophageal orifice is very small, and is guarded by a strong crescentic or rather horseshoe-like band of muscular fibres, which is supposed to be the cause of the difficulty of vomiting in the horse. The small intestine is of great length (80 to 90 feet), its mucous membrane being covered with numerous fine villi. The caecum is of conical form, about 2 feet long and nearly a foot in diameter; its walls are sacculated, especially near the base, having four longitudinal muscular bands; and its capacity is about twice that of the stomach. It lies with its base near the lower part of the abdomen, and its apex directed towards the thorax. The colon is about one-third the length of the small intestine, and very capacious in the greater part of its course. As usual it may be divided into an ascending, transverse, and descending portion; but the middle or transverse portion is folded into a great loop, which descends as low as the pubis; so that the colon forms altogether four folds, generally parallel to the long axis of the body. The descending colon is much narrower than the rest, and not sacculated, and, being considerably longer than the distance it has to traverse, is thrown into numerous folds.

The liver is tolerably symmetrical in its general arrangement, being divided nearly equally into segments by a well-marked umbilical fissure. Each segment is again divided by lateral fissures, which do not extend quite to the posterior border of the organ; of the central l*hes thus cut off, the right is rather the larger, and has two fissures in its free border subdividing it into lobules. The extent of these varies; however, in different individuals. The two lateral lobes are subtriangular in form. The Spigelian lobe is represented by a flat surface between the postal fissure and the posterior border, not distinctly marked off from the left lateral by a fissure of the ductus venosus, as this vessel is buried deep in the hepatic substance, but the caudate lobe is distinct and tongue-shaped, its free apex reaching nearly to the border of the right lateral lobe. In most works on the anatomy of the horse this has been confounded with the Spigelian lobe of man. There is no gall-bladder, and the biliary duct enters the duodenum about 6 inches from the pylorus. The pancreas has two lobes or branches, a long one passing to the left and reaching the spleen, and a shorter right lobe. The principal duct enters the duodenum with the bile-duct, and there is often a second small duct which opens separately near to this.

Circulatory and Respiratory Organs.— The heart has the form of a rather elongated and pointed cone. There is one anterior vena cava, formed by the union of the two jugular and two axillary veins. The aorta gives off a large branch (the anterior aorta) very near its origin, from which arise —first, the left axillary, and afterwards the right axillary and the two carotid arteries.

Under ordinary circumstances the horse breathes entirely by the nasal passages, the communication between the larynx and the mouth being closed by the velum palati. The nostrils are placed laterally, near the termination of the muzzle, and are large and very dilatable, being bordered by cartilages upon which several muscles act. Immediately within the opening of the nostril, the respiratory canal sends off on its upper and outer side a diverticulum or blind pouch (called “false nostril ”) of a conical form, and curved, 2 to 3 inches in depth, lying in the notch formed between the nasal and premaxillary bones. It is lined by mucous membrane continuous with that of the nasal passage, and its use is not apparent. It is longer in the ass than in the horse. Here may be mentioned the guttural pouches, large air sacs, diverticula from the Eustachian tubes, and lying behind the upper part of the pharynx, the function of which is also not clearly understood. The larynx has the lateral sacculi well developed, though entirely concealed within the alae of the thyroid cartilage. The trachea divides into two bronchi, one for each lung.

Nervous System.— The brain differs little, except in details of arrangement of convolutions, from that of other ungulates. The cerebral hemispheres are rather elongated and subcylindrical, the olfactory lobes are large and project freely in front of the hemispheres, and the greater part of the cerebellum is uncovered. The eye is provided with a nictitating membrane or third eyelid, at the base of which the ducts of the Harderian gland open.

Reproductive System.— The testes are situated in a distinct sessile or slightly pedunculated scrotum, into which they descend from the sixth to the tenth month after birth. The accessory generative glands are the two vesiculae seminales, with the median third vesicle, or uterus masculinus, lying between them, the single bilobed prostate, and a pair of globular Cowper’s glands. The penis is very large, cylindrical, with a truncated, expanded, flattened termination. When in a state of repose it is retracted, by a muscle arising from the sacrum, within the prepuce, a cutaneous fold attached below the symphysis pubis.

The uterus is bicornuate. The vagina is often partially divided by a membraneous septum or hymen. The mammae are two, inguinally placed. The surface of the chorion is covered evenly with minute villi, constituting a diffuse non-deciduate placenta. The period of gestation is eleven months.

Bibliography.— Μ. S. Arloiug, “Organisation du pied chez le cheval,” Aim. Sci. Nat., 1867, viii. pp. 55-81; H. Burmeister, Los caballos fosiles de la Pampa Argentina, Buenos Ayres, 1875; Chauveau and Arloing, Traité d’anatomie comparée des animaux domestiques, Paris, 1871, and English edition by G. Fleming, 1873; A. Ecker, “Das Europäische Wildpferd und dessen Beziehungen zum domesticirten Pferd,” Globus, Bd. xxxiv., Brunswick, 1878; Major Forsyth, “Beitrage zur Geschichte der fossilen Pferde besonders Italiens,” Abh. Schw. Pal. Ges., iv. pp. 1-16, pt. iv.; George, “Études zool. sur les Hémiones et quelques autres espèces chevalines,” Ann. Sei. Nat., 1869, xii. p. 5; E. F. Guilt, Anatomische Abbildungen der Haussäugethicre, 1824, and Hand, der vergleich. Anat. der Haussäiigethicre, 2 vols., 1822; Huet, “Croisement des diverses espèces du genre cheval,” Nouv. Archives du Muséum, 2d ser., tom. ii. p. 46, 1879; Leisering, Atlas der Anatomie des Pferdes, Leipsic, 1861; O. C. Marsh, “Notice of New Equine Mammals from the Tertiary Formation,” Am. Joum. of Science and Arts, vol. vii., March 1874; Id., “Fossil Horses in America,” Amer. Naturalist, vol. viii., May 1874; Id., “Polydactyle Horses,” Am. Journ. Sei. and Arts, vol. xvii., June 1879; Franz Müller, Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Pferdes, Vienna, 1853; R. Owen, “Equine Remains in Cavern of Bruniquel,” Phil. Trans., vol. dix. (1870), p. 535; W. Percivall, The Anatomy of the Horse, 18S2; G. Stubbs, Anatomy of the Horse, 1766. (W. H. F.)

PART II.—HISTORY, MANAGEMENT, AND BREEDING.

From the evidence of philology it is plain that the horse was already known to the Aryans before the period of their dispersion.

The first mention of the British horse occurs in the well-known passages inCaesar [Β. G., iv. 24, 33; v. 15, 16; cf. Pomp. Mela, iii. 6), in which he mentions the native “essedarii” and the skill with which they handled their war chariots. We are left quite in the dark as to the character of the animal thus employed; but there would appear to be much probability in the surmise of Youatt, who conjectures the horse to have been, “then as ever, the creature of the country in which he lived. With short fare, and exposed to the rigour of the seasons, he was probably the little hardy thing we yet see him; but in the marshes of the Nen and the Witham, and on the borders of the Tees and the Clyde, there would be as much proportionate development of frame and strength as we find at the present day.” After the occupation of the country by the Romans, it appears that the horses of their cavalry were crossed with the native mares, and thus there was infused into the breed new blood, consisting probably of strains from every quarter from which Roman remounts were procured. As to the effect of this cross we are not, however, in a position to judge. We are also quite uncertain as to the extent to which the Jutes and Saxons may in their turn have again introduced a new breed of horses into England; and even to the close of the Anglo-Saxon period of English history allusions to the horse are still very unfrequent. The horsthegn we know, however, was from an early period a high court official; and from such a 1 ιw as that of Athelstan prohibiting the exportation of horses except as presents, it may be inferred that the English breed was not only much valued at home but also in great request abroad.

The period of the Norman Conquest marks an important stage in the history of the British horse. William the Conqueror’s own horse was of the Spanish breed, and others of the same kind were introduced by the barons on their estates. But the Norman horses included many varieties, and there is no doubt that to the Conquest the inhabitants of Britain were indebted for a decided improvement in the native horse, as well as for the introduction of several varieties previously unknown. According to Giraldus Cambrensis, Roger de Bellesme, a follower of William I., afterwards created earl of Shrewsbury, imported some stallions from Spain into England; their produce was celebrated by Drayton the poet. It is curious to notice that agriculture seems to be the last use to which the horse has been put. The earliest suggestion that horses were used in agriculture is derived from a piece of the Bayeux tapestry, where a horse is represented as drawing a harrow. This, however, must have been an exceptional case, for we know that oxen were used until a comparatively late time, and that in Wales a law existed forbidding horses to be used for ploughing.

In 1121 two Eastern horses are said to have been imported,—one of them remaining in England, and the other being sent as a present by King Alexander I. to the church of St Andrews, in Scotland. It has been alleged that these horses were Barbs from Morocco, but a still more likely theory is that they existed only in name, and never reached either England or Scotland. The crusades were probably the means of introducing fresh strains of blood into England, and of giving opportunity for fresh crossings. The Spanish jennet was brought over about 1182. King John gave great encouragement to horse-breeding: one of his earliest efforts was to import a hundred Flemish stallions, and, having thus paved the way for improving the breed of agricultural horses, he set about acquiring a valuable stud for his own use.

Edward III. was likewise an admirer of the horse; he procured fifty Spanish horses, probably jennets. At this time there was evidently a tendency to breed a somewhat lighter and speedier horse; but, while the introduction of a more active animal would soon have led to the displacement of the ponderous but powerful cavalry horse then in use, the substituted variety would have been unable to carry the weight of armour with which horse and rider were alike protected; and so in the end the old breed was kept up for a time. With the object of preserving to England whatever advantages might accrue from her care and skill in breeding an improved stamp of horses, Edward III. forbade their exportation; they consequently improved so rapidly in value that Richard II. compelled dealers to limit their prices to a fixed maximum. In the ninth year of his reign, Edward received from the king of Navarre a present of two running horses, supposed to have been valuable. The wars of 1346 checked the improvement of horses, and undid much of what had been previously accomplished, for we read that the cavalry taken into France by Edward III. were but indifferently mounted, and that in consequence he had to purchase large numbers of foreign horses from Hainault aud elsewhere for remounts. The reign of Richard III. does not seem to have been remarkable for the furtherance of horse-breeding; but it was then that post-horses and stages were introduced.

Our information on the whole subject is but scanty down to the reign of Henry VIL, who continued the enactment against the exportation of stallions, but relaxed it in the case of mares above two years old. His object was to retain the best horses in the country, and to keep the price of them down by limiting the demand and encouraging the supply. In his reign gelding is believed to have had its origin, on account of numerous herds of horses belonging to different proprietors grazing together, especially in time of harvest. Henry VIII. was particularly careful that horse-breeding should be conducted on right principles, and his enactments, if somewhat arbitrary, were singularly to the point. In the thirty-second year of this reign, the “bill for the breed of horses” was passed, the preamble of which runs thus:—“Forasmuch as the generation and breed of good and strong horses within this realm extendeth not only to a great help and defence of the same, but also is a great commodity and profit to the inhabitants thereof, which is now much decayed and diminished, by reason that, in forests, chases, moors, and waste grounds within this realm, little stoned horses, and nags of small stature and of little value, be not only suffered to pasture thereupon, but also to cover mares feeding there, whereof cometh in manner no profit or commodity.” Section 2 of the Act provides that no entire horse being above the age of two years, and not being of the height of 15 “handfulls,” shall be put to graze on any common or waste land in certain counties; any one was to be at liberty to seize a horse of unlawful height, and those whose duty it was to measure horses, but who refused to do so, were to be fined 40s. By section 6 all forests, chases, commons, &c., were to be “driven” within fifteen days of Michaelmas day, and all horses, mares, and colts not giving promise of growing into serviceable animals, or of producing them, were to be killed. The aim of the Act was to prevent breeding from animals not calculated to produce the class of horse suited to the needs of the country. By another Act (27 Henry VIII. chapter 6), after stating that the “breed of good strong horses” was likely to diminish, it was ordered that the owners of all parks and enclosed grounds of the extent of one mile should keep two mares 13 hands high for breeding purposes, or, if the extent of the ground was four miles, four mares. The statute was not to extend to the counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Northumberland, or the bishopric of Durham. Henry took great pains to improve the royal stud: according to Sir Thomas Chaloner—a writer in the reign of Elizabeth—he imported horses from Turkey, Naples, and Spain.

Queen Elizabeth is reputed to have been an accomplished horsewoman, and to have indulged in riding late in life. In the first year of her reign she revived an Act passed by Henry VIII. making it felony “to sell, exchange, or deliver within Scotland, or to the use of any Scottishman, any horse;” this, however, was very naturally repealed by James I. Carriages were soon after introduced, and the use of them speedily became so fashionable that a bill was brought in “to restrain the excessive and superfluous use of ooaches.” Prior to the introduction of carriages, horseback was the means of locomotion, and Queen Elizabeth rode in state to St Paul’s on a pillion; but even after carriages were used, horseback was held to be more dignified, for James I. and his judges rode on horseback to Westminster Hall. One advantage of the introduction of carriages was that it created a demand for a lighter and quicker sort of horse, instead of the ponderous animal which, despite all attempts to banish him, was still the horse of England—the age of chivalry having been the first epoch of the British horse.

Gunpowder, too, was invented; and now that the weight of the cavalry soldier was diminished by the substitution of lighter armour, a quicker and better bred horse was thought desirable for military service. The introduction of carriages and the invention of gunpowder thus opened out a new industry in breeding; and a decided change was gradually creeping on by the time that James I. came to the throne (1603), which commences the second epoch. James was a thorough sportsman, and his taste for racing, in which he freely indulged, caused him to think but little of the speed of even the best English horses. With the laudable motive therefore of effecting improvement in horses, he gave the then large sum of 500 guineas for an Arab stallion which had been procured from Constantinople by a Mr Markham, since known as the “Markham Arabian.” This is the first authentic account we have of the importation of Arab blood, and the Stud-Book says he was the first of that breed ever seen in England. The people having to do with horses at that time were as conservative in their notions as most of the grooms are now, and the “Markham Arabian” was not at all approved of. The duke of Newcastle, in his treatise on horsemanship, said that he had seen the above Arabian, and described him as a small bay horse and not of very excellent shape. In this instance, however, prejudice (and it is difficult to believe that it was anything else) was right, for King James’s first venture does not appear to have been a success either as a race-horse or as a sire, and thus Arabian blood was brought into disrepute. The king, however, resolved to give Eastern blood another trial, and bought a horse known as Place’s White Turk from a Mr Place, who subsequently held some office in connexion with the stable under Cromwell. Charles I. followed in the footsteps of James, and lent such patronage to the breeding of a better kind of horse that a memorial was presented to him, asking that some measures might be taken to prevent the old stamp of horse “fit for the defence of the country” from dying out.

We now come to a very important period in the history of the British horse, for Charles II. warmly espoused the introduction of Eastern blood into England. He sent bis master of the horse abroad to purchase a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding, and the mares brought over by him (as also many of their produce) were called “royal mares”; they form a conspicuous feature in the annals of breeding. The Stud-Book shows of what breed the royal mares really were: one of them, the dam of Dodsworth (who, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb), was a Barb mare; she was sold by the studmaster, after Charles H.’s death, for forty guineas, at twenty years old, when in foal by the Helmsley Turk.

James II. was a good horseman, and had circumstances been more propitious he might have left his mark in the sporting annals of the country. In his reign, according to the Stud-Book, the Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the duke of Berwick from the siege of Buda.

The reign of William III. is noteworthy as the era in which, among other importations, there appeared the first of three Eastern horses to which the modern thoroughbred race-horse traces back as the founders of his lineage. This was the Byerly Turk, of whom nothing more is known than that—to use the words of the first volume of the Stud-Book— he was Captain Byerly’s charger in Ireland in King William’s wars. The second of the three horses above alluded to was the Darley Arabian, who was a genuine Arab, and was imported from Aleppo by a brother of Mr Darley of Aldby Park, Yorkshire, about the end of the reign of William III. or the beginning of that of Anne. The third horse of the famous trio, the Godolphin Arabian or Barb, brought to England about five and twenty years after the Darley Arabian, will be more particularly referred to further on. All the horses now on the turf or at the stud trace their ancestry in the direct male line to one or other of these three,—the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian or Barb. In the female line their pedigrees can be traced to other sources, but for all practical purposes it suffices to regard one or other of these three animals as the ultima Thule of racing pedigree. Of course there is a large interfusion of the blood of each of the trio through the dams of horses of the present day; indeed, it is impossible to find an English race-horse which does not combine the blood of all three.

The Thoroughbred.— The third and last epoch of the British horse, viz., that of the thoroughbred racer, may be taken to date from the beginning of the 18th century. By thoroughbred is meant a horse or mare whose pedigree is registered in the Stud-Book kept by Messrs Weatherby, the official agents of the Jockey Club—originally termed the keepers of the match-book—as well as publishers of the Racing Calendar. The first attempt to evolve order out of the chaos which had long reigned supreme was made in 1791, for we find in the preface of the first volume of the Stud-Book, published in 1808, that “with a view to correct the then increasing evil of false and inaccurate pedigrees, the author was in the year 1791 prevailed upon to publish an Introduction to a General Stud-Book, consisting of a small collection of pedigrees which he had extracted from racing calendars and sale papers and arranged on a new plan.” It will be seen that the compiler of the volume on which so much depends had to go back fully a century, with little else to guide him but odds and ends in the way of publications and tradition. Mistakes under such circumstances are pardonable. The Stud-Book then (vol. i.), which is the oldest authority we have, contains the names and in most cases the pedigrees, obscure though they may be, of a very large number of horses and mares of note from the earliest accounts, but with two exceptions no dates prior to the 18th century are specified in it. These exceptions are the Byerly Turk, who was “Captain Byerly’s charger in Ireland in King William’s Wars (1689, &c.),” and a horse called Counsellor, bred by Mr Egerton in 1694, by Lord D’Arcy’s Counsellor by Lord Lonsdale’s Counsellor by the Shaftesbury Turk out of sister to Spanker—all the dams in Counsellor’s pedigree tracing back to Eastern mares. There is not the least doubt that many of the animals named in the Stud-Book were foaled much earlier than the above dates, but we have no particulars as to time; and after all it is not of much consequence.

The Stud-Book goes on to say of the Byerly Turk that he did not cover many bred mares, but was the sire of the Duke of Devonshire’s Basto, Halloway’s Jigg, and others. Jigg, or Jig, is a very important factor, as will be seen hereafter. The Stud-Book, although silent as to the date of his birth, says he was a common country stallion in Lincolnshire until Partner was six years old— and we know from the same authority that Partner was foaled in 1718; we may therefore conclude that Jigg was a later foal than Basto, who, according to Whyte’s History of the Turf, was a brown horse foaled in 1703.

The reign of Queen Anne, however (1702 to 1714), is that which will ever be inseparably connected with the thoroughbred race-horse on account of the fame during that period of the Darley Arabian, a bay stallion, from whom our very best horses are descended. According to the Stud-Book, “Darley’s Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr Darley of Yorkshire, who, being an agent in merchandise abroad, became member of.a hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse.” The Stud-Book is silent, and other authorities differ, as to the date of the importation of this celebrated Arab, some saying he came over in the year 1700, others that he arrived somewhat la'ter; but we know from the Stud-Book that Manica (foaled in 1707), Aleppo (1711), Almanzor (1713), and Flying Childers (1715) were got by him, as also was Bartlett’s Childers, a younger brother of Flying Childers. It is generally believed that he was imported in Anne’s reign, but the exact date is immaterial, for, assuming that he was brought over as early as 1700 from Aleppo, he could scarcely have had a foal living before 1701, the first year of the 18th century. Thp Darley Arabian did much to remove the prejudice against Eastern blood which had been instilled into the public mind by the duke of Newcastle’s denunciation of the Markham Arabian. Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne, was himself a large horse-owner; and it was in a great measure owing to his intervention that so many valuable stallions were imported during her reign.

At this period we find, among a mass of horses and mares in the Stud-Book without any dates against their names, many animals of note with the earliest chronology extant, from Grey Ramsden (1704) and Bay Bolton (1705) down to a mare who exercised a most important influence on the English blood-horse. This was Roxana (1718) by the Bald Galloway, her dam sister to Chanter by the Akaster Turk, from a daughter of Leedes’s Arabian and a mare by Spanker. Roxana threw in 1732 the bay colt Lath by the Godolphin Arabian, the sorrel colt Roundhead by Childers in 1733, and the bay colt Cade by the Godolphin Arabian in 1734, in which year she died within a fortnight after foaling, the produce—Cade—being reared on cow’s milk. The Godolphin Barb or Arabian, as he was commonly called, was a brown bay about 15 hands in stature, with an unnaturally high crest, and with some white on his off hind heel. He is said to have been imported into England from France by Mr Coke, where, as the editor of the Stud-Book was informed by a French gentleman, he was so little thought of that he had actually drawn a cart in the streets of Paris. Mr Coke gave him to a Mr Williams, who in his turn presented him to the earl of Godolphin. Although called an Arabian, there is little doubt he was a Barb pure and simple. In 1731, being then the property of Mr Coke, he was teazer to Hobgoblin, and on the latter refusing his services to Roxana, the mare was put to the Godolphin, and the produce was Lath (1732), the first of his get, and the most celebrated race-horse of his day after Flying Childers. He was also the sire of Cade, own brother to Lath, and of Regulus the maternal grandsire of Eclipse. He died at Gogmagog in Cambridgeshire, in the possession of Lord Godolphin, in 1753, being then, as is supposed, in his twenty-ninth year. He is believed to have been foaled in Barbary about 1724, and to have been imported during the reign of George II.

In regard to the mares generally, we have a record of the royal mares already alluded to, and likewise of three Turk mares brought over from the siege of Vienna in 1684, as well as of other importations; but it is unquestionable that there was a very large number of native mares in England, improved probably from time to time by racing, however much they may have been crossed at various periods with foreign horses, and that from this original stock were to some extent derived the size and stride which characterized the English race-horse, while his powers of endurance and elegant shape were no doubt inherited from the Eastern horses, most of which were of a low stature⅛ 14 hands or thereabouts. It is only necessary to trace carefully back the pedigree of most of the famous horses of early times to discover faults on the side of the dam— that is to say, the expression “dam’s pedigree unknown,” which evidently means of original or native blood. Whatever therefore may be owing to Eastern blood, of which from the middle of the 17th to the beginning of the 18th century a complete wave swept over the British Isles, some credit is unquestionably due to the native mares (which Blaine says were mostly Cleveland bays) upon which the Arabian, Barb, or Turk blood was grafted, and which laid the foundation of the modern thoroughbred. Other nations may have furnished the blood, but England has made the race-horse.

Without prosecuting this subject further, it may be enough here to follow out the lines of the Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk, and the Godolphin Arabian or Barb, the main ancestors of the British thoroughbred of the 18th and 19th centuries, through several famous race-horses, each and all brilliant winners,—Flying Childers, Eclipse, Herod, and Matchem,—to whom it is considered sufficient to look as the great progenitors of the race-horse of to-day.

1. The Darley Arabian’s lineis represented in a twofold degree— first, through his son Flying Childers, .his grandsons Blaze and Snip, and his great-grandson Snap, and, secondly, through his other son Bartlett’s Childers and his great-great-grandson Eclipse. Flying or Devonshire Childers, so called to distinguish him from other horses of the same name, was a bay horse of entirely Eastern blood, with a blaze in his face and four white feet, foaled in 1715. He was bred by Mr Leonard Childers of Carr House near Doncaster, and was purchased when young by the duke of Devonshire. He was got by the Darley Arabian from Betty Leedes, by Careless from sister to Leedes, by Leedes’s Arabian from a mare by Spanker out of a Barb mare, who was Spanker’s own mother. Spanker himself was by D’Arcy’s Yellow Turk from a daughter of the Morocco Barb and Old Bald Peg, by an Arab horse from a Barb mare. Careless was by Spanker from a Barb mare, so that Childers’s dam was closely in-bred to Spanker. Flying Childers—the wonder of his time— was never beaten, and died in the duke of Devonshire’s stud in 1741, aged twenty-six years. He was the sire of, among other horses, Blaze (1733) and Snip (1736). Snip too had a celebrated son called Snap (1750), and it is chiefly in the female line through the mares by these horses, of which there are fully thirty in the Stud-Book, that the blood of Flying Childers is handed down to us.

The other representative line of the Darley Arabian is through Bartlett’s Childers, also bred by Mr Leonard Childers, and sold to Mr Bartlett of Masham, in Yorkshire. He was for several years called Young Childers,—it being generally supposed that he was a younger brother of his Flying namesake, but his date of birth is not on record,—and subsequently Bartlett’s Childers. This horse, who was never trained, was the sire of Squirt (1732), whose son Marske (1750) begat Eclipse and Young Marske (1762), sire of Shuttle (1793). This at least is the generally accepted theory, although Eclipse’s dam is said to have been covered by Shakespeare as well as by Marske. Shakespeare was the son of Hobgoblin by Aleppo, and consequently the male line of the Darley Arabian would come through these horses instead of through Bartlett’s Childers, Squirt, and Marske; the Stud-Book, however, says that Marske was the sire of Eclipse. This last-named celebrated horse—perhaps the most celebrated in the annals of the turf—was foaled on the 1st of April 1764, the day on which a remarkable eclipse of the sun occurred, and he was named after it. He was bred by the duke of Cumberland, after whose decease he was purchased by a Mr Wildman, and subsequently sold to Mr D. O’Kelly, with whom he will ever be identified. His dam Spiletta was by Regulus, son of the Godolphin Barb, from Mother Western, by a son of Snake from a mare by Old Montague out of a mare by Hautboy, from a daughter of Brimmer and a mare whose pedigree was unknown. In Eclipse’s pedigree there are upwards of a dozen mares whose pedigrees are not known, but who are supposed to be of native blood. Eclipse was a chestnut horse with a white blaze down his face; his off hind leg was white from the hock downwards, and he had black spots upon his rump—this peculiarity coming down to the present day in direct male descent. His racing career commenced at five years of age, viz., on the 3d May 1769, at Epsom, and terminated on the 4th October 1770, at Newmarket. He ran or walked over for eighteen races, and was never beaten. It was in his first race that Mr O’Kelly took the odds to a large amount before the start for the second heat, that he would place the horses. When called upon to declare, he uttered the exclamation, which the event justified, “Eclipse first, and the rest nowhere.”

Eclipse commenced his stud career in 1771, and had an enormous number of foals, of which four only in the direct male line have come down to us, viz., Potoooooooo, or, as he is commonly called, Pot-8-os (1773), his most celebrated son, King Fergus (1775), Joe Andrews (1778), and Mercury (1778), though several others are represented in the female line. Pot-8-os was the sire of Waxy, (1/90) out of Maria (1777) by Herod out of Lisette (1772) by Snap. Waxy, who has been not inaptly termed the ace of trumps in the SOιd-Book, begat Whalebone (1807), Web (1808), Woful (1809), Wire (1811), Whisker (1812), and Waxy Pope (1806), all but the last being out of Penelope (1798) by Trumpator (1782) from Prunella (1788) by Highflyer out of Promise by Snap, while Waxy Pope was out of Prunella, dam of Parasol (1800) by Pot-8-os. Trumpator was a son of Conductor, who was by Matchem out of a mare by Snap.

Whalebone’s best sons were Camel (1822) and Sir Hercules (1826). Camel was the sire of Defence (1824) and Touchstone (1831), while Sir Hercules was the sire of Birdcatcher (1833) and Faugh-a-Ballagh (1841), own brothers, and of Gemma di Vergy(1854). Touchstone was the sire of Newminster (1848), who begat Lord Clifden, Adventurer, and the Hermit, as well as of Orlando (1841) sire of Teddington (1848). Whalebone’s blood also descends through Waverley (1817) and his son the Saddler (1828), while Whisker is represented by the Colonel (1825) and by Economist (1825) and his son Harkaway (1834), sire of King Tom (1851). Birdcatcher begat, besides Saunterer (1854), the Baron (1842), sire of Stockwell (1849) and of Rataplan (1850). Stockwell, who was a chestnut with black spots, was the sire of Blair Athol (1861), a chestnut, and also of Doncaster (1870), another chestnut, but with the characteristic black spots of his grandsire; and Doncaster was the sire of the chestnut Bend Or (1877).

To turn to Eclipse’s other sons. King Fergus (1775) was the sire of Beningbrough (1791), whose sou was Orville (1799), whence comes some of the stoutest blood on the turf, including Emilius (1820) and his son Priam (1827), Plenipotentiary (1831), Muley (1810), Chesterfield (1834), and the Hero (1843). Joe Andrews (1778) was the sire of Dick Andrews (1797), and from him descend Tramp (1810), Lotteιy (1820), Liverpool (1828), Sheet Anchor (1832), Lanercost (1835), Weatherbit (1842), Beadsman (1855), and Blue Gown (1865). Mercury was sire of Gohanna (1790), who was foaled in the same year as Waxy, and the two, who were both grandsons of Eclipse and both out of Herod mares, had several contests, Waxy generally getting the better of his cousin. Gohanna’s descendants come down through Golumpus (1802), Catton (1809), Mulatto (1823), Royal Oak (1823), and Slane (1833).

2. The Byerly Turk’s line is represented by Herod, the Turk being the sire of Jigg, who was the sire of Partner (1718), whose son Tartar (1743) begat King Herod, or Herod as he was commonly called, foaled in 1758. Herod’s dam was Cypron (1750) by Blaze (1733), son of Flying Childers. Cypron’s dam was Selima by Bethel’s Arabian from a mare by Graham’s Champion from a daughter of the Darley Arabian and a mare who claims Merlin for her sire, but whose mother’s pedigree is unknown. In Herod’s pedigree there are fully a dozen dams whose pedigree is unknown. Herod was a bay horse about 15 hands 3 inches high, possessed both of substance and length,—those grand requisites in a race-horse,—combined with uncommon power and stamina or lasting qualities. He was bred by William, duke of Cumberland, uncle of King George III. He commenced his racing career in October 1763, when he was five years old, and ended it on the 16th of May 1767. He ran ten times, winning six and losing four races. He diedin 1780, and among other progeny left two famous sons, Woodpecker (1773), whose dam was Miss Ramsden (1760) by Cade, son of the Godolphin Barb, but descended also on the dam’s side from the Darley Arabian and the Byerly Turk, and Highflyer (1774), whose dam was Rachel (1763) by Blank, son of the Godolphin Barb from a daughter of Regulus, also son of the Godolphin. These two horses have transmitted Herod’s qualities down to the present day in the direct male line, although in the female line he is represented through some of his other sons and his daughters as well. Woodpecker was the sire of Buzzard (1787), who in his turn became the father of three celebrated sons, Castrel (1801), Selim (1802), and Rubens (1803), all three chestnuts, and all out of an Alexander mare (1790), who thereby became famous. This mare was by Eclipse’s son Alexander (1782) out of a mare by Highflyer (son of Herod) out of a daughter of Alfred, by Matchem out of a daughter of Snap. Bustard (1813), whose dam was a daughter of Shuttle, and his son Heron (1833), Sultan (1816) and his sons Glencoe (1831) and Bay Middleton (1833) and Middleton’s sons Cowl (1842) and the Flying Dutchman (1846), Pantaloon (1824) and his son Windhound (1847), Langar (1817) and his son Epirus (1834) and grandson Pyrrhus the First (1843), are representatives of Castrel and Selim.

Highflyer is represented through his greatly esteemed son Sir Peter Teazle, commonly called Sir Peter (1784), whose dam was Papillon by Snap. Sir Peter had five sons at the stud, Walton (1790), Stamford (1794), and Sir Paul (1802) being the chief.

Paulowitz (1813), Cain (1822), Ion (1835), Wild Dayrell (1852), and his son Buccaneer (1857) bring down Sir Paul’s blood; whilst Walton is represented through Phantom (l·806), Partisan (1811) and his sons Glaucus (1829) and Venison (1833) and Gladiator (1833), Venison’s sons Alarm (1842) and Kingston (1849), Gladiator’s son Sweetmeat (1842), Sweetmeat’s sons Macaroni (1860) and Parmesan (1857), and Parmesan’s sons Favonius (1868) and Cremorne (1869). It may be added that in the first volume of the Stud-Book there are nearly a hundred Herod and Highflyer mares registered.

3. The” Godolphin Barb is represented by Matchem, as the former was the sire of Cade (1734), and Cade begat Matchem, who was foaled in 1748. He was thus ten years the senior of Herod, representing the Byerly Turk, and sixteen years before Eclipse, though long subsequent to Flying Childers, who represent the Darley Arabian. Matchem was a brown bay horse with some white on his off hind heel, about 15 hands high, bred by Sir John Holme of Carlisle, and sold to Mr W. Fenwick of Bywell, Northumberland. His dam was sister to Miss Partner (1735) by Partner out of Brown Farewell by Makeless (son of the Oglethorpe Arabian) from a daughter of Brimmer out of Trumpet’s dam, by Place’s White Turk from a daughter of the Barb Dodsworth and a Layton Barb mare; while Brimmer was by D’Arcy’s Yellow Turk from a royal mare. Matchem commenced his racing career on the 2d of August 1753, and terminated it on 1st September 1758. Out of thirteen engagements he won eleven and lost two. He died in 1781, aged thirty-three years. His best son was Conductor (1767) out of a mare by Snap; Conductor was the sire of Trιιmpator (1782), whose two sons, Sorcerer (1790) and Paynator (1791), transmit the blood of the Godolphin down to modern times. Sorcerer was the sire of Soothsayer (1808), Comus (1809), and Snιolensko (1810). Comus was the sire of Humphrey Clinker (1822), whose son was Melbourne (1834), sire of West Australian (1850) and of many valuable mares, including Canezou (1845) and Blink Bonny (1854), dam of Blair Athol. Paynator was the sire of Dr Syntax (1811), who had a celebrated daughter called Beeswing (1833), dam of Newminster by Touchstone.

The gems of the three lines may be briefly enumerated thus: —(1) of the Darley Arab’s line—Snap, Shuttle, Waxy, and Orville— the stoutest blood on the turf; (2) of the Byerly Turk’s line—Buzzard and Sir Peter—speedy blood, the latter the stouter of the two; (3) of the Godolphin Barb’s line—Sorcerer—often producing large-sized animals, but showing a tendency to die out, and becoming rare.

On the principle that as a rule like begets like, it has been the practice to select as sires the best public performers on the turf, and of two horses of like blood it is sound sense to choose the better as against the inferior public performer. But there can be little doubt that the mating of mares with horses has been often pursued on a haphazard plan, or on no system at all; to this the Stud-Book testifies too plainly. Recently more attention seems to be paid to the successful blending of certain strains of blood, though it cannot be said that more than two or three really first class horses are produced each year. The following is a list of the principal sires whose progeny find a place among the winners of the three great races, the Derby (D), Oaks (O), and St Leger (L) :—

Eclipse : Young Eclipse (D), Saltram (D), Sergeant (D), Annette (O).

Herod : Bridget (O), Faith (O), Maid of the Oaks (O), Phenomenon (L).

Matchem : Teetotum (0), Hollandaise (L).

Floτizcl (son of Herod): Diomed (D), Eager (D), Tartar (L), Ninety-three (L).

Highflyer·. Noble (D), Sir Peter Teazle (D), Skyscraper (D), Violante (0), Omphale (L), Cowslip (L), Spadille (L), Young Flora (L).

Pot-⅛-os : Waxy (D), Champion (D, L), Tyrant (D), Nightshade (0). Sir Beter (D): Sir Harry (D), Archduke (D), Ditto (D), Paris (D), Hermione (O), Parasite (0), Ambrosio (L), Fyldener (L), Paulina (L), Petronius (L).

Waxy (D): Pope (D), Whalebone (D), Blucher (D), Whisker (D), Music (0), Minuet (0), Corinne (0).

Whalebone (D): Moses (D), Lapdog (D), Spaniel (D), Caroline ∖O). Woful: Augusta (0), Zinc (0), Theodore (L).

Whisker (D): Memnon (L), The Colonel (L). Phantom : Cedric (D), Middleton (D), Cobweb (0). Orville (L): Octavius (D), Emilius (D), Ebor (L). Tramp·. St Giles (D), Dangerous (D), Barefoot (L).

Emilius (D): Priam (D), Plenipotentiary (D), Oxygen (0), Mango (L).

Priam (D): Miss Seitz (0), Industry (0), Crucifix (0).

Sir Hercules : Coronation (D), Faugh-a-Ballagh (L), Birdcatcher (L). Touchstone (L): Cotherstone (D), Orlando (D), Surplice (D, L), Mendicant (O), Blue Bonnet (L), Newminster (L).

Birdcatcher (L): Daniel O’Rourke (D), Songstress (0), Knight of St George (L), Warlock (L), The Baron (L).

The Baron (L): Stockwell (L).

Melbourne : West Australian (D, L), Blink Bonny (D, 0), Sir Tatton Sykes (L).

Newminster (L): Musjid (D), Hermit (D), Lord Clifden (L). Sweetmeat : Macaroni (D), Mincemeat ^O), Mincepie (()).

Stockwell (L): Blair Athol (D, L), Lord Lyon (D, L), Doncaster (D),

Regalia (O), St Albans (L), Caller Ou (L), The Marquis (L), Achievement (L).

King Tom : Kingcraft (D), Tormentor (0), Hippia (0), Hannah (0, L).

Rataplan (son of the Baron): Kettledram (D).

Monarque·. Gladiateur (D, L).

Parmesan (son of Sweetmeat): Favonius (D), Cremorne (D). Buccaneer : Kisber (D), Formosa (0, L), Brigantine (0).

Lord Clifden (L): Jannette(O, L), Hawthornden (L), Wenlock (L)

Petrarch (L). κ "

Adventurer : Pretender (D), Apology (0, L), Wheel of Fortune (0). Blair Athol (D, L): Silvio (D, L), Craig Millar (L).

The successes of the St Leger winners, the Baron and his son Stockwell and his grandson Blair Athol, as well as of Touchstone and his son Newminster and his grandsons Lord Clifden and Adventurer, as stud horses, are more marked than perhaps those of any others in the annals of the turf, except Waxy and his descendants, of whom Whalebone is perhaps the best. Indeed the most successful cross of modern times is the double cross of Whalebone, the “ready money” cross as it is called, which is arrived at by intermixing the descendants of Whalebone through Sir Hercules, Birdcatcher, the Baron, Stockwell, Rataplan, Camel, Touchstone, Newminster, and Adventurer. Is.onomy, by Sterling, son of Oxford by Birdcatcher, is a case in point; he is one of the best and best bred horses of the century. He has no less than five strains of Whalebone and seven of Waxy in his pedigree, as well as one of Shuttle, the scarcest blood of all.

In regard to mares it has very frequently turned out that animals which were brilliant public performers have been far less successful as dams than others which were comparatively valueless as runners. Beeswing, a brilliant public performer, gave birth to a good horse in Newminster; the same maybe said of Alice Hawthorn, dam of Thormanby, of Canezou, dam of Fazzoletto, of Crucifix, dam of Surplice, and of Blink Bonny, dam of Blair Athol; but many of the greatest winners have dropped nothing worth training. On the other hand, there are mares of little or no value as racers who have become the mothers of some of the most celebrated horses on the turf; among them we may cite Queen Mary, Pocahontas, and Paradigm. Queen Mary, who was by Gladiator out of a daughter of Plenipotentiary and Myrrha by Whalebone, when mated with Melbourne produced Blink Bonny (winner of the Derby and Oaks); when mated with Mango and Lanercost she produced Haricot, dam of Caller Ou (winner of the St Leger). Pocahontas, perhaps the most remarkable mare in the Stud-Book, never won a race on the turf, but threw Stockwell and Rataplan to the Baron, son of Birdcatcher, King Tom to Harkaway, Knight of St Patrick to Knight of St George, and Knight of Kars to Nutwith—all these horses being 16 hands high and upwards, while Pocahontas was a long, low mare of about 15 hands or a trifle more. She also gave birth to Ayacanora by Birdcatcher, and to Araucaria by Ambrose, both very valuable brood mares, Araucaria being the dam of Chamant by Mortemer, and of Rayon d’Or by Flageolet, son of Plutus by Touchstone. Paradigm again produced, among several winners of more or less celebrity, Lord Lyon (winner of the Two Thousand Guineas, Derby, and St Leger) and Achievement (winner of the St Leger), both being by Stockwell. Another mare that has become famous was Manganese (1853) by Birdcatcher from Moonbeam by Tomboy from Lunatic by the Prime Minister from Maniac by Shuttle. Manganese when mated with Rataplan threw Mandragora, dam of Apology, winner of the Oaks and St Leger, whose sire was Adventurer, son of Newminster. She also threw Mineral, who, when mated with Lord Clifden, produced Wenlock, winner of the St Leger, and after being sold to go to Hungary, was there mated with Buccaneer, the produce being Kisber, winner of the Derby. It is usual to select sound, roomy mares, giving preference to those that are comparatively speaking low and long, and whose temper and disposition are good, of course paying strict attention to their blood, more especially if breeding from such large horses as the sons of Pocahontas.

We append the pedigree of Blair Athol, winner of the Derby and St Leger in 1864, who, when subsequently sold by auction, fetched the unprecedented sum of 12,000 guineas, as it contains, not only Stockwell (the emperor of stallions, as he has been termed), but Blink Bonny and Eleanor—in which latter animal are combined the blood of Eclipse, Herod, Matchem, and Snap,—the only two mares that have ever won the Derby, in 1801 and 1857 respectively, as well as those queens of the stud, Eleanor’s great-granddaughter Pocahontas and Blink Bonny’s dam Queen Mary. Both Eleanor and Blink Bonny won the Oaks as well as the Derby, and it may be observed that they are the only winners of the former race that appear in the pedigree. [table]

The shape of a race horse is of considerable importance, although it is said with some degree of truth that they win in all shapes. There are the neat and elegant animals, like the descendants of Saunterer and Sweetmeat; the large-framed, plain-looking, and heavy-headed Melbournes, often with lop ears; the descendants of Birdcatcher, full of quality, and of more than average stature, though sometimes disfigured with curby hocks; and the medium-sized but withal speedy descendants of Touchstone, though in some cases characterized by somewhat loaded shoulders. In height it will be found that the most successful racers average from 15 to 16J hands, the former being considered somewhat small, while the latter is unquestionably very large; the mean may be taken as between 15∣ and 16 hands (the hand = 4 inches). The head should be light and lean, and well set on; the ears small and pricked, but not too short; the eyes full; the forehead broad and flat; the nostrils large and dilating; the muzzle fine; the neck moderate in length, wide, muscular, and yet light; the throat clean; the windpipe spacious and loosely attached to the neck; the crest thin, not coarse and arched. The withers may be moderately high and thin; the chest well developed, but not too wide or deep; the shoulder should lie well on the chest, and be oblique and well covered with muscle, so as to reduce concussion in galloping; the upper and lower arms should be long and muscular; the knees broad and strong; legs short, flat, and broad; fetlock joints large; pasterns strong and of moderate length; the feet should be moderately large, with the heels open and frogs sound —with no signs of contraction. The body or barrel should be moderately deep, long, and -straight, the length being really in the shoulders and in the quarters; the back should be strong and muscular, with the shoulders and loins running well in at each end; the loins themselves should have great breadth and substance, this being a vital necessity for weight-carrying and propelling power uphill. The hips should be long and wide, with the stifle and thigh strong, long, and proportionately developed, and the hind quarters well let down. The hock should have plenty of bone, and be strongly affixed to the leg, and show no signs of curb; the bones below the hock should be flat, and free from adhesions; the ligaments and tendons well developed, and standing out from the bone; the joints well formed and wide, yet without undue enlargement; the pasterns and feet similar to those of the forehand. The tail should be high set on, the croup being continued in a straight line to the tail, and not falling away and drooping to a low set tail. Fine action is the best criterion of everything fitting properly, and all a horse's points ought to harmonize or be in proportion to one another, no one point being more prominent than another, such as good shoulders, fine loins, or excellent quarters. If the observer is struck with the remarkable prominence of any one feature, it is probable that the remaining parts are deficient. A well-made horse wants dissecting in detail, and then if a good judge can discover no fault with any part, but finds each of good proportions, and the whole to harmonize without defect, deformity, or deficiency, he has before him a well-shaped horse; and of two equally well-made and equitably proportioned horses the best bred one will be the best. As regards hue, the favourite colour of the ancients, according to Xenophon, was bay, and for a long time it was the fashionable colour in England; but for some time chestnut thoroughbreds have been the most conspicuous figure on English race-courses, so far as the more important events are concerned. Eclipse was a chestnut; Castrel, Selim, and Rubens were chestnuts; so also were Glencoe and Pantaloon, of whom the latter had black spots on his hind quarters like Eclipse, and more recently Stockwell and Doncaster. Birdcatcher was a chestnut, so also were Stockwell and his brother Rataplan, Manganese, Mandragora, Thormanby, Kettledrum, St Albans, Blair Athol, Regalia, Formosa, Hermit, Marie Stuart, Doncaster, George Frederick, Apology, Craig Millar, Prince Charlie, Rayon d’Or, and Bend Or. The dark browns or black browns, such as the Sweetmeat tribe, are not so common as the bays, and black or grey horses are almost as unusual as roans. The skin and hair of the thoroughbred are finer, and the veins which underlie the skin are larger and more prominent than in other horses. The mane and tail should be silky and devoid of curl, which is a sign of impurity.

Whether the race-horse of to-day is as good as the stock to which he traces back has often been disputed, chiefly no doubt because he is brought to more early maturity, commencing to win races at two years instead of at five years of age, as in the days of Childers and Eclipse; but the highest authorities, and none more emphatically than the late Admiral Rous, aver that he can not only stay quite as long as his ancestors, but also go a good deal faster. In size and shape the modern race-horse is unquestionably superior, being on an average fully a hand higher than the Eastern horses from which he is descended; and in elegance of shape and beauty of outline he has certainly never been surpassed. That experiments, founded on the study of his nature and properties, which have from time to time been made to improve the breed, and bring the different varieties to the perfection in which we now find them, have succeeded, is best confirmed by the high estimation in which the horses of Great Britain are held in all parts of the civilized world; and it is not too much to assert that, although the cold, humid, and variable nature of their climate is by no means favourable to the production of these animals in their very best form, Englishmen have by great care, and by sedulous attention to breeding, high feeding, and good grooming, with consequent development of muscle, brought them to the highest state of perfection of which their nature is capable. See the section on Horse-Racing, p. 199.

The Hunter.— A good specimen of an English hunter may be described as a horse for universal use. He may be a coach-horse, for in many of the animals running in the coaches called into existence during the summer months by the coaching revival may be recognized a hunter of known character; he may be a good roadster, for, so far as conformation is concerned, there is nothing in a hunter to unfit him from being a first-class hack; nor is hunting incompatible with military duties, for, by the regulations of the service, officers are permitted to hunt their second chargers. For harness work he is perfectly adapted, provided only the vehicle to be drawn is in proportion to his size; while most people will recall instances of hunters having for some reason or other to be so far humbled as to have to take a turn at the plough or harrow, or, in their older days, even in a chaff-cutter. A hunter may be either thoroughbred or halfbred. In the grass countries, such as Leicestershire or Northamptonshire, riders to hounds endeavour to get their hunters as nearly clean bred as possible; but, in spite of this ambition, it may be doubted whether one in twenty, even in the most fashionable countries, is thoroughbred, thereby proving that a thoroughbred hunter, although undoubtedly a luxury, is not a virtual necessity. When it can be acquired, a thoroughbred hunter that knows his business is a most desirable possession, save perhaps in a rough country, where his fine skin shrinks from contact with the objects therein encountered. The comparative scarceness of these animals is, however, easily accounted for. From 12 to 14 stone is by no means an uncommon weight for a man to ride hunting, saddle included, but few thoroughbreds are up to it; one that is commands a large price, from <£250 upwards, according to “manners.” It is often said that thoroughbreds do not make pleasant hunters, but the complaint, if there is any ground for it at all, is really against the result of the treatment to which nineteen out of twenty thoroughbreds have to submit, and not against pure blood itself. A large proportion of thoroughbred stock come to the starting-post at two years old; and this means that they have been in the trainer’s hands since they were yearlings at least. Now a training stable is just the place for colts to pick up sundry undesirable tricks, which may at some future time cause the unprofessional rider a little trouble; they get to lean on the hand, often turn out fidgety and fractious, and are not unfrequently inveterate pullers. When fit to go, the young one will have been tried, and if he fails to gallop half a mile at best pace he is probably turned out of training, although perhaps it was not till the last dozen yards were reached that there was any sign of failing power. Now, although the colt may be unable to stand the test applied to him by the trainer, there is no reason at all why he should not be able to go all day at hunting pace, because the powers of speed are not taxed to the same degree. The young thoroughbred is then perhaps educated for hunting; and hence it is that nearly all hunters—thoroughbred ones, that is to say—begin life in a training stable. Instances are comparatively rare of persons breeding thoroughbred stock and then keeping them for hunting purposes. The ranks of hurdle-racers and steeple-chasers too are filled by thoroughbred horses, which but for these interventions come under the care of the hunting groom.

The halfbred hunter, as he is technically called, may be, and is, a very good substitute for the thoroughbred; he may have nineteen-twentieths of pure blood in his veins, and still be only “halfbred.” Perhaps seven-eighths of pure blood is about the average for high-class horses; but, taking English hunters all round, the majority are halfbred in a more literal sense, being for the most part by a horse nearly, if not quite, thoroughbred, out of a common mare. It is much to be regretted that the breeding of halfbred hunters is too often neglected altogether, or at least conducted on haphazard principles. Many men take it into their heads to breed a colt simply because they have a mare which, owing to age or accident, is no longer fitted for active work; and then, be the mare good, bad, or indifferent, there is little or no judgment exercised in the choice of a sire. Nearly all country places are periodically visited by travelling stallions, many of which are utterly worthless, but nevertheless the services of one of them are probably secured by the intending breeder simply because of the saving of trouble. He forgets that there is but little difference between the charge for a good and that for a bad horse, and finds, when the offspring is ready for sale, that the result of his happy-go-lucky system remains on his hands for lack of a buyer, and costs as much to keep as a valuable animal. Very often, too, a man who has expected to breed a hunter will find himself the owner of a fairly promising colt for a brougham, but having hoped for a hunter he is unwilling to believe it anything else.

Compare this method of setting to work with that adopted by breeders of thoroughbred stock, and indeed by all judicious breeders. To begin with, the choice of a dam is a matter of moment; and it is difficult to see why anything should be thought good enough for a hunter, even by the inexperienced. The first requisite for a brood-mare is that she should be free from all constitutional infirmities, such as roaring, bad sight, &c.; and the breeder should be on his guard when breeding from mares whose legs have given way. True, it may be the result of an accident, but care should be taken to ascertain that it arose from that cause, and that a predisposition to inflammation had nothing to do with it For the same reason persons should be chary of breeding from mares that have splints, spavins, <fcc., and should certainly reject one whose dam or sire had them as well. Mares that have done much hard work are not the best dams that can be selected, as they are apt to slip their foals, or to throw undersized ones. The selection of a stallion is the more important the more defects there are in the mare. Should she be the least delicate, the stallion should be remarkable for a hardy constitution, for considering that a hunter has to be out of his stable for as much as twelve hours sometimes, and rarely less than seven or eight, and has to carry a heavy weight and gallop and jump, it is plain that a horse with no stamina would be nearly worthless as a hunter, no matter what other good qualities he might possess. So, too, as to shape: should the mare be too long on the leg or in the back, or too low in front, the stallion should be singularly free from the defect in question.

While the mare is in foal she should be kept on the best food, for the nourishment given to her is given indirectly to the foal. The keep of the foal in its early days is not less important than the choice of dam and sire. Thoroughbred colts eat corn from the time they are a month or five weeks old; and the same generous diet should be allowed to halfbred horses, as it is only by this, accompanied of course by proper exercise, that the frames of young horses expand to their full extent, or that a foundation is laid for a good constitution. This system is, of course, more expensive than keeping a colt on hay and grass during the first three years of his life, but it will repay itself in the long run, for very.often under its influence a colt will develop into a weight-carrying hunter or valuable carriage horse, where, under more parsimonious treatment, he would never have grown into anything strong enough to carry over 11 or 12 stone.

The breaking and training of hunters is all-important, because, in spite of the care that may have been expended upon the choice of sire and dam and the keep of the colt, many young ones are ruined beyond all hope of recovery during this process. The colt should be handled from the day of its birth, so that it may grow thoroughly accustomed to man, without ever having experienced the feeling of fear. The person selected to attend on mares and foals, as well as he that undertakes the training part, should be naturally fond of animals; he should be cool, and of an almost imperturbable temper, or he will be unfitted to deal with the waywardness of some of his pupils, which during their early career may at times expose him to personal danger, especially if they be well bred; he should therefore be well endowed with courage and firmness, for an irresolute man is sure to spoil every horse he has to do with.

When about six months old the colt should receive his first lesson in jumping. Where practicable, there is no better plan than to feed him in one spot, the approach to which is guarded by a stout rail, which should in the first instance lie on the ground, and over which he must step in order to reach his corn. In the course of about a month the rail may be raised 6 inches, and so on from time to time, but the process should be gradual in the extreme; 2 or 3 inches a month is sufficient until it is a couple of feet high, where it should remain for a time, but at three years the colt should jump it at 3 feet. Before he reaches this age the saddle should have been put on and left there for half an hour at a time, the groom letting the girths and stirrups flap about. At three years the pupil should be backed by a light weight; if the rider be the usual attendant, so much the better, for then it is improbable that much resistance will be shown. The riding exercise should be varied by the young horse being led by a rather long rein over roughish ground, such as a common or a ploughed field, when it is not too hard, and over little ditches and ver^ low fences, but they must be small, as it is very undesirable to have a horse refuse at first, or to have him fall down in attempting a jump. He should be subsequently ridden over small places, but should always have a lead given to him by an old horse; and the two should stand in adjoining boxes, so that the colt may be accustomed to his pilot. At four years old he may be ridden to the meet, and suffered to see a fox found, but should on no account be ridden up to the hounds, nor should he be used as a regular hunter till he is six,—if not till seven it'will be all the better for him.

In the hunting field there are three kinds of jumps at which many refusals and falls take place. The first is timber, the second water or wide open ditches, and the third a hedge with a ditch on the taking off side. As to timber jumping, the course we have just recommended is the best possible preparation; in jumping the rail, the colt begins early to exercise, and therefore to strengthen, the very muscles he will want by and by in jumping a gate,— if his owner ever rides him at one. A further course of instruction in this most useful art may be given in a “circus,” that is, a double row of posts and rails in a circle about the size of a circus ring. Between the two sets a couple of strong timber jumps should be put up, one of about 3 feet and the other of about 3 feet 6 inches in height; the horse is then put into the space between the two rails, one person standing in the centre holding a lunge rein, while an assistant is present with a whip, which should, however, be used but sparingly. Really good water jumpers are so scarce that it would well repay the owner of a promising young one to teach him, or have him taught, this most important part of a hunter’s business. If a small watercourse can be found handy, it will do for a commencement; the colt should, in his early days, be led over this; and, if possible, the place should be widened gradually, and the water dammed up, the colt being always lunged over it before being ridden, and when ridden led over by an old horse. The same course should be pursued in the case of dry ditches, and hedges with a ditch on the taking off side, both of which must be jumped boldly, if the rider wish to keep his place with hounds. This gradual teaching, and the trouble it undoubtedly entails, may sound too theoretical to some who are desirous of turning out a finished hunter in the space of six weeks; but it is to this hurrying, and the substitution of coercive measures for time and gentleness, that we are to attribute the number of indifferent hunters we find. Every hunting man knows the enormous prices realized by really clever hunters; and these animals are simply ordinary horses on whose education much trouble has been expended.

Qualifications for a Hunter.— Of horses equally good jumpers, and equally fast, that will be most valuable which can gallop and jump with the greatest weight on his back. Very good horses for 10 or 11 stone can be obtained at any time, and at a moderate price, but a horse up to weight will always fetch a large sum. Whatever weight has to be carried, mere size must not be confounded with power; a horse 16⅛ hands high is not necessarily a weight carrier. A compact well-knit frame is of primary importance; and although it is a task of great difficulty to explain the points of a horse on paper, the intending buyer may with advantage have his attention drawn to some of the more important requisites. To cross a country well, the hunter must have long and oblique shoulders; and, in the case of a weight carrier, they should be rather thick. Should the reader have any difficulty in deciding what oblique shoulders are, he may get some assistance from putting a saddle on a horse, setting it of course in the right place, and then looking at the horse from a side view. Should the horse have good shoulders, the stirrup leather will hang down at some distance behind the forelegs; but if, on the other hand, the shoulders be upright, the stirrups will be comparatively close to the forelegs, and, on mounting, the rider will find himself sitting over the legs instead of behind them. Care should be taken, however, that the shoulder is well clothed with muscle. The chest should be broad; narrow horses are supposed to be faster, but under weight they knock their legs about. The arm must be long, and of course muscular, the knee wide, the “cannon bone” (ι'.e., the bone between the knee and the fetlock) short, and the legs flat, with strong back sinews. The foot should be moderately wide, and have good strong heels, or they will not stand the battering about that falls to the lot of even the most carefully ridden hunter.

The chest must be deep (otherwise the horse will in all likelihood be a short-winded one), and as a consequence the girth will be great; a weight carrier should measure 6 feet 3 inches in condition round the barrel, just where the girth comes. A horse with a well-developed frame, and of large girth, is generally a short-legged horse, as it is called, not that the legs are really shorter—very short legs are a deformity—but the body is not too small in proportion to the height of the leg.

It is commonly said that the back of a weight carrier must be short; but this does not mean that the horse should be short from the chest to the tail, for he should have much of his length in his shoulders and quarters. For very heavy men, the back proper should not be long; but, as a matter of fact, few horses are found the length of whose back would be adjudged perfection. A moderate length of back is essential to pace, and on this question the late Major Whyte Melville writes as follows :—“It may not be out of place here to observe, as an illustration of the well-known maxim ‘ Horses can go in all shapes,’ that of the three heaviest men I can call to mind who rode perfectly straight to hounds, the best hunter owned by each was too long in the back.” The loins should be strong, and the hips wide; if ragged they will be none the worse.

The hind legs are most important, not only because the seat of the propelling power is there, but also because they affect the carriage of the animal, and the way in which he yields to his rider’s hand. The thigh should be long and muscular, the hock well bent, and not bending inwards, when the horse is called “cow-liocked,” nor outwards, like a bandy-legged man. The shank bone should be well guarded by strong sinews, and the pasterns moderately long, and by no means straight. Horses with straight, short pasterns are rough to ride, and ill adapted to stand hard work.

So far, then, as the body is concerned, strong legs, wide hips, depth of girth, and a short back, or, more properly, a back not too long, are all important; but it must be remembered that, beyond a certain point, the development of any extraordinary strength is accompanied by a loss of speed, therefore very heavy men must be content to be carried by an animal not unlike an active cart-horse, for a well-bred horse capable of galloping and jumping under 18 stone is rarely seen, and the few that do exist cannot be acquired except at an enormous outlay.

When a man gets on a horse to try him, the formation and the carriage of the head and neck have a great deal to do with the subsequent purchase or rejection of him. If appearance be a sine qua non, the head should be small, but, except for the look of the thing, the size is immaterial, provided it be well set on to a properly shaped neck, the characteristics of which will be presently explained. The jaws should be wide, as also should the head between the ears. The nostrils, through which alone a horse breathes, should be moderately large, otherwise free respiration will be interfered with. The eye should be bright and full, but not unduly prominent; small pig-like eyes are nearly certain indications of bad temper. The neck should rise out of the shoulders in an easy curve, and be neither very long nor very short; muscular it must be, and the principal muscle is the one running along the top of the neck; a muscular development here is usually accompanied by muscular proportions generally. The strength of the neck is important, because upon this the position of the head depends, and if the head be wrongly placed, the horse will never go pleasantly to the hand; indeed, of such moment is the position of the head that a horse is often unmanageable when his head is in an improper position, although he is easy of control when it is in the right place. A short-necked horse is sure to make the rider carry its head, because, from the lower part being thick, as it must be where it springs from the shoulder, the head cannot be set on at a proper angle. It has been said that a long neck is productive of the same inconvenience, but the better opinions are hostile to this theory, and experience does not tend to convince one that a longnecked horse is necessarily heavy in the hand.

A hunter should have a good mouth, and should not pull,—both which matters depend a good deal upon the rider,—and should not be given to shying. He should, however, be naturally bold, or he may refuse any fence of an uninviting appearance. Good temper is an absolute necessity. A strong and resolute rider may put up with a puller, in consideration of many good points, but a bad-tempered horse is of no use in the field, as he is sure to lose his rider his place in a run; moreover, a horse that will be wanted all day cannot afford to lose his temper and take what is equal to half an hour’s work out of himself at every turn or check, or at every gate-post that may be encountered during the day.

Whatever number of good points a hunter may possess, they will all be utterly valueless unless he be sound into the bargain. There are two kinds of soundness, practical and legal. A horse is not legally sound, that is to say, he is legally unsound, if there is any structural alteration, however slight, in any part of his body, though it may not unfit him in any degree for the immediate performance of his duties. To be legally sound, a horse must be in the same perfect state as when foaled; and each reader must determine for himself how often this can be found in a field of say one hundred horses. To be practically sound, a horse must have nothing the matter with him that is likely to interfere with his duties as a hunter, and he can be in this condition without being legally sound. For instance, suppose aman, after buying a horse warranted sound, take off the shoes and find the smallest possible corn, which would never· be felt, nor diminish the value by one penny, that horse is not legally sound, because the corn, small as it is, is held to be a structural alteration; so, too, a pimple on the body where the saddle would cover it is an unsoundness in a hunter while it lasts, if it prevents the saddle from being put on. A temporary cough is also an unsoundness; so is lameness caused by being pricked during shoeing; yet for some of these no man in the world would reject a good hunter. It need hardly be added that any enlarged joints, or other tokens of work, prevent a horse from being legally sound. On the other hand a horse, if not actually lame, is legally sound although its legs are so badly formed that the merest tyro could predict lameness as the inevitable result of half an hour’s journey.

As to the wind and eyes, however, a hunter should be legally and absolutely sound. The usual method of testing the wind by punching the horse or pinching the windpipe is not quite satisfactory; the horse should be galloped. The amateur will do well to get the best veterinary surgeon within reach to examine the eyes of any horse he contemplates buying. Cataract, in its incipient stage, is so difficult to discover that it escapes the notice of any but the most practised person. With regard to the feet and legs, the buyer will have to rest satisfied with an assurance that bis horse is practically sound; for of really sound horses there are not two in a hundred.

The Purchase of a Hunter.— The nature of the country in which the horse is to be used should be the intending purchaser’s first consideration, because upon it will depend the stamp of animal required, and it is advisable, if possible, to get a horse that has been used to the prevalent style of fences. Where the fields are large and strongly enclosed with what are called flying fences, nothing is better than a horse which is nearly or quite thoroughbred; but if the enclosures are small, and separated from each other by banks, with or without hedges on the top, and with a ditch on one or both sides, a rather more compact horse will not only be more suitable, but cheaper into the bargain. A horse intended for Leicestershire, or any other grass country, must be nearly thoroughbred, and not under 15 3, or he would be blown before he had crossed half a dozen of the big fields there; while a little horse would take too much out of himself at each fence. But for Devonshire, Surrey, Essex, or Sussex, where the fields are small and the fencing for the most part what is called cramped, a horse with less blood and of smaller stature will answer every purpose, and, what is a great consideration, can be bought for about one-third of the price of a Leicestershire horse. So too a horse unaccustomed to water would be useless in Lord Fitzhardinge's country, nor would a bad timber jumper show to advantage with the Blackmoor Vale hounds. Whatever stamp of horse is used, however, the points we have insisted on must exist: good shoulders, back, loins, legs, hocks, and feet are needed in every hunting country in the United Kingdom.

The horse may be purchased either at auction, from a private person, or from a dealer. The first method is not to be recommended unless the buyer or his agent be a good judge of a horse, or unless one or the other happen to know something of the antecedents of any lot intended to be purchased. Few real bargains are picked up at the hammer. Horses of known character, especially if comprised in a stud, always fetch their full value; and to buy a horse of which nothing is known is simply to take part in a lottery. Buying from a private person is not always a satisfactory proceeding, even when the performances of the horse are known. People entertain different ideas as to what constitutes unsoundness: and in many cases the groom is the only person who knows that there is a screw loose somewhere, and what that screw is. Purchasing from a dealer requires some little knowledge. Some men trade only in the highest class of horses, and must perforce ask long prices to afford a fair margin of profit to cover the original outlay, coupled with the expense of schooling and keep. Others again make a specialty of “useful” animals at a moderate price. The buyer’s success in either case will, to a great extent, depend upon how he goes to work. The best course is to select a dealer who has a name to lose, and to tell him at once the kind of horse that is wanted, and about the price the purchaser is willing to pay. The dealer will then offer whatever horses he can sell at the price, and the buyer can take or reject them as he pleases.

Formerly a warranty of soundness by the seller was a necessary factor in every horse sale; but now warranties are going out of fashion, many of the leading dealers refusing altogether to give one. Nor is this surprising when the effect of a warranty is looked at; no lapse of time puts an end to a warranty. The seller of a yearling may have an action brought against him in four years’ time, and, if the jury can be got to believe that the unsoundness complained of existed at the time of sale, the buyer will win. In giving a warranty, the seller of a horse insures, as it were, the care and skill of the buyer, and may have to suffer for selling a sound horse which ignorance and carelessness reduced to the level of a screw in six months.

There is also a limited warranty; that is, the dealer may be willing to warrant the horse for one month, or fourteen days, or for any other fixed period. In this case, the dealer only warrants against such defects as may be discovered within the stipulated time. This kind of warranty should be looked at with some amount of suspicion. It is very often given with a horse that might not pass the veterinary surgeon, and that has some defect of which the dealer knows, which renders it problematical whether he will keep sound for any lengthened period. With a limited warranty the horse often escapes the veterinary surgeon’s inspection; he lasts sound for a short time, and then goes lame, the time of the limited warranty having meanwhile expired.

The most satisfactory and at present perhaps the most usual course of business is for a horse to be sold subject to a veterinary examination and a trial. A skilful man should discover all symptoms of what may be called external unsoundness, while as to disease of the liver, or any internal complaint, if the veterinary surgeon cannot discover it there is no reason why the dealer should have been able to find it out. The trial the. buyer will probably make himself, and, if with hounds, it will be well to ascertain what condition the horse is in. An animal just out of a dealer’s show stable would have neither his muscles nor his wind in a state that would enable him to live with hounds ten minutes, even at a moderate pace. Early symptoms of distress therefore, under such circumstances, should not of themselves prompt the rejection of a horse, if he is satisfactory at starting, and if his physical structure is that of a hunter. The age of the horse is determined by the appearance of the teeth till he is seven years old, but the legs are as good a test as anything. Many a horse at five years old is often worth less as a hunter than one of ten or twelve years old, owing either to a natural want of stamina or to premature overwork. If the legs show much signs of work, and if the joints are round and big, the money paid should as a rule differ materially from a “sound price.’’ Not that perfectly fresh legs can be expected in aged horses, particularly if good performers; but there is a point below which “honourable scars” should be looked upon as an objection, unless the buyer intend to have a “screw.”

The Hock.— Lender the term “hack” may be ranked cover hack, park hack, cob, pony, and, in short, saddle horses of all kinds save hunters and racers.

The park hack, as its name implies, is for use in fashion-frequented places, and must therefore be worth looking at. Fashion has prescribed that the genuine thing shall be about 14 3, with a small and well set-on head, good sloping shoulders, and well formed hind legs; he must also be very well bred. So much for his points. A wonderfully good temper is absolutely essential. Street vehicles give but little place to the equestrian, and a series of hurried retreats out of harm’s way might ruffle a horse of uncertain temper and not hard worked into the bargain. Tricks of all sorts must be unknown; a whole week’s idleness should not produce any uncalled-for gambols. The park hack’s breeding and shape will probably have endowed him with a fair turn of speed; this is not a necessity, providing his walk and trot be perfection. He should be able to walk 5 miles in an hour, or he will be perpetually breaking into an uncomfortable jog when required to keep pace with a quick walking companion. In trotting he should have good but not extravagant action, and. if he is equally easy whether going 5^ or 9 miles per hour, he is one of twenty. He should be bitted to a nicety, and should have been thoroughly well trained. Especial care should be exercised in the selection of the lady’s horse; and the perfection which is so often theoretical in the case of a gentleman’s hack should approach a reality when a horse is intended to carry a lady. With regard to the size, it had better not be under 15 1 at the least, and should have very good shoulders and by no means a short neck, or else the rider will experience that uncomfortable sensation of having nothing in front of the saddle.

The cob is a nondescript animal, but withal a very valuable one when good. An underbred thickset animal, termed a “stocky” horse in some parts of England, is not the fashionable cob, which should have a good deal of breeding and the strength of a dray horse. Although a cob should not exceed 14 , 1,he should be master of 15 stone, being generally ridden by elderly heavy persons. To be worth a large sum he must unite to a symmetrical shape an even temper, perfect manners, and easiness in his paces. “If any one,” says a writer in the Field, “possesses a cob up to ) G stone, who can walk 4 miles an hour and trot 12, with a good mouth and amiable disposition, who fears nothing, and never stumbles, let him, if a rich man, keep him, he will not get another such in a hurry; if a poor one, let him, in offering him for sale, fear not to ‘open his mouth’ boldly, and demand for him a price which shall make a difference in his (the owner’s) year’s income; for people must, and usually are ready to, pay for their fancies, and a good cob, as already remarked, is, of all the equine race, essentially a fancy article, and one too for which the demand is always brisk.”

A Galloway, although strictly speaking a distinct breed, is commonly understood to be a horse not over 14 hands. Prior to the introduction of railways, or even before the fast coaches were put upon the road, Galloways were a favourite means of locomotion by persons of moderate weight and stature.

A pony must be less than 52 inches (13 hands) from the ground to the top of the withers; else he is a Galloway. Ponies, as a rule, will do far more work than a full-sized horse; they improve wonderfully in a well organized stable; they are, it is said, never lame in the feet, and seldom become roarers; but, as a set off against these good points, they are often very tricky, and sometimes troublesome in the stable. In proof of the powers of endurance possessed by ponies, it is related that a well known one, 12 hands high, called Sir Teddy, raced the mail from London to Exeter, beating it by 59 minutes, and doing the 172 miles in 23 hours and 28 minutes. The extraordinary little animal was led between two other horses all the way, and carried no weight.

The chief use of the cover hack is to take the rider to the meet, usually at the unnecessarily hasty pace of 10 to 12 miles an hour, at which rate the hack should be able to go with tolerable ease to himself and great ease to his rider. He should be from 14 to 15 hands in size, and should, in fact, be a somewhat undersized light-weight hunter. Although the cover hack will generally be asked to canter or gallop, he may be required to trot, and this must be done at 9 or 10 miles per hour. To accomplish this he must have good hind action, but in front he should waste no time by picking up his feet after the showy manner of his park brother; in fact, appearance is not of much importance so long as the necessary working qualifications exist. A good temper is desirable, and, although the cover hack need not have such a perfect mouth as the London horse, he should be by no means a puller.

The breeding of hacks, like breeding for any particular stamp of horse, is all chance work, especially in the case of halfbreds. A rather small thoroughbred horse and a hackney mare may produce a thing like a pony, or a bigger animal that is quite useless for saddle work. Even in breeding for hunters, two or perhaps three out of five colts will grow up more fitted for the shafts than for a bridle. Perhaps the generality of hacks are either thoroughbreds which have been turned out of training, or horses that have grown up too small for hunting purposes.

The Charger and Troop-Horse.— These are bracketed together because their training and duty are nearly identical (the charger of a field officer of an infantry regiment need only be a decent saddle horse that will stand fire), the chief difference between the two being that the latter being paid for by the country is ordinarily a cheaper article than the former, which the officer buys for himself.

A charger, fit for the mounted arm of the service, is a difficult article to meet with, at least a perfect one is, because so many good qualities must be found combined. A hunter is capital raw material out of which to make a charger; but appearance, which is not a sine qua non in a hunter, is indispensable in a charger, which must also have high action, though the paces must be easy in consequence of much riding having to be done without stirrups. The best size for a charger or a trooper is about 15 ’ 2 or 15 3; moderate-sized horses can be made more handy than larger ones, and experience seems to show that they are more hardy and better doers than horses of greater stature. When a horse has been found that for shape and size will do for a charger, he must be of the right colour for the regiment, if it be de rigueur to have any particular colour, and he must be passed as sound by the regimental veterinary surgeon.

The troop-horse must be as much like the charger as possible, but, as the trooper’s price is limited to about £40, a difference, and that a very striking one, must always exist. The bulk of the troop-horses are bought when rising four years, having of course been passed by the veterinary surgeon; and, being nourished on the best food, these often develop into well-grown animals by the time they take their place in the ranks. Before that time comes, however, there is a good deal to be done in the way of training, for no matter how quiet the four year old may be to ride, or how. well he may have been broken from a civilian’s point of view, he is no more fitted for cavalry purposes, until he has passed through the rough rider’s hands, than if he had never been handled at all.

The young horse’s presence at barracks shows that both the colonel and the regimental veterinary surgeon are satisfied with him. Lunging constitutes the first part of his education, after which he is ridden. Now comes the formation of the paces, instruction in passaging, i.e., walking sideways on a pressure by the rider’s leg on the side opposite to that towards which the horse is required to move, and in reining back. All these things are done with the snaffle only; and, when something like familiarity with these exercises has been acquired, the bit is used. The troop-horse goes more on his haunches than a civilian’s horse, and, while he is taught to walk at a fairly quick pace, the canter is practised as slowly as possible. Then comes jumping practice over the bar; and finally sword, carbine, or lance exercise is performed by his rider, and he is ridden first at drill practice, then at ordinary drills, and last of all on a field day.

As the cavalry soldier has to use his weapons with one hand, he has only one for the reins; and this renders it important first that the horse should be so broken that the rider can effect with his leg or heel what civilians do with the second hand, and next that the horse should be well under the control of a single hand. As before remarked, the position of the head makes a great difference in the ease with which the horse can be governed, and as troopers have all to do the same things in the saddle, it follows that they should as far as possible all ride the same sort of horses; accordingly all troop-horses are trained to carry their heads as nearly as possible in one position, that being chosen in which the angle formed by the head and neck gives most power to the rider.

Harness Horses.— Just as a hunter is metamorphosed into a hack by using a sharper bit and riding him on the road, so the mere fact of driving a horse in harness makes him a harness horse, whether he really be hack, hunter, or charger. Carriages are now made of endless patterns and of all sizes, so that there is not a saddle horse to be found that could not be accommodated with something adapted to his appearance and powers. Perhaps the only class of harness horses except cart horses that are not fitted for saddle work are the regular heavy carriage horses—great upstanding animals 16⅜ or 17 hands high. These are generally bay, and are bred in Yorkshire or abroad. They are purchased at three years old by the few dealers who trade in them, and are brought to town; where they are carefully driven about by an experienced breaksman until they are well used to the sights and sounds of London, and have action and strength enough to go to regular work. One well-known firm of dealers never sells these horses, but jobs them, the charge for a year varying from £80 to £120 for a pair, according to the value, the hirer of course keeping them, but having the right to call upon the dealers to send a fresh horse to replace one that may fall sick or become lame or fail to give satisfaction to the hirer. During the London season many of these pairs may be seen in the carriages of the titled and the wealthy. They are imposing-looking animals owing to their great size and to the massiveness of the harness, but when closely examined they exhibit many faults. Their heads are often large, shoulders straight, and hind legs defective in power. They are not a very profitable stamp of horse to have much to do with; they must have a certain amount of action, and this on the London stones soon knocks to pieβes legs that are not particularly calculated to withstand wear and tear in the first instance; and it very often happens that during breaking a horse’s legs show signs of failing, and he has to be thrown up for a while. Carriage horses are of course not always bay; but greys, chestnuts, and browns are not of any distinct breed.

A really well-matched pair, with good action, are worth a long price; and it is most unreasonable for persons, after selecting their horses no less with an eye to their natural good appearance than for other qualities, to persist in making them carry themselves in a highly unnatural position, by the grossly unnatural use of the bearing rein, which is buckled up cruelly short. If a carriage horse carried his head naturally in the position into which it is forced by the abuse of this contrivance, he would be rejected at once; tight reining up is the cause of many horses becoming roarers.

With regard to harness horses of a smaller size, their ranks may be recruited from the class that supplies hunters and hacks; but straight and loaded shoulders and straight hind legs, unpardonable defects in a saddle horse, are not quite so objectionable behind the collar. Phaeton horses should have moderately high action, and be compactly built, and should not exceed 15 1, unless the vehicle be very high on the wheel. Stage coaching, as a trade, no longer exists in England, but, during the summer months, many well-appointed coaches are put on different roads to places within a day’s journey, not only from London, but elsewhere. For this work the leaders are generally about 15’2, and the wheelers an inch higher; they should all have good sound legs and feet, and free but not high action; the wheelers should have plenty of strength for the exertion required of them in going down hill.

The Cart-Horse.— At the present time it is difficult to classify cart-horses,· and to point to any distinct breeds. The true Cleveland horse is practically extinct, and the animal now called a Cleveland bay bears but a slight resemblance to his ancestors. The old Cleveland horses were noted for their strength; they are said to have carried a weight of 760 ft>, or more than 54 stone, a distance of 60 miles in 24 hours. The old Suffolk Punch, originally descended from Norman stallions and Suffolk cart mares, is also extinct, the modern representative of that breed being the result of different crossings; he is found of two different kinds, light and heavy. The Clydesdale horse is well adapted for use in a hilly country. It derives its name from a district on the Clyde in Scotland, whither it was introduced by one of the dukes of Hamilton, who crossed the Lanark mares with imported Flemish stallions.

The native English cart-horse is a huge animal, usually of a black colour, and stands about 17 hands high and more. These horses are bred chiefly but not solely in Lincolnshire. At two years old they are generally sold by the breeder, who thus is enabled to secure a fair profit at an early period. They are at once put to gentle work by the first purchaser, and so earn something towards their keep. During this period they are well fed, and when they have attained their fourth year they are made up for the market, by being fed with oilcake, grains, and other fattening food, besides oats. When their preparation is finished, they find purchasers at a sum sometimes exceeding .£100.

The use of these very heavy horses is now chiefly confined to brewers’ drays, to contractors’ trollies for conveying blocks of stone, and for drawing carts containing building materials, and heavy iron work, such as boilers, parts of bridges, &c. From their great size they require a large amount of food; and, although occasionally useful for drawing heavy weights, they are being gradually displaced by a lighter and more active horse.

Stable Management.

In treating of this part of the subject, it is assumed that the stable is in a healthy situation, for in an unhealthy one trouble or expense will be simply thrown away. Horses dislike bad smells; the drainage of the stable should therefore be well looked to, and the traps should be as far from the stable as circumstances will permit. The pit for the reception of the manure and foul litter, which should be constantly removed, should also be some distance from the stable.

Stalls should not be less than 6 feet wide; if 3 inches more can be had so much the better. The partitions should be long enough to prevent horses kicking each other, and high enough, towards the head, to prevent them biting one another. Some authorities recommend that the partitions be so arranged that horses cannot see each other; it makes them restless they say. The soundness of this advice is open to question: it may perhaps hold good with regard to race-horses; but the horse is fond of company, and certainly horses that are driven together, or ridden in company, seem to like the society of their fellows in the stable, while, as already stated, a stable companion is useful to lead young horses over fences in their early attempts at leaping.

In dealers’ stables the floor of the stalls often slopes considerably from front to back. This makes a horse look bigger than he really is, but it throws all the strain of supporting the body on to the back tendons, and should not be permitted in private stables. A fall of 2 j inches is more than enough for the purposes of draining.

As regards the internal arrangements, especial care should be paid to light, ventilation, and temperature. A sufficient amount of light is indispensable for the health of the horse. Horses, like men, are greatly influenced by surroundings, and, considering the number of hours in the week spent indoors, a horse can no more thrive in a dark stable than a man in a dark room. Moreover, a horse brought out of a dark stable is much more likely to shy than one whose eyes had not been dazzled by the sudden change from dark to light. Dark stables were once thought to be conducive to good feeding, and to making a horse lie down, but the idea is now exploded. The horse owner may here be warned against seeking to make up for a. deficiency of natural light by having the whole of the interior of the stable whitewashed. To the height of 7 feet from the ground the walls should be coloured with some neutral tint, that the horse’s eyes may not be injured by the glare inseparable from whited walls. Dark stables encourage carelessness in the groom, the result being an accumulation of dirt; and, even if the stableman be an honest worker, he cannot see to clean the floors and corners properly unless light be freely admitted to the building.

In the ventilation of stables many theories have been propounded, and many appliances suggested, but most of thelatter have failed from letting in cold currents to a greater extent than they let out the foul air. In nineteen cases out of twenty, the ventilation of private stables consists of holes in the brickwork. In using these it will be found advisable to have thin pieces of zinc, with felt edging to prevent noise, and with easy working hinges, nailed outside the wall, to act as valves; then should the wind set from the quarter in which the ventilators are situated, the zinc coverings will be blown against the apertures, and the entrance of cold currents to any great extent thereby hindered. When the stable is empty, doors and windows should be thrown open if the weather allow it to be done without reducing the temperaturetoo much. These remarks on ventilation apply chiefly to smaller stables built in the vicinity of a dwelling house; in the case of stables built in open spaces, for the reception of a large stud, recourse will generally be had to the advice of a civil engineer on the question of ventilation, but even then experience has shown that the difficulty -will not be wholly overcome. The apertures in the walls for the escape of foul air, which, being lighter than fresh, ascends, should in no case be less than 7 feet from the ground. If the ventilators are lower than this there will be a current of cold air blowing on the horse’s body, which would be injurious at all times, but especially when the horse comes in warm from work.

Temperature is of course an important matter, but chiefly so during the colder portions of the year. In summer it is all but impossible to keep stables cool when the thermometer is standing at 80 3 Fahr, in the shade; still if the situation is favourable to coolness, and the temperature can be kept below 70°, so much the better. During the hunting season, stables may be too warm by accident or from design: they may be overheated owing to insufficient ventilation, or because the groom connects a glossy coat with a stable bordering on tropical heat. About 55° Fahr, is a good mean temperature, but this cannot of course be maintained when the outside air is some 10 or 15 degrees higher; the most that can be done is to keep the temperature up to that point in cold weather A moderate temperature and moderate clothing are better than too low a temperature with excessive covering, or too high a temperature with but little clothing.

Having mentioned clothing incidentally, it may here be said that the best shape is the ordinary sheet, cut out at the neck, and buckled across the chest; the sheet should be long enough to reach the root of the tail, and should be large enough to buckle easily round the chest; if it be tight the hair will be rubbed. Some people prefer a straight rug that does not buckle, the front being formed of a separate breast cloth. Hoods are only needed when at exercise in bad weather, or when the horse is travelling by railway. Particular care should be taken that the roller does not touch the back bone; the pads should be so placed that there is a clear space of 4 inches between them, so as to leave a clear channel over the back bone. The neglect of this precaution will inevitably produce a sore back, and, while first of all making the horse shy of being touched, may subsequently make him vicious in the stable.

Regularity is absolutely indispensable to successful stable management; without it, the horse may be subjected to a dozen different kinds of treatment in as many days, a course obviously detrimental to his health.

The engagement of a good groom is the first step. Where there is a stud of ten or more horses, a stud groom will probably be kept, and, as he will not do much work himself, —indeed it is better that he should not,—he should know how things ought to be done, and see that they are done. In small establishments, however, there will be but one or two men; but the head one should be a thorough stableman. The more ignorant he is of the veterinary art the better; indeed, every horse owner should, in the strictest terms, forbid his servants to administer any drug or medicine whatever without permission; and the owner himself may be advised never to sanction the giving of any physic, but always to seek good professional advice if any signs of sickness are visible.

Stable work should commence early, as soon after 6 a.μ. as possible. The first duty is to examine each animal carefully, to discover whether any injury has been received during the night from kicking, getting cast, or any other cause. Horses are then fed and watered, the litter is turned up, that which has been in use during the night not being allowed to remain in the stable during the day, and the stable is put in order; exercise succeeds, after which the animals are thoroughly dressed, but the dressing should never be performed out of doors. Feeding takes place again at 12 noon, 4 p.m., and 8 p.m., when the horses are done up for the night.

Of the feeding of race-horses nothing need be said here, as their care is a business of itself, with which the private person has nothing to do.

Oats and hay form the diet upon which horses are kept, to which beans are added for hunters and horses in hard work; while bran, linseed, and carrots are used for special purposes, in addition to, or sometimes in substitution for, the regular food. Hacks and horses in light work will do well on a daily allowance of 8 to 10 fi) of oats and 10 or 12 B> of hay. Beans, which contain about 30 per cent, of nutriment, are heating, and should be given only now and then in small quantities. The oats are best divided into four feeds, and beans when used should be given at the midday and last feeds A handful or two of chaff is useful with each feed, as it compels a horse to masticate, but in many stables there is a prejudice against it, and the hay is put into the rack four times a day, not more than 3 lb being given at one time. Oats should be bruised; but, as they soon turn sour, it will be best to bruise every morning only as much as will suffice for the day’s consumption.

Bran is indigestible, but it is a laxative, and, so far as hunters are concerned, it is only given in the form of a mash after a day’s hunting, and on Saturday nights. To make a bran mash, put half a pint of linseed in a pan, pour a quart of boiling water upon it, and let it soak for four hours , then take about 2⅜Ib of bran and mix with it enough hot water to saturate it; stir the linseed composition into this, and it is fit for use. Should the mash be put in the manger, the latter should be scoured out with hot water afterwards, or the sourness of the remains of the mash will make many horses refuse their corn.

A few carrots, which must be carefully washed and scraped, given every now and then, are useful as tending to keep the blood in good order, and checking any symptoms of fever induced by the dry food upon which horses live.

Maize or Indian corn contains so small a proportion of nutritious matter that it is not fit for hunters or for horses from which fast work is required. The London General Omnibus Company feed their large stud almost entirely on this diet, and it is found to answer (see Mr Church’s evidence before Lord Rosebery’s Horse Committee, 1873). It is given in the same quantity as oats.

Of late years corn merchants have introduced the system of foraging gentlemen’s horses at the fixed price of one shilling per hand per week. Thus a horse of 15 2 would be foraged for 16s., and one between 14 and 15 hands for 15s.

A correct system of watering horses is no less important than proper feeding with dry food. Many grooms, in their horror at giving too much, fall into the opposite extreme, and stint the horses under their care to an extent that is positively cruel. The result of such a system is fever in various shapes, and a general loss of condition. There has of late years been a growing tendency to favour the plan of letting horses have access to wateι at ail hours of the day and night, and experience has shown that the effect is beneficial. A separate tank in the stall or loose box is fed by a tap, and a constant supply should be kept up. If a horse watered on this plan be watched, it will be seen that he never takes more than a very few small mouthfuls at a time, nothing like the quantity allowed by the most stingy groom; and, if the amount consumed be measured, it will be found that, after the first day or two, the horse actually drinks less than when watered at stated intervals. Where the ad libitum plan is not adopted, horses should be watered four times a day. Nothing can be more unwise than the undue stinting hunters of their water on hunting days; no one could expect a satisfactory day’s work from an animal suffering from excessive thirst. Where horses can have water when they like, it will scarcely be necessary to do more than to put the cover on the water tank at about 9 - 30 on hunting mornings, assuming the meet to be at 11. It need hardly be said that the quality of water supplied to stables should be carefully attended to. Horses are easily made sick by impurities, and are very dainty in their choice of water. When on a journey, horses should never be allowed to drink at public troughs, as disease is very likely to be contracted by such a proceeding.

Exercise is a great preservative of health, but, like food and medicine, it should be given at proper times and in proper quantities. Exercise must not be confounded with work; the severe work horses are sometimes called upon to perform takes much out of them, and exercise is one of the means adopted to counteract any ill effects of hard work. In order that the muscles of a horse may not become prematurely tired, it is not sufficient that they should be violently taxed some three days a fortnight as with hunters; they must be used every day, and the exercise by which this is effected causes all the tissues of the body to receive their support by reason of the tone given to the circulation of the blood. Hacks, harness horses, and particularly ladies’ horses, should be sufficiently well exercised to guard against an excessive exuberance of spirits; for nothing is more annoying than to have an animal, quiet enough in an ordinary way, perpetually jumping about at the approach of vehicles or other horses, merely because he is too fresh. Hunters should have two hours walking exercise daily; sometimes a slow trot of 3 or 4 miles may be indulged in, but, when the hunting season fairly sets in, and horses are hunted regularly, cantering should be forbidden at exercise unless either master or man happens to be a very good judge of what kind of exercise a horse requires.

Hacks and harness horses are but rarely called upon to perform duties so exhausting as those of the hunter. In the case of the former animals, a suitable stable, good food and water, ventilation, and exercise, coupled of course with careful supervision, should, save under exceptional circumstances, suffice to keep them in good health. All the previous remarks apply in the case of hunters, but with them something more is needed. First there is the getting the animal into condition, and then comes the proper mode of treatment after work, when the system is exhausted, and the horse suffering perhaps from the effects of a blow or a fall. The art of getting hunters into condition has made great strides during the last fifty years. Nowadays one seldom hears of horses dying in the field through sheer exhaustion; and it cannot be said that their work is lighter now than it was then.

To begin at the beginning, a hunter should be fit for use by the end of October, and the question then arises, How long before this time should he have been in what may be called training ?—using the word, of course, in a different sense from what is undeι ’ stood by training in a racing stable. The answer to this question depends very much upon how, at the termination of the last hunting season, the owner solved the difficulty of “what to do with the horses.” Assuming horses are to be kept through the summer, it will probably be nearly a month after the last hunting day before the summering treatment is adopted. A dose of physic will have been administered, and, if wise, the owner will have called iu a veterinary surgeon to see what damages have been sustained; but he should be one used to hunters and their peculiar infirmities.

Many persons with the best intentions, and following very ancient traditions, turn their horses out to grass, saying that a ‘ ’ summer's run” will put new life into them, but not explaining why a horse that up to Monday night is kept clothed in a warm stable and fed on hard food, should be greatly benefited by being turned into a field on Tuesday without his clothing, and left to subsist entirely on grass. This sudden change of living, which used to be so universal in the case of horses, is condemned in the human subject; and that is not the least powerful argument that can be urged against it. Moreover, most veterinary surgeons agree that more hunters have been made roarers or contracted disease of some kind from being tur ned out to grass than from almost any other cause. Irr the days when summering in the fields was the usual method pursued, a hunter was never really fit until the season was far advanced, and the turning out to grass in May was simply undoing all that had been done since the previous August. Although here and there a few individuals adopted a more common sense way of summering their hunters, the full evils of the grazing system were not impressed upon the public until “Nimrod,” in letters to the Old Sporting Magazine, advocated the adoption of a more enlightened system, and showed the weak points in the old one. The advantages claimed for the plan of turning out to grass were that the horse’s system and his feet benefited, and that it was cheaper. But violent changes in the manner of living cannot be beneficial, and, as regards the feet, Mr Goodwin, veterinary surgeon to George IV., said: “1 have invariably observed, where horses are turned out to grass during the dry and hot summer months, that, on bringing them up to be put into stable condition, their feet are in a much worse state than when they went out, dried up, and so hard and brittle that, on the application of a tool to bring them into a form to receive a shoe, the horn breaks like a piece of glass, and all the naturally tough and elastic property is lost, so that it requires some months to remove its bad effects. Horses at grass are much inclined to thrush.” As to the expense, the objection is too trifling to be taken as a set off against any real advantages the system advocated by “Nimrod,” and now generally adopted, may be found to possess.

But in whatever way a horse is summered, it is dear that there must be a great change from a state of hard work to one of absolute rest and quiet, and this change should not be the work of a moment. Unless an owner be particularly lucky, some one or more of his hunters will generally show signs of wear and tear before the end of the season has arrived, and these should be the first thrown up They should be exercised daily, but their corn should be diminished, and their dressing iu the stable need not be of the same thorough kind as when they were in full work. After about a fortnight of this treatment summering may begin iu its full sense. The state of the horse’s legs, and the judgment of the owner, will determine whether the horse shall be exercised during the summer, or left to exercise hiuιself. In the former case he must remain shod, and have his feet stopped two nights a week with damp tow, or, if there be much tendency to fever, with tow dipped in the best Stockholm tar. Exercise should take place in the cool of the day, in the morning for choice, on soft ground, for about an hour and a half. Where the horse is left to exercise himself, he should be housed in a good-sized shed or box opening into a strawyard or small paddock, which should be shaded by trees or buildings, so that the maximum of air can be breathed with the minimum of exposure to the sum A horse thus kept should have his shoes removed, and, as his feet cannot then be stopped, he should stand once or twice a week, for an hour at a time, on wet clay.

The constitution of each particular horse should be taken into account in deciding how he shall be fed during the summer months. The aim to be kept in view is to maintain the strength, but not to engender fever,—to let the system down as it were, but not to undo all that has been done during the hunting season to a greater extent than may be found necessary. As a general rule, three feeds of oats a day (the feeds being rather smaller than those given during work) will be sufficient; beans should be eschewed, but 8 or 9 lb of hay may be given. Green food should be given with caution, say twice or thrice a week, to assist iu maintaining a healthy action of the bowels.

The getting the horse into condition again for the ensuing season should be accomplished gradually, and all violent exertion should be avoided. About the beginning of August the shoes should be put on the unshod horse, and he should have an hour’s walking exercise daily for about a week, when the time may be extended by degrees. The horse that has been exercised all the summer will need no special attention until the beginning of September, about which time all the horses should have slow trotting exercise twice a week on soft, but not deep, ground. During October cantering may be indulged in twice a week, but plenty of walking exercise should form part of every day’s work. The quantity of oats given should of course be increased as the work gets stronger, until, before the commencement of the hunting season, the full quantity is reverted to.

It is of course the groom’s duty to get a hunter into condition, and to apply the proper treatment on his return to the stable, when tired by the day’s work; but during the day the horse will be under the care of the rider, and carelessness or want of judgment on his part may occasion injuries not to be overcome by any known system of stable management. As soon as the hounds leave off, the rider, if more than a mile or two from home, or if the day has been at all severe, should get his horse some gruel at the nearest inn or cottage, or, failing gruel, a little tepid water, with or without a handful or two of flour stirred into it. A horse’s stomach is small in proportion to the size of his body; he should not therefore be kept without sustenance of some sort longer than is necessary. Should the animal show signs of great distress, he should be got into the first stable that is reached, or if there is not one handy into a shed, and the more airy it is the better. The head and legs should be well rubbed; clothing should be put on the body, and a cordial of some sort administered as quickly as possible, —sherry, spirits, or beer will do; and a veterinary surgeon should be sent for at once.

When the hunter returns to his own stable, he should first have his pail of warm gruel and linseed made according to the receipt given above; and after he is dressed, it will only be necessary to see whether he feeds as usual. If he does not, water with the chill ofl may be given to him. Should he be merely fatigued, a night’s rest in an airy box will soon restore him; and here it may be observed that all stables should include at least one loose box for the reception of a horse returning from hunting; rest cannot be so satisfactorily taken in a stall.

The treatment of horses’ legs is a most important part of stable management, and one which is but too often imperfectly understood by men who, though nothing but strappers, call themselves grooms. In many stables it is the custom to wash the feet and legs of horses returning from work, but the practice is calculated to produce cracked heels, a state of things which often results also from a too frequent use of wet linen bandages. The better plan is to forbid the use of water above the hoof; and, as soon as the hunter comes in, some rough serge bandages (kept for the purpose) should be put loosely on his legs. These may be removed after the rest of his body has been dressed, when the legs will be found quite dry, and the mud will crumble off like sand, while half the labour that would have been needed to dry the washed legs will suffice to brush every particle of grit from the hair ami skim The legs should then be well hand-rubbed, and the ordinary bandages may be put on for about four hours; on their removal more hand-rubbing should take place. A constant use of bandages is to be deprecated, unless it is ordered for some particular purpose by the veterinary surgeon.

The reader has been already warned against being his own veterinary surgeon; but there are certain minor casualties to which every horse is liable, and which an average groom should know how to treat. A very common cause of a hunter being laid up is a blow on the leg, which may be either on the skin or on the sinew. If on the skin, the leg should be bathed with hot vinegar and water, in equal proportions, three or four times a day. A blow on the bone otten causes a bony enlargement, but beyond constituting a blemish is of no importance. A blow on the sinew is generally the cause of a l°ng period of lameness, and filing may be needed. If the blow be only a slight one, bathing in cold water is the best thing that can be done.

Cutting is sometimes the result of malformation of the legs, and sometimes the result of fatigue, for some horses will now and then brush themselves after a long and tiring day, who never do so in going to cover. A boot and change of shoeing must be resorted to.

Corns are to be laid at the door of the shoeing smith. They arise from the shoe being too tight, or from its being nailed too near the heel. A careful groom should superintend the shoeing, and should instruct the smith to pare the sole at the seat of the corn, and to take care that the new shoes <Jo not press upon the sole. The sole must be kept well pared and dressed with tar. Should the corns be so bad as to suppurate, hot linseed meal poultices should be applied, and work dispensed with.

Thrush is a diseased state of the frog, caused, in most instances, by the feet being neglected in the stable. The diseased parts should be cut away, and the openings in the hoof stopped with tow dipped in tar.

Cracked heels generally owe their existence to the legs having been left wet after washing. In the early stages cut the hair from the sore part, wash with warm water, dry, and apply glycerin lotion. If riding or driving a horse with cracked heels, never allow the sores to be rubbed with grease before starting, as the dust or dirt will cling to this, and by getting into the sore make it worse than ever.

An over-reach is a not uncommon occurrence in the hunting field. An old piece of linen, folded three or four times, should be soaked in water and fastened on the place, and a piece of oiled silk should be kept on over the linen to prevent evaporation.

Sore backs are very troublesome to get rid of, and would not happen so often as they do were more attention paid to the fitting of the saddle and the way it is stuffed. Most saddlers put too little stuffing in a saddle, and so after it is used a few times the inside becomes hard. When the skin is found to be rubbed, use the wet linen and oiled silk as for an over-reach, ami afterwards chloride of zinc lotion.

Fever in the feet is generally the result of too much knocking about on hard roads. Directly lameness appears, take off the shoe and place the foot in cold water, putting on a poultice at night.

PART HL—HORSEMANSHIP.

Horses being ridden for several distinct purposes, viz., in the cavalry service, for hunting, racing, steeple-chasing, υn the road, and in the school, there are separate styles of horsemanship adapted to each purpose, and a rider excelling in one is not of necessity a proficient in the others; in fact few persons, if any, are equally good, for instance, at military or manege riding and at steeple-chasing.

The first step in horsemanship is to mount a horse; but for the performance of this apparently simple feat no fixed rule can be laid down for the guidance of the civilian. H ιving taken up the reins, the rider should stand at his horse’s near shoulder facing towards the tail, and in that position hold the stirrup with his right hand for the reception of his left foot. By standing at the shoulder the rider is out of harm’s way in the event of the horse kicking while he mounts. It is perfectly easy to carry out these directions when the man and horse are both of middle height; but it is simply impossible for a short man to mount a horse of 16 hands high in such a manner, he must risk the kick and stand where he can reach the stirrup—behind it. Having gained the saddle, the necessity arises for seat and hands. The fact that the seat of a civilian rider must vary to some extent according to the size and shape of the animal upon which he finds himself, does not preclude certain principles from applying in the formation of it, and it is towards the proper understanding of these principles, and the adoption of the right position of the legs and body, that good instruction is desirable at the outset.

The great desideratum in a seat on horseback is that it should be firm, and this for two reasons. In the first place, a rider with an insecure seat is apt to be thrown by any unexpected movement the horse may make, such as a slight stumble, or shying; and secondly, without a film seat, the acquirement of good hands is well nigh hopeless, because, when the balance is once disturbed, the rider will have to depend on something else for the maintenance of his seat, and this other means of support will generally take the shape of “riding the bridle,” a practice as much opposed to good horsemanship as it is injurious to the horse’s mouth.

Having gained the saddle, the rider should seat himself in the middle of it, and should never allow any part of his person to overlap the cantie, as is but too often seen. Many rules are given for adjusting the stirrups to the proper length before mounting, but in practice they are not to be depended upon,—first, because all men are not made in quite the same proportions; secondly, where two men are of equal height, the man with the thicker and rounder legs will require a shorter stirrup than the one with lean and flat legs; and thirdly, men of any build will need a shorter stirrup on a wide horse than on a narrow one, besides which, if a horse pulls at all, another hole or two will give the rider additional power over his animal. The proper length of stirrup, then, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained till the rider is mounted. Sitting well in the middle of the saddle, the thighs being turned in, and the heels drawn somewhat back, the stirrup leathers may be let out or taken up until the tread of the stirrup is on « level with the inner ankle bone, and at this length, when the rider stands up, his fork will clear the pommel of the eaddle by about 3 inches. For maintaining his seat the horseman should depend upon his thighs and knees, and not upon the knee and calf only; at times, of course, when on a restive horse, every available muscle may have to be brought into play, but the proper rule is as stated. Some people say they ride by balance only, and others that they ride by grip; a proper seat should be an admixture of the two: a man riding by balance only is sure to be kicked off, while to grip with all one’s might during an hour’s ride is to undertake as much exertion as should last for a whole day. The position of the foot exercises some influence on the security of the seat; at one time it was thought proper to turn the toes in and depress the heel, a posture that tended to diminish the grip of the thighs, but now the toe should be turned a little outward, and but very little upward. A good seat on a horse should not be strong merely; it should be as graceful as the make and shape of horse and rider allow; but it should not be a stiff, stuck-up seat, which is never graceful, because it is not natural. Above the loins the body should be loose, so as readily to adapt itself to every motion of the horse; but it should be upright, for if the rider lean forward in his saddle, a false step on the part of the horse is very apt to send him flying over its head. The position of the hands has a great deal to do with the seat, but the hands and the reins will be treated of presently.

Beginners are often advised to learn to ride without stirrups; if they do, they should have no saddle either, for riding in a saddle without stirrups is likely to produce rupture. The soundness of this advice, however, may be questioned, because, although riding without stirrups will undoubtedly tend to a firm seat, it will not be one of the same sort as when stirrups are used; there must therefore be a process of learning and unlearning. The better plan is to practice both ways concurrently. Thus let the pupil be properly placed in a saddle with stirrups, and when he has ridden half an hour let a cloth be substituted for the saddle for about ten minutes, care being taken to observe the rules already laid down for the position of the legs; in this way the proper seat will be strengthened, instead of a new one being formed.

The proper adjustment of the reins is the neit thing to be attended to, and as the management of these depends so much upon the seat being firm and independent of the bridle, the acquisition of a firm seat is certainly half way towards the acquirement of good hands. Assuming a single rein snaffle to be the bridle used, the second, third, and fourth fingers of the left hand should be inserted between the reins, which should be drawn up gently with the right hand until the rider feels that he has got an equal hold of his horse’s mouth on both sides, and with just so much pressure that the slightest movement of the left or right rein would cause him to turn to the left or right respectively; the fore and middle fingers of the right hand should then take hold of the right rein, which may be drawn out from the left hand so as to enable the hands to be held about 4 or 5 inches apart. The arms from the shoulder to the elbow should hang naturally close. to the sides, and the arms from elbow to wrist should be about parallel to the ground, the wrist being kept loose, so as to yield gently with every motion of the horse. The rider sitting in the position described, square to the front, with his shoulders well back, will be riding with fairly long reins, one of the secrets of good hands; if he stoop forward and carry his bridle hand at some distance in front of his body, so as to take a short hold of his horse’s head, seat and hands will both be bad.

When a double reined bridle is used, the third finger of the left hand should be first inserted between the snaffle reins, and then the little, third, and second fingers should be between the curb reins, the two outside reins will then be the curb, and the two inside ones the snaffle. In this manner of holding the reins the snaffle is not so likely to slip, while the curb can be easily slackened or drawn tighter. As military riders invariably use the curb only, the position of snaffle and curb as just explained is reversed in the cavalry service.

When the horse is in motion, the hands should not be kept in one spot, so as to act like the peg on the pad of a harness horse to which the bearing rein is fastened, as the mouth would thereby become dead, and the horse would lean unpleasantly on the bit; but the rider should give and take, so that while the pressure is not stronger at one moment than at another (unless there be a reason for it), yet, on the other hand, the hold should never be entirely relaxed.

In order to encourage the horse to walk, the head must not be confined, but the light feeling on the horse’s mouth must be kept up. Should the horse break into that uncomfortable pace, a jog trot, which, by the way, a well-broken hack should not do, never snatch at his mouth, but restrain him gently. To trot press the legs to the saddle, raise the bridle hand a little, and urge him if necessary with the voice. The rising to the trot should be performed easily; the legs must not swing backwards and forwards, nor should the hands be jerked up and down, while the action of the rider should be in perfect time with the motion of the horse, or a passer by may remark that the horseman is riding faster than his horse. To start in the canter take up the curb rein a little and turn the horse’s head slightly to the right, at the same time pressing the left leg behind the saddle, the horse will then lead with the off fore leg, which is generally preferred under ordinary circumstances; but a well-broken hack should be taught to lead with either, and if he be cantered in a circle to the left he must lead with the near leg, as otherwise an ugly fall is likely to result from the leg being crossed. Galloping is a pace not generally indulged in by hack riders; when it is, the hands should be kept low, the body thrown back, and an extra grip taken, as nearly all horses pull more or less when extended.

Hitherto, only road or park riding has been considered, and, with wise people, hacking (except hacking to cover, or in the performance of a journey against time) means progressing at a strictly moderate pace—for the sake of their horse, if for no other reason.

Beginners of all ages are strongly advised to undergo proper instruction when commencing to learn to ride. The few directions already given may serve to remind a person what to avoid, but an hour’s teaching is worth volumes of theory. The instructor should, however, be a practical and well-taught horseman himself; to be this it matters not whether he be a professional riding-master or not. When once the proper place for the legs and hands is pointed out, and the proper way of handling a horse and sitting in the walk, trot, and canter,—when, in short, a person has been put in the way of becoming a fair road rider, he has made some progress towards being a hunting man. But if, on the other hand, first principles are disregarded, and a rider believes in the system of “it doesn’t matter how you ride so long as you only stick on,” it will be a long while before he reaches his own standard, except with the comparatively few men who seem to have been intended by nature for horsemen. Few self-taught riders attain to anything like excellence; they may ride quiet horses with fair success, and even in hunting, if possessed of plenty of courage, and mounted on a bold and not too tender-mouthed horse, they may keep a good place, but horsemen in the proper sense of the word they never will be.

Now, assuming the beginner to have acquired some proficiency in riding, and to have had a little practice over the leaping bar, he may be desirous of making his first appearance with hounds, and the question then arises how is the hacking-seat to be exchanged for the hunting one, of which he will probably have heard a great deal, and have seen some very extraordinary specimens.

For practical purposes the chief difference between a park seat and a hunting one consists in the substitution of boots and breeches for trousers, and the shortening of the stirrups some two or three holes. Next to that of a jockey, the seat of the hunting man is the most important of any connected with amusement; he must sit firm, so as not to be thrown off when his horse leaps, or makes a slight mistake, technically called “pecking,” on landing after jumping a fence, and so as to be able to handle his horse delicately under all circumstances, and to make as much of him as possible. As with road riding, so with hunting, the actual length of the stirrups will depend a good deal upon the form and action of the horse, but the nature of the animal and the peculiarities of the country ridden over will also have something to do with their adjustment. A puller will compel the rider to pull up his leathers one or perhaps two extra holes—a course that may also be rendered necessary in a hilly country, for, in going down hill, the stirrups, if kept at the ordinary length, will generally feel a great deal too long. The rider’s body must be kept close to the saddle in leaping, for if he were jerked up, the weight of say only a 10-stone man coming down on the horse a couple of seconds after he has negotiated a large fence is sufficient to throw him down. Nothing but actual practice with hounds can teach a man the kind of horsemanship required for hunting where land of all kinds has to be ridden over, and obstacles of various sorts, natural and artificial, have to be encountered.

Considerable progress may, as already stated, be made in seat and hands within the four walls of a good riding school, but as the art of warfare must be learned on active service, and not on the parade ground, so nothing but actual practice in the hunting field will teach a man that kind of horsemanship adapted to the ever-varying conditions and different situations to be met with in a single day’s hunting. For example, the ground gone over is not always the level springy turf of the race-course; it is up hill and down dale, across ridge and furrow, over ground studded with ant-hills (which, unlike mole-hills, are often very hard), over ploughed lands, and in boggy countries. Now each of these varieties requires a different method of riding over, and nearly every horse will require different handling under similar circumstances; some can go well through the dirt, while others can only go on the top of the ground; some will require rousing at their fences, while others will want quieting. It will therefore be seen that much depends on the rider having good hands. This qualification, though generally understood, is very difficult to define. A rider with good hands never depends upon his reins for retaining his seat; nor does he pull at the horse’s mouth so as to make him afraid to go up to his bit; nor again does he ever use any more force than is necessary for the accomplishment of what he desires to perform. But besides all this, there is an unaccountable something about the man with good hands that cannot be described. Pullers appear to renounce pulling, refusers take to jumping, and clumsy horses appear nearly as handy as a trick horse in a circus. Though “hands” can to a great extent be acquired by care and practice, yet in the highest form it is a gift like the “hand for crust” which is denied to many cooks and cannot be learned.

There are different kinds of “fences,” as all obstacles are generically called. First, there is timber, such asgates, stiles, and rails; the first two are, nine times out of ten, awkward jumps, as the take off is either poached by cattle, or else is on the ascent or descent. Hedges vary according to the custom of the country in which they are found: they either grow in the soil of the field, and are protected by a ditch on one side, or are planted on a bank with a ditch on one side or sometimes on both. The rider may here be reminded that if a bank is high and the ditch before it but small, there is pretty certain to be another ditch on the far side, for the bank is made by throwing up the earth taken from the ditches. Then again there are the large banks found in Wales, Devon, and Cornwall. Lastly come water jumps, which are met with in two forms: the water is either within an inch or two of the top of the bank, so as to be about on a level with the field through which it flows, or there may be a space of some 6 or 7 feet from the bank to the water. For the successful negotiation of b∣ooks a bold horse is required, ridden by a bold man. No fence that is ever encountered stops such a large proportion of the field as water; even a clear 6 feet of it will prove a hindrance to some, while anything over 10 or 12 feet will in general be crossed only by a very few. Some horses, good performers over any other description of fence, will not jump water under any circumstances; while the chance of a ducking deters many from riding at it; and, however bold the horse may be, he will soon refuse watet if his rider be perpetually in two minds when approaching a brook.

The pace at which a hunter should be ridden at his fences depends upon the nature of the fence itself, and the peculiarities of each individual horse. With some very good jumpers—they can hardly be called good hunters— to steady them is to bid for a fall, while with some very clever hunters to hurry them is to bring them to grief. With ordinary horses, however, it is a good general rule to ride at fences of all descriptions as slowly as the nature of the obstacle admits. In grass countries, where “flying fences” are found, the rate of speed must of necessity be quicker than when about to take a Devonshire bank of some 7 feet high, but even at a flying fence the rider should steady his horse so as to contract the length of his stride, in order that he may measure the distance for taking off with greater accuracy. Flying fences consist of a hedge with or without a post and rail, and with or without a ditch on one or both sides; consequently a horse has to jump both high and wide to clear them. But in jumping a gate, or a flight of rails, as ordinarily situated, there is no width to be covered, and to make a horse go through the exertion of jumping both high and wide when he need only do one is to waste hi. power, added to which to ride fast at timber, unless very low wtlι a ditch on the landing side, is highly dangerous.

All hedges on banks, banks, and doubles must be ridden at slowly; they are usually of such a size as to make flying them impossible, or at least undesirable. Horses jump them on and off, and in taking them at a moderate pace there is a chance of stopping on the top and choosing a better place to jump from, or, if needs be, of returning and taking the fence at another place. Cramped places will have to be jumped from a walk or even at a stand; for instance, a tree may be in a line with and close to the only practicable place in a fence; it then becomes necessary to go round the tree before a run at the place can be managed. So, too, with places that have to be crawled over between trees, or with dykes to be crawled down.

In jumping an ordinary hedge or ditch at moderate speed, there is of course a moment of time during which the horse is on his hind legs, and in theory the rider should then lean forward, but, in practice, this position is so momentary, and the lash out of the hind legs in the spring is so powerful, that it is best not to lean forward at all, because of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of getting back in time for the reverse movement, when the rider should be preparing to render the horse some assistance with the bridle as his feet touch the ground.

Water, as was said before, stops a field more than any other kind of fence, because, so far as the rider is concerned, a strain to the horse’s back or a bad over-reach is likely to result, and the contemplation of a ducking is not pleasant on a cold day. Then as to the horse, if he ever got into a brook when young, and found any difficulty in getting out again, it is ten to one against his ever taking kindly to water afterwards. When a line of willows indicates the whereabouts of a brook, the horse should be well collected, a clear place selected, so far as circumstances allow, and the pace increased, though in short strides, up to the very brink. If the hounds jump at the brook, even though they fail to clear it, the rider may take it for granted that at that place the leap is within the capacity of any ordinary hunter in his stride; hence if, when going at three parts speed, a horse’s feet come just right to take off, the mere momentum of his body would take him over a place 15 feet wide.

Now jumping a fence is one thing, and riding to hounds is another; a man may be a very good horseman, and yet be a very bad man to hounds. The leading hounds should be watched, and when they turn right or left the rider should turn too. Then the choice of ground is important; ridge and furrow should be taken diagonally, or, if the field be entered towards either end, time will ultimately be saved in going round by the firmer ground at the sides. Ploughed land requires the rider’s special attention; an injudicious hurry over a couple of deep fields has settled many a good hunter for the remainder of the run. In jumping into a ploughed field the fence should be taken slowly, and the rider should lean well back in the saddle, because, lacking the elasticity of turf, a ploughed field, especially after rain or a frost, will let a horse’s legs sink in deep on landing, and if he has been ridden at the fence quickly, the sudden resistance offered by the soft ground will inevitably cause a fall. When the ground is deep, therefore, the rider’s judgment will be shown in avoiding, where possible, large flying fences into a ploughed field, and in choosing places that can be jumped quietly.

Pace is a relative term; when the thoroughbred is but cantering, the underbred will be doing his utmost; the horseman must therefore always have an eye to his horse, and must be careful not to press him beyond a certain pace, unless of course he means to be satisfied with a short life and a merry one.

The experience of a single day’s hur ring will teach the novice that gates are far oftener opened than jumped; it is therefore necessary that a hunter should be handy at opening them. Many accidents have arisen from horses rushing through a gateway directly the latch is released, or from their jumping a gate at which they have been pulled up to enable the rider to open it. The horse should be taught to obey the leg as well as the hand, and, by a slight pressure of the leg, should throw his haunches round to the left or right as occasion may require.

Most writers on hunting aver that there is an art in falling, and the young sportsman is duly told to get clear of his horse as soon as possible. It is not to be denied that the number of accidents in the hunting field are but few considering the number of falls that take place during the hunting season, but the rarity of accidents can hardly be ascribed in all seriousness to a proficiency in the art of falling. In the first place, ditches cause many falls, by the horse dropping his hind legs into them; that is to say, his progress is arrested while the rider continues in the course his horse would have taken had the ditch not been there. When the hind legs are dropped the rider clutches instinctively with his hands and legs, and the violence of his fall is thereby broken, while in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred the ditch prevents the horse from rolling over the recumbent sportsman. Then again as to falls at flying fences taken at a somewhat quick rate, it is lucky for hunting men that under such circumstances the rider is in the majority of instances thrown clear of his horse independently of any skill or effort of his own. It is only in what may be termed “slow falls” that the rider can save himself by presence of mind and activity. When a horse slips into a ditch, or drops quietly on to his knees preparatory to rolling on his side, a practised rider has time to get clear; but in falls over timber, or over fences ridden at quickly, the freedom from accident must in sober truth be ascribed to luck rather than to good judgment.

Saddles and bridles form no unimportant feature in the equestrian art, as well as in the establishment of a sportsman. A well-made saddle and bridle make a horse look worth an extra ,£20, while nothing contributes more to the safety and comfort of a rider than a well-made roomy saddle. The hunting man will be well advised if he patronizes only such establishments as make hunting saddles their peculiar study. Each horse should have its own saddle, and the closer it fits, provided it doesnot press upon the withers or touch the spine, the better; but, as even the best saddlers are addicted to putting too little stuffing into them, the purchaser should, when ordering, stipulate for a liberal quantity. The stirrup irons should be moderately heavy, and, if they are for full grown men, of the largest size made, for the foot will be all the less likely to be caught in the event of a fall.

The selection of a bridle will depend upon the horse’s mouth and upon the rider’s hands. For hacking purposes a double bridle is almost invariably used, the curb enabling the rider to make the horse appear to the best advantage; and, as a general rule, a double bridle with an easy curb bit (the curb chain being protected by a leather strap) is best for hunting purposes, as with it the horse can be collected at his fences, and held together in deep ground better than with the snaffle only. Some persons use nothing but snaffles on principle, and will submit to a vast amount of discomfort rather than call in the aid of a curb; but there are not five perfect snaffle-bridle hunters out of a hundred, and riding a horse in a snaffle is quite another thing from riding a snaffle-bridle horse. The curb, however, should be of no greater severity than is absolutely necessary; pulling is far more often caused by the pain of a sharp bit than by anything else. Whatever bit be used, it is useless to keep up one continued drag at the horse’s mouth, as it thereby becomes callous and ceases to be sensitive to any gentle indications. With a puller the bit should be kept moving in the mouth, and a change of bits is often beneficial, each pattern acting in a different way, and taking a horse, so to speak, by surprise.

The less whips and spurs are used the better; unfinished riders will do well to leave the latter at home, for although they are very useful on the heels of a skilful person, an unintentional application of them is often attended with disastrous consequences.

The qualities possessed by a good jockey, either on the flat or over a country, fully bear out what has been said before concerning the value of early instruction in riding, and the impossibility of the existence of any regular system of civilian horsemanship. After having been some time in a training stable, a lad is put on a quiet horse at exercise; his stirrups are adjusted, and tho reins knotted for him at a proper length. He subsequently rides other horses, each with some peculiarity perhaps, and, to keep his place in the string, a slug must be kept going, and an impetuous one restrained; they cannot both be ridden alike, but they must both be ridden as a jockey should ride th^m. In this way the lad learns the principle of holding a puller, getting pace out of a lazy one, and leaving well alone with a nice free but temperate mover; he learns to do everything in a horsemanlike manner, and when he has raised himself to the pitch of a “fashionable” jockey, he will frequently be called upon to ride three or four horses a day at race meetings. A jockey must therefore, more than any other civilian rider, have a hand for all sorts of horses, and in the case of two and three year olds a very good hand it must be. The same ability to adapt himself to circumstances must be possessed by the steeple-chase jockey, who should possess fine hands to enable him to handle his horse while going at his fences at three-quarter speed. In most details the nearer a hunting man approaches to a steeple-chase jockey the better; but in the matter of the seat it must be remembered that a jockey’s exertions last but a few minutes, while none can tell when the hunting man may finish his day’s work; the jockey can therefore ride with more absolute grip during his race than the rider to hounds.

PART IV.-HORSE-RACING.

Probably the earliest instance of horse-racing recorded in literature occurs in II. xxiii. 212-650, where the various incidents of the chariot race at the funeral games held in honour of Patroclus are detailed with much vividness. How far such competitions, which bear in Homer a semi-religious character, may have arisen out of the not unnatural practice an instance of which occurs earlier in the same connexion (77. xxiii. 13, 14) can only be conjectured ∙. it is certain, however, that they very soon came to be of national importance. According to the ancient authorities the four-horse chariot race was introduced into the Olympic games as early as the 23d Olympiad; to this the race with mounted horses was added in the 33d; while other variations (such as two-horse chariot races, mule races, loose-horse races, special races for under-aged horses) were admitted at a still later period. Of the training and management of the Olympic race-horse we are left in ignorance; but it is known that the equestrian candidates were required to enter their names and send their horses to Elis at least thirty days before the celebration of the games commenced, and that the charioteers and riders, whether owners or proxies, went through a prescribed course of exercise during the intervening month. At all the other national games of Greece (Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean), as well as at many of the local festivals (the Athenian Olympia and Panathenaea), similar contests had a prominent place. Some indication of the extent to which the passion for horse-racing was indulged in at Athens, for example, about the time of Aristophanes may be obtained from the scene with which The Clouds opens; while it is a significant fact that the Boeotians termed one of the months of their year, corresponding to the Athenian Hecatoinbaeon, Hippodromius (“Horse-race month”; see Plutarch, Cam. 15). Details as to the chariot-races and horse-races of the Greeks, and also of their imitators the Romans, will be found under the headings Circus and Games.

There is no direct historical evidence to show that the ancient Britons addicted themselves to any form of this amusement; but there are indications that among some at least of the Germanic tribes, from a very early period, horse-racing was an accompaniment of their religious cultus. There can be no doubt that the Romans encouraged the pursuit in Britain, if they did not introduce it; traces of race-courses belonging to the period of their occupation have been frequently discovered. The influence of the Christian Church was everywhere at first strongly against the practice. The opinion of Augustine and other fathers of the church with regard to attendance at the spectacles, whether of theatre or of circus, is well known; those who performed in them were rigidly excluded from church fellowship, and sometimes even those who merely frequented them. Thus the first council of Arles, in its fourth canon, declared that those members of the church who drove chariots at the public games should, so long as they continued in that employment, be denied communion. (Compare the rule in the Ap. Const., viii. 32; ap. Bingham, Ant. Chr. Church, xvi. 4, 10.) In many cases, however, the weight of ecclesiastical authority proved insufficient to cope with the force of old custom, or with the fascination of a sport the unchristian character of which was not very easily demonstrab'e; and ultimately in Germany and elsewhere the old local races appear to have been admitted to a recognized place among the ceremonies peculiar to certain Christian festivals.

The first distinct indication which contemporary history affords of horse-racing as a sport occurs in the “Description of the City of London” of William Fitzstephen (c. 1174). He says that in a certain “plane field without one of the gates (quidam planus campus re et nomine— Smithfield, quasi Smoothfield) every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred (κo6iZ⅛m) horses exposed for sale. The earls, barons, and knights who are resident in the city, as well as a multitude of citizens, flock thither either to look on or buy.” After describing the different varieties of horses brought into the market, especially the more valuable chargers (dextrarios preciosos), he says: “When a race is to be run by such horses as these, and perhaps by others which, in like manner, according to their breed are strong for carriage and vigorous for the course, the people raise a shout and order the common horses to be withdrawn to another part of the field. The jockeys, who are boys expert in the management of horses, which they regulate by means .of curb bridles, sometimes by threes and sometimes by twos, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief aim is to prevent a competitor from getting before them. The horses too, after their manner, are eager for the race; their limbs tremble, and impatient of delay they cannot stand still; upon the signal being given they stretch out their limbs, hurry on the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed. The riders, inspired with the love of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with whips, and inciting them by their shouts” (see Stow’s Translation).

In the reign of Richard I. knights rode at Whitsuntide on steeds and palfreys over a three-mile course for “forty pounds of ready gold,” according to the old romance of Sir Bevys of Hampton. The feats of the tilt-yard, however, seem to have surpassed horse-racing in popular estimation at the period of the crusades. That the sport was to some extent indulged in by King John is quite possible, as running horses are frequently mentioned in the register of royal expenditure; and we know that Edward III. had a number of running horses, but it is probable they were chiefly used for field sports.

An evidence of the growing faveur in which horee-racing was held as a popular amusement is furnished by the fact that public races were established at Chester in 1512. Randle Holme of that city tells us that towards the latter part of Henry VIII’s reign, on Shrove Tuesday, the company of saddlers of Chester presented to “the drapers a wooden ball embellished with flowers, and placed upon the point of a lance. This ceremony was performed in the presence of the mayor at the cross of the Roody or Roodee, an open place near the city; but this year (1540) the ball was changed into a silver bell, valued at three shillings and sixpence or more, to be given to him who shall run best and furthest on horseback before them on the same day, Shrove Tuesday; these bells were denominated St George’s bells.” In the reign of Elizabeth there is evidence from the poems of Bishop Hall (1597) that racing was in vogue, though apparently -not patronized by the queen, or it would no doubt have formed part of the pastimes at Kenilworth; indeed, it seems then to have gone much out of fashion.

The accession of the Stuarts opened up an era of prosperity for the sport, for James I., who, according to Youatt, had encouraged if not established horse-racing in Scotland, greatly patronized it in England when he carne to the throne. Not only did he run races at Croydon and Enfield, but he endeavoured to improve the breed of horses by the purchase for a high figure of Markham’s Arabian, which little horse, however, was beaten in every race he ran.

In 1607, according to Camden’s Britannia, races were run near York, the prize being a little golden bell. Camden also mentions as the prize for running horses in Gatherley Forest a little golden ball, which was apparently anterior to the bell. In 1609 Mr Robert Ambrye, sometime sheriff of the city of Chester, caused three silver bells to be made of good value, which bells he appointed to be run for with horses on St George’s day upon the Roodee, the first horse to have the best bell and the money put in by the horses that ran—in other words, a sweepstake—the bells to be returned that day twelvemonth as challenge cups are now; towards the expenses he had an allowance from the city. In 1613 subscription purses are first mentioned. Nicholls, in Ids Progress of James I., makes mention of racing in the years 1617 and 1619. Challenge bells appear to have continued to be the prizes at Chester, according to Randle Holme the younger, and Ormerod’s History of Chester, until 1623 or 1624, when Mr John Brereton, mayor of Chester, altered the course and caused the horses to run five times round the Roodee, the bell to be of good value, £8 or £10, and to be a free bell to be held for ever,—in other words, a presentation and not a challenge prize.

During James’s reign public race meetings were established at Gatherley or Garterley, near Richmond in Yorkshire, at Croydon in Surrey, and at Enfield Chase, the last two being patronized by the king, who not only had races at Epsom during his residence at Nonsuch, but also built a house at Newmarket for the purpose of enjoying hunting, and no doubt racing too, as we find a note of there having been horse-races at this place as early as 1605. Races are also recorded as having taken place at Linton near Cambridge, but they were probably merely casual meetings. The prizes were for the most part silver or gold bells, whence the phrase “bearing away the bell.” The turf indeed appears to have attracted a great deal of notice, and the systematic preparation of running horses was studied, attention being paid to their feeding and training, to the instruction of jockeys,—although private matches between gentlemen who rode their own horses were very common, —and to the adjustment of weights, which were usually about 10 stone. The sport also seems to have taken firm hold of the people, and to have become very popular.

The reign of Charles I., which commenced in 1625, saw still more marked strides made, for the king not only patronized the racing at Newmarket, which we know was current in 1640, but thoroughly established it there, and built a stand house in 1667, since which year the races have been annual. Mention is likewise made in the comedy of the Merry Beggars, played in 1641, of races, both horse and foot, in Hyde Park, which were patronized by Charles I., who gave a silver cup, value 100 guineas, to be run for instead of bells. Butcher, in his survey of the town of Stamford (1646), also says that a race was annually run in that town for a silver and gilt cup and cover, of the value of £7 or £8, provided by the care of the aidermen for the time being out of the interest of a stock formerly made by the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood.

In 1648 Clarendon tells us that a meeting of Royalists was held at Banstead Downs, as Epsom Downs were then called, “under the pretence of a horse-race,” so that horseracing at Epsom was not unknown early in the 17th century; Pepys, too, in his Diary of 1663, mentions his having intended to go to Banstead Downs to see a famous horse-race. Cromwell is said to have kept running horses in the year 1653, but in 1654 he appears to have gone so far as to forbid racing for six and eight months respectively. After the Restoration in 1660, a new impetus was given to horse-racing, which had languished during the civil wars, and the races at Newmarket, which had been suspended, were restored and attended by the king; and as an additional spur to emulation, according to Youatt, royal plates were given at each of the principal courses, and royal mares, as they were called, were imported from abroad. Charles II. rebuilt the house originally erected at Newmarket by James I., which had fallen into decay. The Round course was made in 1666, and racing at the headquarters of the turf was regulated in the most systematic way, as to the course, weights, and other conditions. Charles II. was the first monarch who entered and ran horses in his own name; and, besides being a frequent visitor at the races on Newmarket Heath, and on Burford Downs, near Stockbridge, where the Bibury Club meeting was held, he established races at Datchet. In the reign of James II. nothing specially noteworthy occurred, but William III. continued former crown donations and even added to them.

Anne was much devoted to horse-racing, and not only gave royal plates to be competed for, but ran horses for them in her own name. In 1703 Doncaster races were established, when 4 guineas a year were voted by the corporation towards a plate, and in 1716 the Town Plate was established by the same authority, to be run on Doncaster Moor. Nearly a century, however, elapsed before the St Leger was instituted. Matches at Newmarket had become common, for we find that Basto, one of the earliest race-horses of whom we have any authentic account, won several matches there in 1708 and 1709. In the latter year, according to Camden, York races were established, the course at first being on Clifton Ings, but it was subsequently removed to Knavesmire, on which the races are now run. In 1710 the first gold cup said to have been given by the Queen, of 60 guineas value, was run for by six year old horses carrying 12 stone each, the best of three 4-mile heats, and was won by Bay Bolton. In 1711 it was increased to 100 guineas. In 1712 Queen Anne’s gelding Pepper ran for the Royal Cup of £100 at York, and her Mustard, a nutmeg grey horse, ran for the same prize in 1713. Again in 1714 her Majesty’s bay horse Star won a sweepstake of 10 guineas added to a plate of £40 at the same place, in four heats, carrying 11 stone. In 1716 the Ladies’ Plate at York for five year olds was won by Aleppo, son of the Darley Arabian. Racing and match making continued to be a regular sport at Newmarket, and at York and Hambleton, and we also find a record of a race at Lincoln in August 1717 for a silver tea-board, won by Brocklesby Betty, as was the Queen’s Plate at Black Hambleton in the year before.

Between 1714 and 1720 there were races at Pontefract in Yorkshire for plates or money. The best of two out of three heats was to be the winner, provided the said horse was not distanced in the third heat—the distance post being I furlong from the winning post; and this appears to have been a usual condition. In or about the year 1721 Flying Childers is said to have run a trial against AImanzor and Brown Betty over the Round course at Newmarket (3 m. 4 f. 93 y.) in 6 m. 40 s., and another trial over the Beacon course (4 m. If. 138 y.) in 7 m. 30 s.— which is fast even for a six year old; but it is just possible that in those days the art of time-taking was anything but perfect. In 1721 George I. gave 100 guineas in specie in lieu of the gold cup at York presented by Anne, and the king’s or queen’s plates have been given in cash ever since. In 1725 a ladies’ plate was run for on September 14 by female riders on Ripon Heath in Yorkshire. In 1727 Mr John Cheney established the Racing Calendar— an historical list of all the horse matches run, and of all plates and prizes run for in England and Wales of the value of £10 or upwards in 1727, &c. No systematic records had till then been preserved of the running of the race-horses of the day, and it is only through the performances of certain celebrated horses and mares that we have any information of what actually took place, and even that is more or less of a fragmentary kind. At this time racing was thoroughly established as a national and popular sport, for there were upwards of a hundred meetings in England and Wales; but the plates or sweepstakes run for were for the most part of small value, as £10, £20, £30, £40, and sometimes £50. In 1727, according to Whyte, there were only a dozen royal plates run for in England :—one at Newmarket in April for six year old horses at 12 stone each, in heats over the Round course—first called the King’s Plate course; one for five year old mares at 10 stone each, in one heat, and another in October for six year old horses at 12 stone, in heats over the same course; one at York (which commenced in 1711) for six year old horses, 12 stone each, 4-mile heats; one at Black Hambleton, Yorkshire (of which no regular account was kept until 1715), for five year old mares, 10 stone, 4 miles; one at each of the following places, Nottingham, Lincoln, Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury, and Lewes, for six year old horses, 12 stone each, 4-mile heats; and one at Ipswich for five year old horses, 10 stone each. A royal plate was also run for at Edinburgh in 1728 or 1729, and one at the Curragh of Kildare in 1741.

In 1739 an Act was passed to prevent racing by ponies and weak horses, 13 Geo. II. cap. 10, which also prohibited prizes or plates of less value than £50. At this period the best horses seldom ran more than five or six times, and some not so often, there being scarcely any plates of note except royal ones, and very few sweepstakes or matches of value except at Newmarket until after 1750; moreover, as the races were run in heats, best three out of four, over a course of several miles in length, the task set the horses before winning a plate was very severe, and by no means commensurate with the value of the prize. In 1751 the great subscription races commenced at York, the city also giving £50 added money to each day’s racing. At Newmarket there were only two meetings, one in April and the other in October, but in 1753 a second spring meeting was established, and in that year the Jockey Club, which was founded in 1750, purchased the present racing ground. In 1762 a second October meeting was added, in 1765 the July meeting, in 1770 the Houghton meeting, and in 1771 the Craven meeting. In 1766 TattersalΓs was established at Hyde Park Corner by Richard Tattersall for the sale of horses; it remained the great emporium of horses, and the rendezvous for betting on horse races, until 1865, when, the lease of the premises at the Corner having run out, it was removed to its present site at Knightsbridge.

We now come to a very important period—that at which the great three year old races were instituted.

The St Leger was established in 1776 by Colonel St Leger, who resided at Parkhill, near Doncaster. On the 24th September, during the Doncaster races, which took place annually in the autumn, at his suggestion a sweepstake of 25 guineas each for three year old colts and fillies was run over a 2-mile course; there were six competitors, the property of as many subscribers,—a very small beginning, it must be owned. The race was won by a filly by Sampson, belonging to Lord Rockingham, which was afterwards named Allabaculia. In the following year the same stake had twelve subscribers and ten starters, and was won by Mr Sotheron’s Bourbon. It was not, however, until the succeeding year, 1778, that it was named the St Leger, in complement to the founder, at the suggestion of the marquis of Rockingham, on which occasion it was won by Mr T. Gascoigne’s Hollandaise, another filly; thus at the beginning, as well as a century later, the fillies, from Allabaculia and Hollandaise to Apology and Jannette, owing to the cool season of the year at which it is run, were found capable of taking their own part against the colts in the race. The stakes were increased in 1832 to 50 sovs. each, and the weights have been raised from time to time to keep pace with modern requirements. The Doncaster Cup, a weight for age race for three year olds and upwards, was established in 1801. The course is nearly flat, of an oval or kite shape, about If miles round the town-moor. It has been run in 3 m. 14 s. by three year old horses, carrying 8 st. 10 ft), and fillies 8 st. 5 lb.

The Derby and Oaks were established in 1779 and 1780, the Oaks in the former and the Derby in the latter year. It is true that in 1730 Epsom races became annual, but the prizes were nothing more than the usual plates run for in heats, the money required being raised by voluntary subscriptions, as well by the owners of booths on the downs as by the parties more immediately interested, whence arose the custom of charges being made by the lord of the manor for permission to erect booths, <fcc., during the race meetings. On the 14th May 1779 the twelfth earl of Derby originated the Oaks stakes (named after his seat or hunting box “The Oaks” at Wood-mansterne), a sweepstake for three year old fillies run on a course 1£ miles long. The race on its inception was won by Lord Derby’s bay filly Bridget, bred by himself— her sire being Herod and her dam Jemima. In the following year the earl established a sweepstake of 50 sovs. each, half forfeit, for three year old colts. The distance was then one mile, but it has since been altered to a mile and a half, and is now run on a new course starting on a higher level than before, and joining the old course on the top of the hill. Being a very hilly or up and down course, Epsom is excessively trying to horses not perfectly sound. On the first occasion of the Derby being run it was won by Sir C. Bunbury’s chestnut colt Diomed by Florizel, son of Herod, who beat eight opponents, including the duke of Bolton’s Bay Bolton and Lord Grosvenor’s Diadem. These two races have since been run for regularly every year, the Derby, which before 1839 was run on the Thursday, now taking place on the Wednesday, and the Oaks on the Friday in the same week at the end of May. Two fillies only have won both races, viz., Sir C. Bunbury’s Eleanor in 1801 and Mr W. Γ Anson’s Blink Bonny in 1857, but Deception ran second for the Derby in 1839, and subsequently won the Oaks. The course has been run in 2 m. 43 s. by colts and in 2 m. 44 s. by fillies.

Ascot races, which are held on Ascot Heath, on the confines of Windsor Park, close to the kennels of the royal buckhounds, were established by the duke of Cumberland, uncle of George III., and are patronized by royalty in state or semi-state. They are mentioned in the first Racing Calendar, published in 1727, but the races were for the most part plates and other prizes of small importance, though a royal plate for hunters appears to have been given in 1785. The Gold Cup was first given in 1807, and has been regularly competed for ever since, though from 1845 to 1853 inclusive it went by the designation of the Emperor’s Plate, the prize being offered by the emperor of Russia. In 1854, during the Crimean war, the cup was again called the Ascot Gold Cup, and was given from the race fund. The Queen’s Vase was first given in 1838, and the Royal Hunt Cup in 1843, while in 1865 a new long-distance race for four year olds and upwards was established, and named the Alexandra Plate, after the Princess of Wales.

Goodwood races were established by the duke of Richmond on the downs at the northern edge of Goodwood Park in 1802, upon the earl of Egremont discontinuing races in his park at Petworth. The course is situated in most lovely scenery, about 5 miles from Chichester, with downs and woodlands to the north, and the sea and the Isle of Wight to the south. The races take place at the end of July, on the close of the London season. The Good wood Cup, the chief prize of the meeting, was first given in 1812; but from 1815 to 1824 inclusive there was no race for it, with the single exception of 1816. Since 1824 it has been competed for annually.

During the latter half of the 18th century horse-racing declined very much in England, and numbers of meetings were discontinued, the wars which took place necessarily causing the change. From the beginning of the 19th century, and especially after the conclusion of the French war in 1815, racing rapidly revived, and many new meetings were either founded or renewed after a period of suspension, and new races were from time to time established. Among others the Two Thousand Guineas at Newmarket for three year old colts and fillies, and the One Thousand Guineas for fillies, were established in 1809 and 1814 respectively, the Goodwood Stakes in 1823, the Chester Cup and Brighton Stakes in 1824, the Liverpool Summer Cup in 1828, the Northumberland Plate in 1833, the Manchester Cup in 1834, the Ascot Stakes and the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire Handicaps at Newmarket in 1839, the Stewards’ and Chesterfield Cups at Good wood in 1840, the Great Ebor Handicap at York in 1843, and, to omit others, the City and Suburban Handicap at Epsom in 1851, and the Lincoln Handicap in 1853. With the exception of the Two Thousand and One Thousand Guineas run for in the spring at Newmarket, which are as it were junior Derby and Oaks, or at any rate public trials for those events, all these races are handicaps, which came into fashion for the following reasons :—

In the early days of racing the plates or stakes were given for competition by horses of not less than five and generally of six years of age, all carrying the same weights, so that if a four year old, as sometimes happened, entered, it took no allowance from its older and more mature opponents, but had to compete with them on even terms, or at a material disadvantage considering the difference in age. We then find that weight for age races were introduced, a specified difference in weight for each year, where all were not of the same age, being conceded by the older horses. As time went on, however, it was found that when well-known winners entered for a race, other competitors withdrew, and sport was spoiled. A remedy was devised in handicapping, that is, in apportioning a table of weights to the competitors, placing the heaviest impost on the best public performers, and lighter weights in a descending scale upon those of lower calibre, in proportion to their known or assumed demerits. The object of course was in theory to place all, both good and bad, on an equal footing,—in other words, so to burden them that on paper they should all be equal and run a dead heat. In practice it is often far otherwise, for the real merits of a horse ar» frequently kept secret, and he is sent to run in public half trained, with the view of deceiving the handicapper, who then puts on him a lighter weight than he is capable ot carrying, and the race and a large stake of money in bets are frequently so won. It is unnecessary to say that handicaps are thus responsible for much of the malpractice which prevails on the turf, and for keeping in training inferior horses otherwise valueless.

No horses of less than three years of age are allowed to run in handicaps, and at present the lowest weight is 5 st. 7 lb, although some years back it was as low as 4 stone, a weight carried to victory in the Chester Cup by Red Deer in 1844. It would be a step in the right direction to raise the minimum to 7 stone, which would not only tend to the improvement of the horses running, but permit abler and stronger jockeys than the present feather-weights to ride.

Two year old racing was established very shortly after the great three year old races, and on a similar footing, that is to say, the competitors carried the same weights, with the exception of a slight allowance for sex,—the July Stakes at the Newmarket midsummer meeting having been founded as early as 1786. The Woodcote Stakes at. Epsom succeeded in 1807, the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in 1823, the Criterion Stakes at the Houghton meeting in 1829, the Chesterfield Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting in 1834. the New Stakes at Ascot in 1843, the Middle Park Plate (or two year old Derby, as it is sometimes called) at the Newmarket second October meeting in 1866, the Dewhurst plate at the Houghton meeting in 1875, and the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood in 1877.

No race is now run over a shorter course than 5 furlongs.

The number of races in Great Britain in the year 1879, according to the Racing Calendar, was 1626, of which fifty-nine only were of 2 miles and upwards, ten of 3 miles and above, and two of 4 miles. The number of horses competing was 844 two year olds, 633 three year olds, 314 four year olds, and 322 of five years and upwards— in all 2113; and the value of the stakes run for amounted to X380,699. During the same period there were foaled 955 thoroughbred colts and 900 fillies, while 716 mares were barren, 98 slipped their foals, 152 were covered by halfbred horses or not covered at all, and 174 either died or were sent abroad before foaling—the total number of mares on the register being nearly 3000. The horses at the stud who sired the above foals amounted in round numbers to 350.

The following table will show the value of the principal two and three year old races for the last six years :— [table]

Few handicaps ever reach £2000 in value; but to the Manchester Cup of 1880 the sum of £2000 added money was advertised, being the largest amount ever given to a single race, of course irrespective of the stakes of the individual entries.

In regard to the sums won by individual horses we may instance £18,681 won by Gladiateur as a three year old, and £18,025 by Lord Lyon, both of whom won Guineas, Derby, and St Leger; £17,850 by Formosa, who divided the Two Thousand Guineas, and won the One Thousand, Oaks, and St Leger; £11,755 by Achievement, who took the One Thousand and St Leger, after having won £10,387 as a two year old; and £12,074 by Wheel of Fortune, including the One Thousand and the Oaks, after having taken £7665 as a two year old.

The treatment or training of racers is essentially a trade of itself, for horses intended to run for stakes are either sent, if few in number, to a public training stable, such as those at Newmarket and other places, or else, when numerous, are prepared for their engagements by a private trainer, the treatment in both cases being the same. The usual charge per horse in a public stable is from 2 to 2∣ guineas a week, which includes feeding and grooming.

Racing has made considerable progress in other countries besides Great Britain, notably in France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, whither some of the very best bred English horses and mares have from time to time been exported to increase the numbers of thoroughbreds reared on the Continent. Thence have been sent to compete in England such horses as Jouvence, Baroncino, Monarque, Dollar, and Flageolet, winners of the Good wood Cup in 1853, 1855, 1857, 1864, and 1873 respectively; Gladiateur, winner of the Two Thousand Guineas, Derby, and St Leger in 1865; Fille de l ’ Air, Reine, and Enguerrande, winners of the Oaks in 1864, 1872, and 1876; Mortemer, Henry, Boiard, and Verneuil, winners of the Ascot Cup in 1871, 1872, 1874, and 1878; Chamant, winner of the Two Thousand Guineas in 1877; Sornette and Dutch Skater, winners of the Doncaster Cup in 1870 and 1872; and Rayon d’Or, winner of the St Leger in 1879. From Austria Hungary have come Kisber, winner of the Derby in 1876, and the unbeaten filly Kincsem, winner of the Good wood Cup in 1878. In France especially, enormous strides have been made in racing, and, when the superiority of its climate over that of England is considered, it is not surprising that French horses have achieved a fair measure of success in the leading races of the English turf.

American horses have sometimes been sent over to compete in England, but on the whole they have not been very successful, as they have found the English horses too good for them. Their chief successes have been those of Prioress in the Cesarewitch in 1857, of Starke in the Goodwood Cup of 1861, and of Parole in the Newmarket Handicap and the City and Surburban and Metropolitan Stakes at Epsom in 1879.

Steeple-chasing and hurdle-racing take place during the winter months, partly in amalgamated meetings of flat and cross-country races, and partly in meetings purely ac∣oss country and over fences. The chief event is the Liverpool Grand National, run at Aintree towards the close of the hunting season. It dates from 1839, and, though formerly won by well-bred hunters, now commonly falls to thoroughbreds cast off from racing stables as too slow for the flat, as do nearly all the steeple-chases and hurdle-races. Its value averages from £1500 to £1700. There are many meetings in the provinces and in the London district at which steeple-chases and hurdle races are run, but the more important of them are at Croydon, Sandown Park near Esher, Lincoln, Rugby, Warwick, Bristol, Jzc. The prizes are nearly always won by thoroughbreds. (e. d. b.) Horse-Racing and Trotting in the United States.

Horse-racing was indulged in to a limited extent in Maryland and Virginia as early as the middle of the 17th century, particularly in the latter colony. Most of the inhabitants of both were either from the British Isles or were descended from parents who had immigrated from them, and they inherited a taste for the sport. The animals used for this purpose, however, were not highly prized at the time, and the pedigree of not even one of them has been preserved. A horse called Bully Rock by the Darley Arabian out of a mare by the Byerly Turk, granddam by the Lister Turk, great-granddam a royal mare, foaled 1718, is the first recorded importation of a thoroughbred horse into America. He was imported into Virginia in 1730. In 1723 the duke of Bolton bred a mare named Bonny Lass by his celebrated horse Bay Bolton out of a daughter of the Darley Arabian. She became celebrated in England as a brood mare, and was the first thoroughbred mare, according to the records, that was carried to America. This is supposed to have been in or after 1740, as the Stud-Book shows she produced in England after 1739 a filly by Lord Lonsdale’s Arabian, and subsequently became familiar to the public as the granddam of Zamora. The importations increased very rapidly from this period, and many valuable shipments were made before the war which resulted in a separation of the colonies from the mother country. This acquisition of thoroughbred stock increased the number and value of racing prizes, and extended the area of operations into the Carolinas in the South, and New Jersey ai d New York in the North. The first race run in South Carolina was in February 1734, for £20. It took place over “the Green,'* on Charleston Neck. This shows that the earlier races in America were actually on the turf, as they have always been in England. The next year a Jockey Club was organized at Charleston (1735), and a course was prepared, such as those which have since come into general use throughout the States, from which the turf is removed and the ground is made as nearly level as maybe. They are generally oval in shape, and a mile in length, with posts a furlong apart. A race of greater distance than one mile is accomplished by traversing the track the necessary number of times to complete the distance prescribed by the conditions of the race.

After the establishment of the government of the United States (1776), the importation of thoroughbred horses from England became quite common, and selections were made from the best stocks in the United Kingdom. This continued and even increased as the country became developed, down to 1840. The following Derby winners, were among those carried into the States :—Diomed, who won the first Derby in 1780; Saltram, winner in 1783; John Bull, winner in 1792; Spread Eagle, winner in 1795; Sir Harry, winner in 1798; Archduke, winner in 1799; and Priam, who won in 1830. The most important and valuable importations, however, proved to be Jolly Roger, Fearnought, Medley, Traveller, and Diomed in the last century, and Glencoe, Leviathan, Tranby, Lexington, Margrave, Yorkshire Buzzard, Albion, and Leamington of the present century. The best results have been obtained from Diomed and Glencoe. Diomed sired one horse, Sir Archy, who founded a family to which nearly all the blood horses of America trace back. He was foaled in 1805, in Virginia, and became celebrated as a sire. The superiority of his progeny was so generally conceded, that they were greatly sought after. From tins period, too, the number and value of races increased; still they were comparatively few in number, and could not compare in value with those of Great Britain. Up to 1860 the value of racing prizes was quite inadequate to develop large breeding establishments, or to sustain extensive training stables. During that year the number of races run was about 250, of the estimated value of $100,000 (£20,000). The institution, however, was in a healthy condition, and gained rapidly in public favöur, when the civil war between the North and the South broke out, whichragedfor four years. Breeding establishments were broken up during that time; the horses were taken by the armies for cavalry purposes, for which service they were highly prized; and racing was completely paralysed for that period. It took some time to regain its strength; but an era of prosperity set in, about 1870, and it has since continued to grow ami extend the area of its operations, until it has become the chief sport and amusement of the more populous cities of the States.

In 1874 there were 958 races run of the value of $496,772; in 1875, 866 races, of the. value of $490,649; in 1876, 782 races, valued at $485,509; in 1877, 907 races, valued at $441,652; in 1878,1058 races, valued at $461,395; and in 1879, 1221 races were run, of the value of $545,624. In 1877 as many as 1093 horses started; in 1878 there were 1382, and last year 1524. This increase in the value of racing events, and the consequent demand for horses of this class, have stimulated the breeding interests of the country. There are only four prominent breeding establishments which breed and sell the foals produced as yearlings to the public annually. There are, however, a large number of private breeding establishments, some of them nearly or quite as extensive as the public studs. The number of brood mares in the country is about 2100; the stallions number over 300, and the annual number of foals is estimated at about 1400. There are no official records of the produce.

One of the peculiar features of racing in America is that all events are officially timed, and the time is recorded by the clerks of the jockey clubs upon the books of the club. By it the value of different performances by the same or different horses is generally estimated. Of course other elements are considered, such as the weight carried, the age of the horses, the weather, the condition of the track, &c. If a horse of the same age and weight, and over courses of similar conditions, can run a mile a second quicker than another horse, he is regarded as faster at the distance than his rival. The artificial tracks of the country make time a reasonably accurate test when weighed in connexion with other circumstances. Each club has its official timer, who gives the time taken to the clerk as soon as the race is over. The following is the fastest time made at all distances in the United States, down to July 1, 1880:—

Half mile.—Two year olds, 47f s; older horses have no record at this distance. Three quarters of a mile.—Two year olds, 1 m. 15 s.; three year olds, 1 m. 15⅜T⅛.∣ four year olds and upwards, 1 m. 15 s.

One mile.—Two year olds, 1 m. 43⅜s.; three year olds, 1 m. 41∣ s.; four years and upwards, 1 m. 39f s.

One mile and a furlong.—Three year olds, 1 m. 54 s.; four years and upwards,

1 m. 55⅜ s.

One mile and a quarter.—Three year olds, 2 m. 8J s.; four years and upwards,

2 m. 8|s.

One mile and a half.—Three year olds, 2 nr. 37 s.; four year olds and upwards,

2 m. 34∣ s.

One mile and five furlongs.—Three year olds, 2 m. 49i s.; four years and upwards, 2 m. 53 s.

One mile and three quarters.—Three year olds, 3 m. 5⅛ s.; four years and upwards, 3 m. 4 s.

Two miles.—Three year olds, 3 m. 30⅛ s.; four years and upwards, 3 m. 27⅛ s.

Two miles and a furlong.—Three year olds, 3 m. 50 s.; four years and upwards,

3 m. 45⅛ s.

Two miles and a quarter.—Three year olds, 4 m. 2 s.; four years and upwards,

3 m. 56⅛ s.

Two miles and a half.—Three year olds, 4 m. 31J s.; four years and upwards,

4 m. 27⅜ s.

Two miles and three quarters.—Four year olds and upwards, 4 m. 58J s.

Three miles.—Three year olds, 5 m. 28 s.; four years and upwards, 5 m. 26J s. Four miles.—Three year olds, 7 m. 313 s. · four years and upwards, 7 ni. 15J s.

(J. R. H.)

Trotting.— The development of speed in the trotting-horse through systematic breeding and training is one of the great industries of the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, and in no other portion of the world is it pursued to any great extent, except in Russia. This interest, which has attained vast proportions, is entirely the growth of a century, dating back to ther importation to Philadelphia from England, in 1788, of the thoroughbred horse Messenger. This was a grey stallion, by Mambrino, 1st dam by Turf, 2d dam by Regulus, 3d dam by Starling, 4th dam by Fox, 5th dam Gipsey, by Bay Bolton, 6th dam by duke of Newcastle’s Turk, 7th dam by Byerly Turk, 8th dam by Taffolet Barb, 9th dam by Place’s White Turk. He was eight years old when imported to the United States. He was at the stud for twenty years, in the vicinity of Philadelphia and New York, serving a number of thoroughbred mares, but a far greater number of cold-blooded mares, and in the progeny of the latter the trotting instinct was almost invariably developed, while his thoroughbred sons, who became scattered over the country, were also noted for transmitting the trotting instinct. That Messenger was the fountain-head of American trotting is shown by the fact that almost every trotter of merit in that country, whose pedigree is reasonably well established, traces to him in one or more lines, and the more Messenger strains there are in a pedigree the greater is its esteemed value. It was years after the death of Messenger, however, before these facts became apparent; tne taste of the countιy in racing matters was confined to running contests, and systematic trotting breeding is of much later growth. The first public trotting race of which there is any account in the United States was in 1818, when the grey gelding Boston Blue was matched to trot a mile in 3 minutes, a feat deemed impossible, but he won, though the time of his performance has not been preserved. From about that date, interest in this gait began to increase; breeders of trotters, in a small way, sprang up, and horses were trained for trotting contests. The problem of breeding trotters has been necessarily found to be a much more complex one than that of breeding the thoroughbred, as in the latter case pure blood lines of long recognized value could be relied upon, while in the former the best results were constantly being obtained from most unexpected sources. At the present day, the leading families are the Hambletonian, of which tho modern head was Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, a bay horse foaled in 1849, got by Abdallah (traced to imp. Messenger on the side of both sire and dam) out of the Charles Kent märe, by imp. (ι.e., imported) Bellfounder, with two crosses to imp. Messenger on her dam’s side; the Mambrinos, whose modern head was Mambrino Chief, foaled 1844, by Mambrino Paymaster, a grandson of imp. Messenger; the Bashaws, founded by Young Bashaw, foaled 1822, by Grand Bashaw, an Arabian horse, dam Pearl, by First Consul; the Clays, springing from Henry Clay, a grandson of Young Bashaw through Andrew Jackson, and properly a branch of the Bashaw Family, but arbitrary usage, of which there is much in American trotting lineage, makes them distinct; the Stars, springing from Stockholm’s American Star, by Duroc, son of imp. Diomed; the Morgans, whose founder was Justin Morgan, foaled 1793, by a horse called True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, who was probably thoroughbred; the Black Hawks, a branch of the Morgan family; the Blue Bulls, descended from Doyle’s Blue Bull, foaled 1855, a pacer, sired by a pacer of the same name, dam by Blacknose, sou of Medoc; the Canadians, whose best representatives were St Lawrence and pacing Pilot, horses of unknown pedigree; the Gold Dusts, another branch of the Morgan family; and the Royal Georges, springing from Tippoo, a horse who was probably by Ogden’s Messenger, son of imp. Messenger. There are many subordinate branches of these leading families not named here, and in some cases trotters of great speed have been produced which do not trace to any of the sources mentioned. It follows that the breeder has an extensive field before him, and the questions of in-breeding or out-crossing, of the value of thoroughbred crosses, pacing crosses, &c., have to be considered, and are abundantly discussed. There are many large and successful establishments for breeding trotters at the present day. All of them are extensive in acreage, while on several a hundred or more brood mares are kept, besides a number of stallions. As a rule, the stallions do service outside the farms of their owner, but in some cases they are reserved strictly for home use. Very large prices are frequently paid for youngsters, solely on the strength of their breeding. In 1876 $13,000 was paid for two two year old fillies, and $41,200 for a lot of thirteen, nearly all young. Steinway, a three year old colt, was sold in 1879 to go to California, for $13,000; and in 1878 $21,000 was paid for the four year old filly Maud S., after she had trotted a mile in public in 2 m. 17⅛ s. Much larger sums have been paid, however, for matured trotters, such as $40,000 for the stallion Smuggler, $38,000 for Pocahontas, $35,000 for Dexter, $36,000 for Rarus, and long prices for many others; St Julien, the trotter with the fastest record at the close of 1879, was held at $50,000, while Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, Messenger, Duroc, and Volunteer were valued, in their prime, at $100,000 each.

Since the early days of American trotting, the advance has been rapid and the changes marked. After the performance of Boston Blue, mentioned above, more attention was paid to the gait, but for a long time the races were generally under saddle, and at long distances, 3 miles being rather the favourite. The best of the old time trotters were Edwin Forrest, who trotted a mile in 2 m. 31⅜ s. in 1834; Dutchman, whose 3 miles under saddle, in 7 m. 32⅜s., is still the best on record; Ripton; Lady Suffolk, who trotted a mile in 2 m. 26⅛ s. in 1843, and headed the list of performers; Mac, Tacony, &c. Since 1850, however, the taste of the people has settled upon the style of race called “mile heats, best three out of five, in harness,” as the favourite, and nine out of ten contests are of this character. By “in harness” is meant that the horse draws a sulky, a light two-wheeled vehicle in which the driver sits close to the horse, with his legs on each side of his flanks. These sulkies often weigh less than 40 lb. The driver is required to weigh, with the blanket on which he sits, 150 lb, while for saddle races the regulation weight is 145 lb, or 10 st. 5 lb. Each heat of a mile is a separate race; 20 minutes is allowed between heats; and the horse that first places three heats to his credit wins the race. There ar e various penalties imposed upon a horse that breaks into a run in a trotting race. The driver is required to pull him to z a trot as quickly as possible; if the horse gains by running, the judges set him back at the finish twice the distance he has gained, in their estimation, by running; and for repeated “breaks” they can declare him distanced. The first-class tracks are of oval shape, with long stretches and easy curves, measuring 1 mile at 3 feet distance from the “pole,” as the inner railing of the track is called. The time in which the leading horse trots each heat is accurately kept, placed on a blackboard in front of the judges' stand for the information of the public, and also placed in the book of the course. The fastest time that any trotter has is thus entered as his “record.” This is one of the distinctive features of trotting in America. The purses that are given by the association owning tracks are generally divided into classes, such as for horses that have never beaten 3 minutes, that have never beaten 2 m. 40 s., 2m.20s.,⅛c. Hence itis an object, asarnle, for the record of a trotter to be kept as slow as possible, that he may be eligible to compete in slow classes, and as the purses are divided into three or four monies, and the second money is usually half as large as the first, drivers frequently “pull” a superior animal, and content themselves with an inferior portion of the purse for the sake of avoiding a record, which attaches only to the winner of a heat, and from this cause springs a great deal of dishonest racing. It is in the power of the judges, when they think that a horse is not being driven to win, to substitute another driver, and this is often done.

Prior to 1866 purses for trotters were small; match races were more in vogue, and the trotting turf was in bad odour. In that year an association was formed at Buffalo, N.Y., which undertook to remedy the evil, and inaugurated its efforts by offering the then unprecedented sum of $10,500 for a trotting meeting of four days’ duration. The experiment was successful; other cities followed the example of Buffalo; larger and larger purses were given; and at Buffalo in 1872 the prizes amounted to $70,000. Twice at this point $20,000 has been given for a single race, a sum nearly equal to an average Derby winning. Other cities are also in the habit of giving large purses, and the amount offered in the United States and Canada, during a single year, has reached nearly $1,500,000. Individual trotters, in the course of a long turf career, earn enormous amounts. The most remarkable instance of this was the mare Goldsmith Maid, by Alexander’s Abdallah (a son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian), out of an Abdallah mare. She began trotting in 1866, and left the turf in 1878, when twenty-one years old, and her winnings amounted to over $200,000.

In 1869 the organization now known as the National Trotting Association was formed, and it embraces in its membership all the principal tracks of the continent. All members of this association respect the penalties imposed by any other member, and exclusion from the privileges of one is exclusion from the privileges of all. This has had a great tendency to reform abuses on the trotting turf, enabling severe penalties to be inflicted for infractions of the rules, a very elaborate code of which has been published by the National Trotting Association, and is revised triennially.

In trotting races, it will be noted, the time test is supreme, differing from running races, in which time is of comparatively little consequence. The animal which has the fastest record for 1 mile in harness is, until deposed, the king or queen of the trotting turf. Lady Suffolk, with her record of 2 m. 26.⅛ s., in 1843, held this honour until 1853, when Tacony trotted in 2 m. 25⅛ s. under saddle; Flora Temple wrested it from him in 1856 by trotting in 2 rn. 24⅛ s. in harness. This latter mare, in 1859, trotted a mile in 2 m. 19∣ s., a feat which the best horsemen thought would never be repeated, but since that time forty-two trotters have beaten 2 m. 20 s. Dexter’s record was 2 m. 17} s. in 1867, and Goldsmith Maid’s in 1871 was 2 m. 17 s., which she reduced, by successive efforts, to 2 nι. 16∣ s., 2 m. 16 s., 2 m. 15s., 2 m. 14∣ s., and finally, in 1874, to 2 m. 14 s. In 1878 Rarus trotted a mile in 2 m. 13} s., and in October 1879 the bay gelding St Julien, by Volunteer, son of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, dam by Henry Clay, trotted a mile in California in 2 m. 12} s. There is a great diversity of opinion among the best informed horsemen as to the limit of trotting speed, but none fix it slower than 2 m. 10s., while the more sanguine be 1 ieve that a mile will yet be made by a trotter in 2 minutes. The pacing gait, in which the front and hind legs on the same side are moved in the same direction simultaneously, is admitted to be faster than the trotting, in which the near fore leg and the off hind leg move together, but as pacing is not fashionable, and small purses are given for contests between pacers, a great deal of skill has been expended, of late years, in converting pacers to trotters. This is done by means of toe-weights on the forward feet, which are knobs of brass or iron screwed into the hoof or fastened to the shoe, by means of which a competent trainer can not only change a pacing into a trotting horse, but can correct any errors of gait in a natural trotter. With inveterate pacers very heavy weights have to be used, but these can gradually be lessened as the horse becomes accustomed to the trot. So effective are these weights found that there are very few fast trotters upon whom they are not used to some extent, unless the same object is effected by wearing a very heavy forward shoe.

The market for American trotters is by no means confined to those intending to use them for track purposes. While there are probably ten thousand in training, at least an equal number are used by gentlemen for road purposes; and there is great rivalry among millionaires with a taste for driving to secure the best stable, and especially the fastest double team. In September 1877 Mr W. H. Vanderbilt drove his team, composed of Small Hopes and Lady Mac, a full mile over Fleetwood Park track, near New York city, in 2m. 23 s., which is 3⅛ seconds faster than the best record for a mile by a double team, the 2 in. 23 s. performance not being a technical record.

As an indication of the rapid advance that has been made in the general speed of the American trotter, a table recently published in the United States, giving the names of all horses that had trotted 1 mile in harness in 2 m. 25 s., or better, up to the close of 1879, includes 317 performers, and all these, except 25, were living when the table was published. This shows that a 2 m. 25 s. record was a very unusual occurrence only a horse generation since, while now an animal who cannot show that rate of speed is not considered a promising competitor in turf contests.

Every year a book is published containing summaries of all the trotting and pacing events of the preceding year. The record for 1875 showed 3304 events, amount of purses and stakes, $1,418,971; for. 1876, 3484 races, $1,078,449; for 1877, 2802, $951,137; for 1878, 273/, $81/,629; and for 1879, 2246 races, amount of purses and stakes, $750,000.

We give, in conclusion, a table of the fastest trotting and pacing records, at all distances, ages, and ways of going, complete up to Trotting in Harness.

One mile—St Julien. Oakland Pa∣k, Cal.. Oct. 25,1879, 2 m. 123 s., in a first heat. One mile (second heat)—Rarus, Hartford, Conn., August 23. 1878, 2 m. 13} s. One mile (third heat)—Rarus, Buffalo. N.Y.. August 3. 1878. 2 m. 134 s.

One mile (fouιth heat)—Lula. Rochester, N.Y., August 14, 1875, 2 m. 17 s.

O >e mile (fifth heat)—Smuggler, Cleveland. O.. July 27, 1876, 2 m. 17⅜ s.

One mile (sixth heat) -Goldsmith Maid, Hartford. Conn., Aug 31, 1876, 2 in. 19} s. Oue mile—Smuggler, Hartford, Conn., August 31, 1876, 2 in. 15} s., the fastest heat by a stallion.

Half-mile, by a yeaι ling—Memento, Lexington, Ky., October 10, 1877, 1 m. 304 s. One mile, by a two year old—So-So, Lexing on, Ky., October 12, 1877, 2 m. 31's. One mil», three year old—Jewett. Lexington, Ky , Oc'. 15, 1879, 2 m. 23} s.

One mile, four year old—Trinket, Louisville, Ky., July 10. 1879, 2 m. 19}^s.

One mile, five year old—Santa Claus. Sacramento, Cal., Sept 11, 1879. 2 m. 18 s. One mile, over half-mile track—Rarus, Toledo, O., July 20, 1878, 2 nr. 16 s.

One mile, fastest two consecutive heats—Rarus, Hartford, Conn., August 23, 1878, 2 m. 13} s., 2 m 13} s.

One mile, fastest three consecutive heats—Ranis, Hartford, Conn., August 23, 1878, 2 m. 15 s.. 2 m. 134 s.. 2 m. 13’s.

One mile, fastest four consecutive heats—Gloster, Rochester, N.Y., August 14, 1874, 2 in. 18 s., 2 m. 17} s.. 2 m 17 s., 2 m. 19 s.,; and Goldsmith Maid, Hartford, Conn., August 31, 1876, 2 m. 16} s., 2 m. 17} s.. 2 in. 18 s∙, 2 m. 19} s. The aggregate times of these two performances are equal.

Two miles-Flora Temple, Eclipse Course, L. I., August 16, 1859,4m. 50} s. Three miles—Huntress. Prospect P.∣rk. Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept 23, 1872, 7 m. 21}a. Four miles—Trustee. Union Course, L I.. June 13,1849, 11 m. 6 s. Five miles—L∣∣dy Mack, San Francisco, Cal.. April 2, 1874, 13 m.

Ten miles—Controller. San Francisco, Cal., November 23, 1878, 27 m. 28} β. Fifteen miles—Gilda, San Francisco. Cal.. August 6, 1874, 47 m. 20 s.

Twenty miles—Caμt. M ’ <∙owan, Boston. Mass , 1865, 58 m. 25 s.

Fifty miles—Ariel. Albany. N.Y., 1846, 3 h 55 m. 40} s.

One hundred miles—Conqueror, Long Island, November 12,1853, 8 h. 55 m. 53 s.

Trotting to Waggon.

One mile—Hopeful, Chicago, Ill., October 12, 1878, 2 m. 16} s., in a first, heat. One mile (second heat)—Hopeful, Chicago, 111., October 12, 1878, 2 m 17 s. One mile (third heat)—Hopeful, Chicago, Ill., October 12, 1878, 2 m. 17 s.

One mile, drawing 2000 lb—Mountain Maid, Long Island, 1865, 3 m. 24} s.

Two miles—G<∙n. Butler, Long Island, 1863, first, heat, 4 m. 56} s.; Dexter, Long Island, October 27, 1865, second heat, 4 m. 56} s.

Three miles—Kemble. Jackson, June 1, 1853, 8 m. 3 s.

Four miles—Longfellow, California, December 31, 1869, 10 m. 34} s.

Five miles—Little Muck, Fashion Course, L.I., October 29, 1863. 13 m. 43} s. Twenty miles—Controller, San Francisco, Cal., April 20, 1878, 58 m. 57 s. Fifty miles—Spangle, October 15, 1855, 3 h. 49 m. 4 s.

Trotting, Double Teams.

One mile—Gen. Cobb and Lulu May, San Francisco, Cal., 1877, 2 m. 26} s,, in a thiιd h∙ at

One mile, witlr running mate—Ethan Allen and mate, Fashion Course, L.I., June 21, 1867, 2 m. 15 s., in a first heat.

One hundred miles—Master Burke and Robin, 10 h. 17 m. 22 s.

Trotting under Saddle.

One mile—Great Eastern, Fleetwood Park, N.Y., September 22, 1877, 2 m. 15} s. Two miles—Dexter, Long Island, 1865, 5 m. 0} s.

Three miles—Dutchman, Beacon Park, N.J., August 1,1839, 7 m. 32} s.

Four miles—Dutchman, 1836,10 m. 31 s.

Pacing.

One mile, in harness—Sleepy Tom, Chicago, Ill., July 25, 1879, 2m. 12} s.

One mile, under saddle—Billy Boyce. Buffalo. N.Y., August 1, 1868, 2 m. 14} s.

One mile, to waggon—Pocahontas. June 21, 1855. 2 m. 17} s.

Two miles, under saddle—Bowery Boy. Long Island, 1839, 5 m. 4} s.

TwO miles, in harness—Hero. May 17, 1853. 4 m. 56} s.

Three miles, under saddle—Oneida Chief, Beacon Park, N.J., 1843, 7 m. 44 s.

Three miles, in harness—Harry white, San Francisco, Cal., August 8, 1874, 7 m.

57} s.