Thoroughbred horse

“ The stock-raiser gets his thoroughbred horse with his thin neck, small head, diminutive ears, greyhound legs, and peculiar barrel, but with them a high nervous organization and uncertain temper, that make the animal impracticable for the ordinary pursuits of life. ”

“ The racing stables are enabled to contest for more purses and so increase their earnings. There is a greater demand for race-horses, so the breeders have a larger and a better market. But, after all, the sport of racing is only permitted because it tends to improve the breed of horses; not race-horses alone, but because the Thoroughbred, when crossed with other strains and types, tends to improve those types. Now, does the blood of the new-fashioned horse assimilate so well with the common blood as that of the more compact, and possibly sturdier, horse of thirty or fifty years ago? ”

“ Whether the steeple-chaser on his thoroughbred, or the Indian on his mustang is the better rider, cannot well be decided. The peculiar horsemanship of every country has its manifest advantages, and is the natural outgrowth of, as well as peculiarly adapted to, the climate, roads, and uses to which the horse is put. The cowboy who can defy the bucking broncho will be unseated by a two-year-old which any racing-stable boy can stick to, while this same boy would hardly sit the third stiff boost of the ragged, grass-fed pony. The best horseman of the desert would be nowhere in the hunting-field. ”

“ If the country be an open one with large enclosures, and consequently few fences, the thoroughbred will be the best horse for hunting purposes, speed being the requisite, but for a cramped country, a half-bred horse is the best, being [85] better qualified to get over awkward fences than the thoroughbred, who has for generations and generations been bred for flat racing, and consequently has to some extent lost the knack or power of jumping over a high fence, although he can easily defeat the half-bred over a wide jump. ”

“ The Hunter may be quite thoroughbred, nearly thoroughbred, or half-bred. If for a light weight, say under twelve stone, and in such flying counties as Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, a thoroughbred should be ridden, provided the purse be long enough to procure one up to the weight and with the necessary qualities. A nearly thoroughbred will suit a weight of from twelve to sixteen stone, but beyond that a horse with great strength, good action, and a certain amount of breeding—in fact, a well-bred cart-horse—will be required. ”

“ Since the middle of the eighteenth century the practice of interbreeding with Oriental blood has been discontinued, and although half-bred horses were raced until the first part of the nineteenth century, the thoroughbred has ever since the foundation of the ‘racing calendar’ been the recognized race-horse, and his pedigree has been strictly and authentically kept. During the seventeenth century speed was not the sole qualification of a race-horse ”

“ It is not probable that any one who was desirous of breeding a horse suitable for the saddle would select a very inferior mare, for, even though her pedigree were unknown, the qualities which suggested her selection would prove her something better. It cannot be denied that occasionally a literal half-breed, by a thoroughbred on common stock, turns out a good animal, and such a cross is often the foundation of valuable types ”

“ 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, crossing, 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. ”

“ Only the stanchest, bravest, fastest type of horse is suited for hunting in Virginia, and for this reason the more experienced riders to hounds prefer the thoroughbred, though half-bred and three-quarter-bred horses are also used to some extent, the thoroughbred often being too mettlesome, when he becomes excited, for any but the best riders. ”

“ A very strong strain of thoroughbred blood is needed to produce the best type of saddle horse and, aside from their suitableness for park riding, many thoroughbreds, properly trained and judiciously selected as to conformation, make horse show winners.
Riding a thoroughbred is altogether different from riding any other kind of a horse. ”

“ The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-shouldered, round-legged, black family horse, neither a coach nor a dray-horse, but something between both, as fat as an ox, and, with all his pride and prancing at first starting, not equal to more than six miles an hour, and knocking-up with one hard day’s work, is no more seen; and we have, instead of him, an animal as tall, deep-chested, rising in the withers, slanting in the shoulders, flat in the legs, with even more strength, and with treble the speed. ”

“ He cracks his whip; the horses throw up their heads and break into a canter; the cavaliers turn pea-green about the chops, let go the reins and clutch saddle-pommels.
The leading horse, a rakish chestnut, finding his head free at last and being heartily fed-up with the whole business, suddenly bolts out of the manège and legs it across the meadow, en route for stables and tea. ”

“ If the bull-finch be too strong, the hunter may stick in it, or forcing through it into the ditch on the other side, may leave his owner hanging like a bird's-nest in its branches. An ox-fence—composed of two ditches, a bank, a pair of hedges, and a stiff, low, oak rail—may altogether prove too broad to be cleared. Timber also may be too high to be topped; yet, in all these cases, if the rider be but willing, the noble horse is always ready, ay, eager, to do his very best, and many a broken back and prostrate carcase, divested of its saddle and bridle, has been the melancholy result ”

“ Confident in the qualities of his steed, he knows he will not long ride in the rear.
And the blood-bay answers his expectations. As if joyed at being relieved from his inert load—to him an incubus inexplicable—and inspired by the pressure of his master’s knees, the noble horse springs off over the prairie turf—in long sinewy strides, showing that his body still retains its strength, and his limbs their elasticity. ”

“ It was composed of living forms—the most beautiful known in nature: for in this man must give way to the horse. Not the unsexed horse of civilisation, with hunched shoulders, bandied limbs, and bowed frontlet—scarce one in a thousand of true equine shape—and this, still further, mutilated by the shears of the coper and gentleman jockey—but the wild steed of the savannas, foaled upon the green grass, his form left free to develop as the flowers that shed their fragrance around him. ”

“ Good horses have a higher value than ever, and as the demand for cheap or poorly bred horses diminishes, the better bred ones survive, and what is lost in number is more than balanced in breed and consequent value. (See Breeds and Breeding.) The principal breeds of racing horses are the Bashaws, Clays, Black Hawks, Hambletonians, Mambrino Chiefs, Pilots, American Stars and Blue Bulls. (See Trotting and Pacer.) The most prominent types of the pony include the Shetland, Galloway, Welsh, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and Canadian breeds. (See Pony.) See also the articles Ass; Mule; Shire Horse ”

“ There are many more worthless brutes among thoroughbreds than among the common herd. While it is easy to acknowledge that the perfect thoroughbred excels all other horses, the fact must also be noted that he is of extremest rarity, and even when found is infrequently up to weight. ”

“ There were, as it happened, only three pinto horses in the entire saddle stock, and these three were the last left of the entire bunch. Now a little boy or girl, and many an older person, thinks that a spotted horse is the real thing, but practical cattle men know that this freak of color in range-bred horses is the result of in-and-in breeding, with consequent physical and mental deterioration. It was my good fortune that morning to get a good mount of horses,—three sorrels, two grays, two coyotes, a black, a brown, and a grulla. ”

“ Horses are abundant, but are small, and are not up to heavy weights. They are entirely unshod, and, though their hoofs are very shallow and grow into turned-up points and other singular shapes, they go over rough ground with facility at a scrambling run of over four miles an hour following a leader called a "front horse." ”

“ They are generally smaller, yet stronger, than the domesticated animal, with rougher coats, stronger limbs, and larger heads. Even when adult, the wild horse is readily domesticated, and may be broken to any use without great difficulty, thus proving the natural gentleness and docility of his nature. ”

“ The selection of a mare, relatively larger than the horse, is an important rule in breeding, and it is believed that much of the success of Arabian and other Eastern horses as stock-getters, has resulted from the application of this principle. They possess valuable traits, but condensed within too small a compass. When such an animal is put to a well-bred, larger mare, the fœtus has abundance of room and nourishment to develop and perfect the circumscribed outlines of the male parent, and acquire for itself increased volume and character. ”

“ For the practical uses of life there seem to be as many breeds of Horses as are necessary to meet the varying requirements of an industrial civilization. We find all kinds and sizes, from the heavy and powerful Percheron or Clydesdale cart Horse, standing sometimes over six feet in height, to the smallest Shetland pony which may be even less than three feet at the withers, and we find Horses of various colors, of various lengths of mane and tail, and of varying degrees of intelligence. ”

“ Again, in the hunting-field, a noble, high-couraged horse, a rusher at any description of fence, the very sight of which seems to inflame his ardour, in most gallant style charges a brook, which when he is in the air he sees is too broad to be cleared. On his chest striking against the bank, and while his rider, delighted at feeling that he is not a bit hurt, is luxuriously rolling over and over on the green grass like a rabbit that at full speed has been shot dead, this gallant steed makes two, three, or four desperate efforts to get to him ”

“ This family of horses has not of course been bred long enough within themselves, to have attained to the eminence of a distinct breed. They are mentioned, merely as a type of what the serviceable roadster ought to be, and what he may become by the use of the proper instruments for breeding. And if the materials already in our hands are intelligently and perseveringly used, we can produce all we require of horse-flesh. ”

“ Another wants heavy draught-horses, with legs like great pillars under them, and thick, muscular necks—horses weighing nearly a ton apiece and able to draw the heaviest trucks. What a contrast between these slow but powerful animals and the graceful, prancing racer with legs like pipe-stems—fleet and agile, but not strong enough to draw a heavy load!
All these different breeds of horses have been developed since man succeeded in capturing the wild horse and making it help him. ”

“ Notwithstanding that the climate of England has never been esteemed particularly favourable to the horse, yet long-continued selection, both methodical and unconscious, together with that practised by the Arabs during a still longer and earlier period, has ended in giving us the best breed of horses in the world. ”

“ ARE there any genuine wild horses in existence—that is to say, any that are not descended, like those of South America, from a domesticated stock? Naturalists have all concurred until very recently in answering this question negatively. They were of opinion that, as in the case of the sheep, the goat, and some other domestic animals, not a singular indication remains by which we can judge of the form, the colour, or the habits, by which the horse was characterized before it became the servant of man, or how far it may have differed from the present domesticated races. ”

“ They never groom their horses and never clean the harness or bits, yet the horses keep fit as fiddles and look really well too. Their intelligence is extraordinary. Almost every night I see the old chap, at whose farm I keep my own horses, come in with four or five horses from ploughing—riding on one, not in the orthodox fashion, i.e., astride, but with both legs hanging over the horse's near side, something like ladies' style of riding, but without saddle, braces, or stirrups. He is leading no fewer than four other horses on one rein—a remarkable thing in itself. ”

“ For example, many of us are more or less familiar with the style of picture frequently displayed in old English inns, and, more rarely, in our own country. The horse is almost invariably depicted as standing in a stable with a small feed-box in one corner, his muscles bulging out and his contour greatly accentuated by the aid of unaccountable lights and shades. ”

“ If the supply of horseflesh is to be maintained, if we are not prepared to let the breed die out altogether, then horse racing is the only method whereby the standard can be preserved at a proper and efficient level. Shows, agricultural and otherwise, are powerless in their endeavour to accomplish this end. Magnificent looking creatures bred for the ring, only too surely and quickly prove themselves to be abject failures when tested on the course or in the field. Vitality, stamina, courage, soundness, are the qualities which we desire to perpetuate in our breeds. ”