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FROM THREE TOES TO THOROUGHBRED. Slory of the Horse from the Earliost Poriod of Life and His Development. Embryo hoofed animals seem io hare been the earliest lands earliest life antedating the dawn of the Eocene period. Primary animnls wore divided by great scholars Mito classes and grandly christened. Here, however, .e terms "even-toed" and "odd-toed" shall serve. The original horses hoof "was toes." as Paddy .voalil put it a middle toe and two side toes. The change of the equine pedal extremity to a simple hoof was very gradual. The full roster of the hoofed quadruped family consists of horse, ass, zebra and quagga. "All are closely related and widely separated from other existing mammals." The royal koree alone re.ioices in the adornment of a long tail and mane: the others have to be content with a caudal appendage resembling a stuffed pantomime stick with a bunch of hair tied on lo the end. By and by a toe disappeared. It is supposed that, at this time, the animal was not much bigger than a fox. Gradually it grew till, in the Miocene period, it was as big as a sheep. In Pliocene times it had reached the size of a modern donkey. Not until the Pleiosticene era was the horse of full horse stature with the neck, limbs, teeth, body, hair, hide, hoofs and tail as we are familiar with it today. The early subdivision of the horse was Arab. Barb cud Turk. The Arab was distinguished for speed, docility, beauty of form, gracefulness of motion. The Barb fathers the modern breeds of heavy draft and cart horses. Tney came from the vast expanse of marsh and forest that stretched, in the old days, across Europe from the Rhine eastward to the Euxine Sea. The Turk was ancestor to the ponies. Shctlands. Welch, Norwegians. Their first home seems to have been the inhospitable region which forms tlie wurce of the Ganges. Indus and Brahmaputra rivers, the crest of the Himalaya range. Clothes began in Egypt so did the horse the use thereof, that is to say. but there is adumbrate evidence of the domestication of the liorse before even the dawn of history. It is in the highest degree foolish to suppose tliat any niau. no matter how strong, courageous or agile, entirely unacquainted with equestrianism would ever .succeed in catching, mounting and riding a wild horse. To capture an elephant or lion single-handed without mechanical or other aid could not be nearer impossibility. It is done today, granted, but man iuiicd his iower by capturing foals, bringing them up in captivity, and thus "catching on" to their irieks aud manners." Certainly one of the earliest high-tone patrons of the horse was the prophet Mohammed. Before his time the Arabs riches consisted of camels, oxen, sheep and goats. Mohammed is famous as founder of a religion and the horse. The diffusion of this noble animal throughout the world is undoubtedly due to man. There is no trace of horse, as horse, anywhere before the beginning of the eighteenth entury. B. C; he is absent from Egyptian monuments or mention till then. Caesar makes the first reference to the English i jrse, praising the skill with which the native es-sedarii handled their war chariots. This early British animal was probably of the small, squat. f h:iggy iony order. The Roman soon crossed their large horses with these little natives. With William the Conqueror came the Spanish stallion. One. no, the most interesting place in England is nn old estate near Chester on the Liverpool road ailed The Baich spelling doubtful. It is nearly ci rtain that William himself used it as his residence. The oddest and oldest corner is a stable. Hi?." of a shallow cave with an addition of strong timbering. It was here, under his personal care, that the precious Spanish stallion lived. A door e xisted less than twenty years ago with some clumsy lettering cut in. according to tradition, with the Couquerors own hand. The Baich is zealously guarded private property which teems with the most ancient of English history. The above has never been printed and the information only happens my way because a member ..f my family once lived next The Baich and was privileged, as an extraordinary favor, to roam about the- estate. She discovered this stable and several other Tory strange things. It is rrrloui to notice that "agriculture seems to have bf i hf last use to which the horse has been put. tF e of Bayeux tapestry represents a liorse drawing a harrow. Previous to this, field work had been pre-empted by the ox: n law even existed in Wales forbidding the use of horses for plowing. In 1121 two eastern horses were imported, one remaining in England, the other being sent as a present lo King Alexander I. to the church of Sain Andrew in Scotland. The presumption is they were Barbs from Morocco. King John, the Magna Charta magnate, was a horsey man; he got over a hundred Flemish stallions to improve the agricultural breeds. Edward III. is to be credited with the introduction of fifty Spanish jennets. At this time the cavalry charger was practically the cart liorse of today; had to be to carry the iron-encased warrior of the era. With Richard III. "came post horses and stages. With Henry VII. the gelding eventuated: a necessity for it was the custom then for many owners to range their lands indiscriminately. A statute of Henry VIII. is so full of interest to lovers of our royal animal that I do not apologize for quoting it in full. In the thirty -second year of his reign this bill pertaining to the breeding of horses was passed: "For as much as the generation and breed of good and strong horses within this realm extendeth, not only to great help and defense of the same, but also to 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, nags of small stature and little value be not only suffered to pasture thereon, but also to cover mares feeding there, whereof cometh in manner no profit or commodity." Section 2 provided that "no entire liorse above the age of two years and not being of the height of fifteen handfuls shall be put to graze on any common or waste land in certain counties; anyone was at liberty to seize a liorse of uulawful height and those whose duties it was to measure horses, but who refused to do so were to be lined forty shillings." By section two all forests, chases, commons, etc.. were to be driven, within fifteen days of Michel-mas day. and all horses, mares, and colts, not giving promise of being serviceable animals, or of producing them were to be killed.i The aim of the act was to prevent the breeding of animals not calculated to produce the class of horse suited to the needs of the country. This process seems worthy of imitation in various quarters today. By still another act. sifter stating that the "breed of good strong horses" was likely to diminish, it was ordered that the owners of all parks aud inclosed grounds to the extent of one mile should keep two mares thirteen hands high for breeding purposes or, if the extent of the ground was four miles, four mares. No person was allowed to wear silk or velvet unless their husbands could afford to keep a liorse all ready for war. If this order was disobeyed the offender was fined ten pounds every three months. History of Chester. Vol. VIII. The king also imported horses from Turkey," Naples and Spain. Bluff King Hal may have had very rocky matrimonial notions, but there was evidently nothing much the matter with him where horses were concerned. Queen Elizabeth was devoted to horseflesh: rode in state to St. Pauls Cathedral on a pillion. In James I.s reign came the carriage, but it obtained slowly. He and his judges rode in state on horseback to Westminster Hall. The introduction of the carriage created a demand for a light quick horse. Before that the ponderous cart order of equines obtained in spite of vigorous attempts at banishment, because his vogue came with chivalry "the first epoch of the British horse." The advent of gunpowder did away with heavy armor for the cavalry soldier so that, at last, the call for lighter horses prevailed. , James was a thorough sportsman. ne gave the biggest price then known, nearly 3,000. for an Arab stallion from Constantinople. This is the first authentic account of the importation of Arab blood and forms the first entry in the famous Stud Book on such matters. But the Arab did not make a hit. "more tother." The Duke of Newcastle, who was famous for his treatise on the horse, described the importation as "a small bay liorse and not of very excellent shape." Anyway, the beast neither prevailed as a racehorse nor as a sire. Charles II. went into breeding with great vim. He sent hia Master of the liorse abroad to acquire a number of stallions and mares. Thcv are fully entered in the venerable Stud Book as "Royal Mares." One foaled in England, a natural Barb marc, was sold by the atud master after Charles II. n death for 25 when twenty years old. being In foal by tm Helmriey Turk. At Uio end of the reign of "Jamie" the First, the carriage quite suddenly became the fashion aud, of course, was iwlldly overdone. Fashion, is surely typical of unrestraint everywhere and In everything. In this instance, a statute had to be passed "to restrain the excessive and superfluous use of coaches." .Tames II. did little for breeding, though a good horseman. The great entry in the Stud Book thereabouts was: "Stradling Turk brought into England by the Duke of Borwick from the siege of Budd." Considerable horse interest attaches itself to William III.s reign. Three eastern horses appear therein: ". . . to which the modern thoroughbred race horse traces back as the founder of his lineage." The first of these was Byerly Turk. The animal was used as a charger by Captain Byerly in the Irish wars. The second was known as the Darley Arabian, introduced by a Mr. Darley of Aldby Park, Yorkshire, from Aleppo. The third was the Godolphin Arabian, or Barb. "All horses now on the turf or at the stud, trace their ancestry in the direct male line to one of the other of these three, the Ultima Thule of racing pedigree." This enables me to end with the thoroughbred, properly so-called. H. St. Mawr in Outing.
