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ORIGIN OF THE THOROUGHBRED THOROUGHBREDThe The question is frequently asked what is a thor ¬ oughbred horse V and wherein docs he differ from other iiorstsV iiorstsVThe The thoroughbred horse is of oriental extraction and an animal developed through centuries of cul tivation by enlightened nations Good food earefu1 housing from stress of weather and ample care of mares during their period of gestation have made the thoroughbred horse what he is today while his oriental prototype in Asia and northern Africa is just what he was so far as concerns size power and liberty of action live centuries ago The stride of the average Arabian or Barbarian horse is about seventeen feet at the very apex of his speed while almost any thoroughbred will cover from twentyolio to twentythree foot when fully extended The famous oldtime Alabama mare Peytouia is said to have run at a stride of twentyeight feet feetEngland England is entitled to the credit of originating Ihe thoroughbred horse The breed has spread over the entire intelligent habitable globe wherever the value of beauty in form utility speed combined with strength so indisiKMisahly necessary to lalxjr pastime war and the turf is valued So the term thoroughbred when applied to horses is understood to mean an animal of a breed that has been bred in England for generations to race at the running gait Horses were raced In England for at least j il years and probably considerably more than that before the thoroughbred breed was established Dur all those years the breeders f race horses in Eng Engul ul had doubtless endeavored to improve the speed and other racewinning qualities of their racing stock by careful selections of sires and dams of demonstrated merit meritThe The eminent English writer J II AValsh Stone hcnge author of the valuable standard work The Horse in the Stable and the Field staled that the breed of race horses known as thoiroughhrcd was es ¬ tablished about 1750 The foundation stock from which this breed was created as stated by Stone heiifie was as follows followsFirst First Native mares used for racing and bred from Spanish and English strains the iormer most probably descended from the Barbs oc Morocco MoroccoSwond Swond Markhams Arabian imimrtcd in the time of James the First ami most probably there la not now the slightest strain of his blood extant extantThird Third Places White Turk extensively used and lo him most of our best horses can be traced through Matchcm MatchcmFourth Fourth Tlio three Turks brought over from the siege of Vienna In 1US4 1US4Fifth Fifth The royal mares imKirtcd by Charles the Second who sent his Master of the Horse to the Levant especially to procure them These are abo mentioned in all the best pedigrees pedigreesThere There are two classes of thoroughbreds one of which includes only such descendants of King Charles royal mares as were by pure Barb Arabian or Turkish stallions without the admixture of other blood while the other class includes animals that are direct descendants in the paternal line of the lirst class and have inherited not less than live unbroken crosses in the maternal line of the thor ¬ oughbreds of the first class As generally under ¬ stood it includes all such animals regardless of their speed ability or other racu winning qualities that were eligible to registration as thoroughbreds in the old English Stud Book and no distinction was made there between the two classes alioye named namedTlie Tlie thoroughbred horse of America is a descend ¬ ant of the English thoroughbred There were three horses to one or another of which the English thor ¬ oughbred Is largely indebted for his most valuable qualities They were Byerly Turk Darley Arabian and Codolphin Arabian all of which were undoubt ¬ edly pure bred horses of the desert The three sur ¬ viving cardinal lines of the thoroughbred of the present time are Eclipse Matchcm and llerod lirst called King Herod Eclipse foaled 1751 was a direct descendant in the paternal lino of Dailev Arabian Matthem foaled 174S of Go dolphiu Arabian and Herod foaled 175S of Byerly Turk The dam of Herod was inbred to Darley Arabian through Flying Childyrs The dam of Matohem was by Crofts Partner a son of Jigg by Byerly Turk and the dam of Kclipse was by Regu lus a son of Godolphin Arabian ArabianThe The thoroughbred horse of today therefore is simply developed from the oriental horse by cen ¬ turies of cultivation and good treatment The male lines of only three oriental horses are now extant the Darley Arabian the Byerly Turk and the Godol ¬ phin Arabian and all lines from these three ori ¬ ental sires are extinct with the exception of Match em Herod and Eclipse
