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FROM THREE TOES TO THOROUGHBRED, Story of the Horse from the Earliest Period of Life and His Development. Embryo-hoofed animals seem to have been the earliest lands earliest life antedating the dawn of the Eocene period. Primary animals were divided by great scholars into classes and grandly christened. Here, however, the terms "even-toed" and "odd-toed" shall serve. The original horses hoof "was toes," as Paddy would 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. AI1 are closely related and widely separated from other existing mammals." The royal horse alone rejoices in the adornment of a long tail and mane; the others have to be content with a caudal appendage resembling a stuffed pantomime stick witli a bunch of hair tied on to the end. Ry 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, its 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, teetli, body, hair, hide, hoofs and tail as wo are familiar witli it today. The early subdivision of the horse was Arab, Rarb and Turk. The Arab was distinguished for speed, docility, beauty of form and gracefulness of motion. The Rarb fathers the modern breeds of heavy draft and cart horses. They 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, Shetlands, Welch and Norwegians. Their first home seems to have been the inhospitable region which forms the source 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 horse before even the dawn of history. It ls In the highest degree foolish to suppose that any man, no matter how strong, courageous or agile, entirely unucquuinted 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 a nearer impossibility. It is done today, granted, but man gained his power by capturing foals, bringing them up in captivity, and thus "catching on" to their "tricks and manners." Certainly one of the earliest high-tone patrons of the horse was the prophet Moluimmed. 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 -svorld Is undoubtedly due to man. There is no trace of horse, as horse, anywhere before the beginning of the eighteenth century, B. C; he is absent from Egyptian monuments or mention till then. Caesar makes the first reference to the English horse, praising the skill with which the native es-seradii handled their war chariots. This early British animal was probably of the small, squat, shaggy pony order. The Roman soon crossed their large horses with these little natives. "With William the Conqueror came the Spanish stallion. The- most interesting place in England is an old estate near Chester on the Liverpool road called The Baich spelling doubtful. It is nearly certain that "William himself used it as his residence. The oddest and oldest corner is a stable, made 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 existed less than twenty years ago with some clumsy lettering cut in, according to tradition, with the Conquerors own hand. The Baicli 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 of my family once lived next to The Baich and was privileged, as an extraordinary favor, to roam about the estate. She discovered this stable and several other very strange things. It is curious to notice that "agriculture seems to have been the last use to which the horse has been put." A piece of Bayeux tapestry represents a horse drawing a harrow. Previous to this, field work had been pre-empted by the ox; a 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 to King Alexander I., to the church of Saint Andrew in Scotland. The presumption is that 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 horse 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 apoligize 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 li provided that "no entire horse 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 I was at liberty to seize a horse of unlawful height ! and those whose duties it was to measure horses, but who refused to do so were to be fined forty shillings." By section two all forests, chases, commons, etc., were to be driven, within fifteen days of Miehel-mas day, and all horses, mares, and colts, not giving promise of being serviceable animals, or of producing them were to be killed. 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, after stating that the "breed of good strong horses" was likely to diminish, it was ordered that the owners of all parks and 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 marcs. Xo person was allowed to wear silk or velvet unless their husbands could afford to keep a horse 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 Siin. 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 en horseback to Westminster Hall The introduction of the carriage created a demand for a Jight quick horse. Before thr.t the ponderous cart order of equities obtained in spite of vigorous attempts at banishn-ent, because his vogue came with chivalry "the first epoch of tin; 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. He gave the biggest price then known, nearly 3,000 pounds, for an Arab stallion from Constantinople. This is the first authentic account of the importation of Arab blood atd 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 horse and not of very excellent shape." Anyway, the beast neither prevailed as a race horse nor as a sire. Charles II. went into breeding with great vim. He sent his Master of the Horse abroad to acquire a number of stallions and mares. They are fully entered in the venerable Stud Book as "Boyal Mares." One foaled in England, a natural Barb mare, was sold by the stud master after Charles II. s death for 25 when twenty years old, being in foal by the Helmsley Turk. At the end of the reign of "Jamie" the First, the carriage quite suddenly became the fashion and, of course, was wildly 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." James 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 Berwick 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 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 or the other of these three, the Ultima Thule of racing pedigree."
