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FROM THREE TOES TO THOROUGHBRED THOROUGHBREDStory Story of the Horse from the Earliest Period of His Life and His Development Embryohoofed animals seem to have been the earliest lands earliest life antedating the dawn of the Eocene period periodPrimary Primary animals were divided by great scholars into classes and grandly christened Here however the terms eventoed and oddtoed shall serve serveThe The original horses hoof was toes as Paddy vould put it a middle toe and two side toes toesThe The change of the equine pedal extremity to a imple hoof was gradual gradualThe The full roster of the hoofed quadruped family consists of horse ass zebra and qtiagga All are closely related arfcl widely separated from other ex ¬ isting 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 with a bunch f hair tied on to the end endBy By and by a toe disappeared It is supposed that it this time the animal was not much bigger than i fox Graudally it grew till in the Miocene period it was as big as a sheep In Pliocene times it had readied the size of a modern donkey Xot until the Ileiostieeno era was the horse of full horse stature with the neck limbs teeth 1ody hair hide hoofs and tail as we are familiar with it today todayThe The early subdivision of the horse was Arab Barb and Turk TurkThe The Arab was distinguished for speed docility beauty of form and gracefulness of motion motionThe The Barb fathers the modern breeds of heavy draft mil cart horses They came from the vast expanse t marsh and forest that stretched in the old days across Europe from the Rhine eastward to the Euxine Sea SeaThe The Turk was ancestor to the ponies Shetland Welsh and Norwegians Their first home seems to have been the inhospitable region which forms the source f the Ganges Indus and Brahmaputra riv ¬ ers the crest of the Himalaya range rangeClothes Clothes began in Egypt so did the horse the use thereof that is to say but there is adumbrate evi ¬ dence of th domestication of the horse before even the dawn of history historyIt It is in the highest degree foolish to suppose that any man 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 singlehanded 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 mannersCertainly Certainly one of the earliest hightone patrons of the horse was the prophet Mohammed Before his time the Arabs riches consisted of camels oxwi sheep and goats Mohammed is famous as founder a religion and the horse The diffusion of this noble annial throughout the world 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 Egyptan monu ¬ ments or mention till then thenCaesar 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 puny order The Romans soon crossed their large horses with these little natives nativesWith With William the Conqueror came the Spanish stnllimi stnllimiThe The most interesting place in England is an old estate near Chester on the Liverpool road called The Raich 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 pre ¬ cious 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 handThe The Baich is zealously guarded private property which teems with the most ancient of English his torv The above has never been pHnfcd and the information only happens my way because a mem ¬ ber of my faijiily 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 strange things thingsIt It is curious to notice that agriculture seems ti have been the last use to which the horse has been put A piece of Bnyeiix tapestry represents a horse drawing a harrow Previous to this field work had been preempted by the ox a law even existed in Wales forbidding the use of horses for plowing plowingIn In 1121 two eastern horses were imported one remaining in England the other being sent as a present to King Alexander L to the Church of Saint Andrew in Scotland The presumption is that they were Barbs from Morocco MoroccoKing King John the Magua Chnrta magnate was a horsy man he got over a hundred Flemish stal ¬ lions to improve the agricultural breeds breedsEdward 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 ironincased warrior of the era eraWith With Richanl III came post horses and stages stagesWith With Henry VII the gelding eventuated a ne ¬ cessity for it was the custom then for many owners to range their lands indiscriminately indiscriminatelyA 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 fullIn In the thirtysecond year of his reign this bill pertaining to the breeding of horses was passed passedFor For us much us the generation and breed of good and strong horses within this realm extcmleth not only to great help and defense of the same but also to a great commodity and profit to the inhab ¬ itants thereof which is now much decayed and di ¬ minished 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 coineth in manner no profit or com ¬ modity moditySection Section 2 provided Unit no entire horses above the age of two years and not being of the height of fifteen handful shall be put to graze on any common or waste hind in certain counties anyone 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 shillingsBy By section 2 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 produc ¬ ing them were to be killed killedThe 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 countryThis This process seems worthy of imitation in vari ¬ ous quarters today todayBy By still another act after stating that the breed of good strong horses was likuly to diminish it was ordered that the owners of all parks and in ¬ closed grounds to the extent of one mile should keep two mares thirteen hands high for breeding pur ¬ poses or if the extent of the ground was four miles four mares maresNo No 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 AHI The king also imported horses from Turkey Na ¬ ples and Spain SpainBluff Bluff King Hal may have had rocky matrimonial notions but there was evidently nothing much the matter with him where horses were concerned concernedQueen Queen Elizabeth was devoted to horseflesh rode in state to St Pauls Cathedral on a pillion pillionIn In James Is reign came he carriage but it obtained slowly He and his judges rode in state on horseback to Westminster Hail The introduction of the carriage created a demand for a light quick horse Before that the i oiidcrous cart order of equities obtained in spite of vigorous attempts at banishment because his vogue came with chivalry the first1 epoch of the British horse The advent of gunpowder did away with heavy armor for the cavalry soldier so that at hist the call for lighter horses prevailed prevailedJames James was a thorough sportsman He gave the biggest MUfce then known nearly 3000 pounds for in Arab stallion from Constantinople This is the first authentic account of the importation of Arab bjood and forms the first entry in the famous Stud Book on such matters mattersBut But the Arab dJ4 not Hiakt U Jut 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 excellent shape Anyway the beast neither prevailed as a race horse nor as a sire sireCharles 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 Royal Mares One foaled in England a natural Barb mare was sold by the stud master after Charles I Is death for 225 when twenty years old being in foal by the Helmsley Turk TurkAt 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 stirciy 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 coachesJames James II did little for breeding though a good horseman The great entry in the Stud Book there ¬ abouts was wasStradling Stradling Turk brought into England by the Duke of Borwick from the sicse of Build BuildConsiderable Considerable horse interest attaches itself to Wil ¬ liam IIls reign Three eastern horses appear therein to which the modern thoroughbred race horse traces back as the founder of his lineage lineageThe The first of these wiis Byeriy Turk The liiiinnl was used as a charger by Captain Byeriy iiV the Irish wars warsThe The second was known as Durley Arabian in ¬ troduced by a Mr Darley of Aldby Park Yorkshire friuu Aleppo AleppoTin Tin third was the Godolphin Arabian or Itrirlf ItrirlfAll All horses now on the turf or at the stud trace their ancestry in the direct male line to one1 or the other of these three the Ultima Thule of racing pedigree From the peu of AtlBiiraJ Runs
