pose for which he intends to raise stock, into the animal bred. For not only is it not true that speed alone is the only good thing derivable from blood, but something very nearly the reverse is true. It is very nearly the least good thing. That which the blood-horse does possess is a degree of strength in his bones, sinews, and frame at large, utterly out of proportion to the size or apparent strength of that frame. The texture, the form and the symmetry of the bones,—all, in the same bulk and volume,—possess double, or nearer four-fold, the elements of resistance and enduirance in the blood-horse that they do in the cold-blooded cart-horse. The difference in the form and texture of the sinews and muscles, and in the inferior tendency to form flabby, useless flesh, is still more in favor of the blood-horse. Beyond this, the internal anatomical construction of his respiratory organs, of his arterial and venous system, of his nervous system, in a word, of his constitution generally,—is calculated to give him what he possesses, greater vital power, greater recuperatory power, greater physical power, in proportion to his bulk and weight, than any other known animal—added to greater quickness of movement, and to greater courage, greater endurance of labor, hardship, suffering—in a word, greater (what is called vulgarly) game or pluck than will be found in any other of the horse family.
But it is not to be said, or supposed, that all blood-horses will give these qualities in an equal degree; for there is as much or more choice in the blood-horse than in any other of the family. Since, as in the blood of the thorough-bred horse, all faults, all vices, all diseases are directly hereditary, as well as all virtues, all soundness, all good qualities, it is more necessary to look, in the blood-horse, to his antecedents, his history, his performances, and, above all, to his
