Guinea-pig
Guinea-pig.—Frequently domesticated as pets, but more often a game animal in the forest regions of South America.
Horse
Horse (Equus) is one of the noblest and most useful of animals. The horse proper is characterized by the tail with long hairs from its base; the long and flowing mane; a bare callosity on the inner surface of the hind as well as of the fore legs; and by the head and ears being smaller and the limbs longer than in the ass and other related species.
ORIGINAL HOME AND ANCESTORS
OF THE HORSE
The native country of the horse seems to have been central Asia. It became early [253] domesticated in Egypt, and is mentioned throughout the Bible. The Greeks and Romans had some covering to secure their horses’ hoofs from injury. In the ninth century, horses were only shod in time of frost. Shoeing was introduced into England by William I., 1066. It is believed that the original breed of horses is extinct, and that the half-wild herds existing in many places have descended from animals once in captivity. Thus, when the horse was first introduced by the Spaniards in 1537, at Buenos Ayres, there were no wild horses in America. But individuals escaping ran wild, and, by 1580, their descendants had spread over the continent as far as the Straits of Magellan. More fossil horses have been found in the new than in the old world. The horse may have descended from a striped ancestor, stripes still sometimes remaining, especially in duns and mouse-duns.
THE VARIOUS BREEDS
OF HORSES
Like other domestic animals the horse has run into various breeds. The most celebrated is the Arab horse. Great attention is given in America to the breeding of horses, and American horses have won races both in England and on the Continent.
While the increasing use of automobiles by farmers and others may have a more or less depressing effect upon the demand for some classes of horses, no machine can successfully supersede the horse in more than a part of his many uses in business, sport and pleasure. There is a prevailing tendency toward heavier horses for farm work, and draft work in cities as well.
Of the draft breeds the Percherons, of French origin, are regarded with high favor, while the Clydesdales, from Scotland, have a well merited if not equal popularity. The English Shire and Belgian horses are also excellent types of the drafters. Cleveland Bays, one of the oldest and most popular of the English Coach breeds, are quite appropriately termed “the general utility horse,” while the admirers of the German and French Coachers, as yet comparatively few in numbers in the United States, regard them as unexcelled for similar purposes. Hackneys are pre-eminently adapted to drawing any sort of vehicle at a rapid pace on the road, and French Coachers are in demand for large, stylish, high-stepping carriage teams and single drivers.