ORDER VI.—BELLUÆ.
112. The HORSE (Equus caballus, Fig. 30) is distinguished from every other quadruped by having his hoofs single, and his tail covered with long hair.
The male has the name of horse, the female of mare, and the young one of foal.
Wild horses are found, in large herds, in Siberia, and several other parts of Asia, as well as in some parts of Africa.
Endowed with the most useful qualifications, the horse is an animal of the greatest importance to the inhabitants of all temperate climates. Though naturally spirited, active, and intrepid, he submits with patience to carry burthens, and to toil, for days together, along roads and in agricultural labours. And, if treated with care and attention, he perseveringly adapts himself to our wants and conveniences. In some parts of Tartary these animals have even been made objects of divine worship, originating, no doubt, in a principle of gratitude for the services they perform. By the Arabians they are nearly as much attended to and beloved as human beings: they live in the same tents with their owners, and participate in all the kindnesses which this people bestow upon their own families. In Arabia, indeed, they may be deemed the chief support of the families which possess them; and (surrounded with foes) the very existence of the owner not unfrequently depends upon the powers of his horse.
In no country of Europe is so much attention paid to the breeding and training of horses as in England. The consequence has been that the British horses are superior, both in swiftness of foot, and in strength and perseverance in the course, to any others in this quarter of the world.
The fleetest of all the British horses is, of course, the race-horse: and, for short distances, none of the Arabians, which have been tried in England, have proved in any degree equal to him. The celebrated horse called Childers, in the year 1721, ran four miles in six minutes and forty-eight seconds, carrying a weight of nine stone two pounds. Had the different racing meetings at Newmarket, York, and other places, no other view than to call together great concourses of people for amusement, their tendency would be injurious rather than beneficial to society; but when it is considered that such meetings are the cause of great emulation in the breeding of a race of animals so valuable as the horse, their utility will be sufficiently apparent.
The English hunters are allowed to be among the noblest, most elegant, and most useful animals that are known; and the value of our hackneys, or road horses, may be imagined when it is stated that many of them are able to trot at the rate of more than fifteen miles per hour.
So great is the strength of these animals, that instances have been mentioned of a single horse drawing, for a short space, the weight of three tons; and of others carrying a load which weighed more than 900 pounds. The immense dray-horses that are employed by brewers, and are so frequently seen in the streets of London, though in some measure they are useful as being able better to sustain the shock of loading and unloading than slighter animals, are chiefly kept from a principle of ostentation. The British draught-horses are extremely valuable animals, but particularly a chesnut-coloured race called Suffolk-horses.
In Scotland there is a breed of small horses, or ponies, which are known by the name of galloways. The best of these seldom exceed the height of fourteen hands and a half,[[2]] and are uncommonly active, hardy, and spirited animals. The Shetland Islands produce a race called shelties, which, though exceedingly diminutive in size, are, in other respects, highly excellent.