Horseflesh.
Page 2
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By "The Inspector."
I am sorry, this week, to attempt the feat, a not uncommon one to confirmed journalists I am told, of writing on a subject of which I know next to nothing. I can, in that way, at the very least, claim that I am no prejudiced expert, that I have an open mind. I purpose, therefore, to write shortly of horseflesh, the live rather than the dead variety, of which latter the only uses known to me are as hide, horn and sustenance for cats.
I frankly admit that I know nothing of the jargon of the stable. I never fully appreciated the deli*ts of a black-and-white check waistcoat or even of side whiskers. I do not know a pastern from a pommel, a snaffle from a ringed hock. I am quite sure I should cut myself badly if I were in the M.T. and had to wear • spurs it would give me asthma if I had constantly to buck spurs; No, I am not horsey by instinct or even by accident. I have tried to drive, as it is euphemistically called, that is to say I have held the reins while the horse went ahead, but I never succeeded in solving the problem of stopping a nag who had put his reverse in. Any tugging at the reins makes things worse, and I know of no satisfactory alternative short of putting a, brick under the wheel, and that hardly sounds like driving. If there is a proper way to stop a backing steed, I am much intrigued to know it. * * I like the horse to look at, to think he is the friend of man, or is it the dog ? I have been taught that he is a noble creature and I presume it is so. Ile is one of the very few animals that is not really rather if not wholly repulsive in appearance. Nature made horses, some dogs, and most deer and a few other presentable examples of animal creation, but what on earth was Nature's object in producing such hideous excrescences as the pelican, the flamingo, the rhino, the camel, the crocodile, the jackal, the bun and dozens of other animal eccentricities. I often wonder if the horse was originally a "'good looker," as our latest Allies have it, or has the breed been improved in appearance to any very remarkable extent since creation. He looked much the same in Egyptian days in any case.
With his appearance my liking for the horse disappears. I cannot drive him, at any rate backwards, and I can only use him for most limited service ; his power is limited and so is his speed. No amount of scheming or contriving, no re-design of re-construction will enable me to get any more out of him than was originally intended. By careful breeding and after the lapse of a few generations, I am told, it is possible to persuade the resultant cant-horse to pull another few hundredweight ; and he probably goes the slower for it. By similar cumbrons treatment I can ensure that the racehorse shall beat some other spindle-legged quadruped over a mile or two by the length of half a head. That is the very utmost it is possible to improve the breed. Worth doing, no doubt, and we have the best of its kind when it is done, but with it all how much does this "improve
c20 inent of the breed" amount to, as modern progress counts?
If it were possible to produce a horse with twice the power, or one with Caterpillar tracks, one that you could rim equally well in either direction, a longer one with six legs or a shorter one with two, there would seem to be some reason for all this stable scream from bookmakers and other useful members of society as to the need to maintain horse-racing.Is it not a fact that there is absolutely no national need for horse-racing to continue Is not the claim for its continuance merely a thoughtless concession to an unchallenged statement. Racing, per se, produces abnormalities, just as do other competitions, but the net result on Nature's handiwork appears so trivial, so unworth the efforts and activities it necessitates, that it should undoubtedly be classified as unessential. Is it seriously contended that we would have no fine cavalry regiments or horsed artillery batteries if we did nob race or hunt? I imagine not. Not the best shots are necessarily trained at the grouse butts.
I can imagine this horse-breeding business could, for what it is worth, be carried on quite as well by the observance on scientific lines of the marked animals in actual service. Horse racingshould be stopped now, with no more hardship and loss than the release of a. great deal of badly-needed agricultural and similar labour and the throwing into more useful work of the rest of the fraternity whose lives are devoted to backing the odds.
The horse is the friend of man, but it is a, curious thing that one of the most lasting reasons for this affection is his ability to provide close sport for "sportsmen." His utility in civilized communities is vely rapidly diminishing. He will some "day be relegated to spheres where his somewhat insanitary habits will no longer be an offence to the community.. The great range of industrial vehicles for which THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR stands sponsor is steadily and surelyousting him from industrial employment, and even from the battlefield. The tram-horse is obsolete, the bus-horse is no longer, the tab-horse is an anachronism preserved only for old ladies with parrot cages, the van-horse, the farmand the plough-horse are yielding steadily and surely, and no effort of the enthusiastic race-goer is of the slightest use to stay the movement. No plausible humbAg as to improving the breed will reinstate him. He may continue to be of use on the racecourse so long as man finds it amusing to gamble on such unexciting issues. No duller and more eventless proceeding can I personally imagine, but then I am not horsey.
The horse is being very rapidly superseded. So let there be no more of this claptrap as to the national need for horse-racing. Let such a useless "industry" give place to the thousands of other activities that are vital war-time necessities