Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, 11th JUNE, 1932. THE HORSE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 11 June 1932, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, 11th JUNE, 1932. THE HORSE.

Not long ago it was the custom to predict that a generation hence the horse would only be visible stuffed, in a museum, or cherish: ed, in a zoological garden, and, indeed, this seemed within the bounds of possibility. There was a time when the horse contemptuously drew the disabled motor car to the nearest repair shop. Then came a time when his disdain of this new-fangled apparatus was turned to fear. Motor-power drove him from the cabs and the buses, from the plough and the harrow, from my lady’s barouche and the doctor’s dog-cart, from the settler’s buggy and the teamster’s waggon. Was he doomed? Was it his fate to remain only as an adjunct to the racecourse, ultimately to be ousted therefrom by his inanimate rival which could devour miles while he galloped furlongs? The answer has been given. The horse has survived this as he has survived other forms of competition, and from the indications he is about to recover some of the ground he has lost. From the prehistoric age when he was first domesticated until a century ago, the horse was the principal agent in land transportation. The bullock, the mule,

the humble donkey, the petulant camel, and the lordly elephant have played their part, hut it has been negligible compared with that of the horse. Bucephalus bore Alexander to conquests in Asia. Dobbin helped the peasant to subdue the soil and to support many who, but for his aid, could not have found sustenance. The two names symbolise the two types—War, oh the one hand, and husbandry, with general utility, on the other. Racing is in a category of its own. Of the multitudes who attend race meetings, only a small proportion, we dare to assume, is concerned with “keeping up the breed.” Nevertheless, the breed is being maintained. The horses who exulted in the famous charge at Beersheba, and the descendants of those sides are still being bought as remounts for the Indian army, demonstrate that cavalry are not obsolete. The horse is more mobile than any mechanised force can be. Dobbin is not so spectacular, but Dobbin and his city cousin do a great amount of unadvertised work, the value of which is being better appreciated. In the United States, where a motor vehicle is within the reach of a slender pocket, there are approximately 23,000,000 horses. There, if anywhere, would one expect to see the horse approaching the museum. Yet he remains in active service, to the benefit of many grateful owners. A Phar Lap and his kind are of the equine aristocracy. But upon the less distinguished members of the species the future of the horse depends. It is assured, because man cannot do without him.