The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt.

  • William Youatt
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    land of tlie best quality, and is surrounded in its whole extent, which is 15 leagues, by a broad and deep ditch, and by a broad plantation sixty feet wide. It was formerly designed to supply horses to recruit the cavalry; at present its object is to obtain stallions of a good breed, which are sent to certain depots for the supply of the various provinces. To produce these, 1000 brood mares and 48 stallions are kept; 200 additional mares and 600 oxen are employed in cultivating the ground. The plain is divided into four equal parts, and each of these subdivided into portions, resembling so many farms. At the age of four years the young horses are all collected in the centre of the establishment. A selection is first made of the best animals to supply the deficiencies in the establishment, in order always to keep it on the same footing. A second selection is then made for the use of the other: none of these, however, are sent away until they are five years old; but the horses that are not of sufficient value to be selected are sold by auction, or sent to the army to remount the cavalry, as circumstances may require. “The whole number of horses at present here, including the stallions, brood-mares, colts, and fillies, is 3000. The persons employed in the cultivation of the ground, the care of the animals, and the management of the establishment generally, are a major-director, 12 subaltern officers, and 1170 soldiers. “ The Imperial treasury advances to the establishment every year 118,000 florins, (the half rix-dollar or florin is in value about 2s. Id. English money,) and is reimbursed by the sale of 150 stallions, which are sent every year to the provinces at the price of 1000 florins each, and by the value of the horses supplied to the cavalry. The other expenses of every description are paid for by the produce of the establishment, which is required to defray, and does defray all. This is, therefore, an immense estate —a farm on a colossal scale—with a stud in proportion managed on account of the sovereign, and which produces a considerable revenue, independently of the principal object which is attained, the propagation and multiplication of the best breeds of horses. He can always supply the wants of his army at a price almost incredibly small. For a horse of the light cavalry he pays only 110 florins, for the dragoons 120, for the cuirassiers 140, for the train 160, and for the artillery 180. It is a great element of power to possess at home such an immense resource against a time of war, at an expense so far below that which the powers of the west and south of Europe are compelled to incur.” So early as 1790, a very superior Arabian, named Turkmainath, was imported into Germany, and his stock became celebrated, not only in Hungary, but throughout most of the German provinces. In 1819, the Archduke Maximilian, brother to the emperor, purchased some valuable racers and hunters in England, and sent them to Austria. Some of them went to the Imperial establishment of which mention has just been made, and the others contributed materially to the improvement of the horses wherever they were distributed. Races have been established in various parts of the Austrian dominions, and particularly at Buda and at Pest, in Hungary. Of the good effect which this will have on the breed of horses, there can be no dispute, provided the race does not degenerate into a mere contest of superiority of speed, and exhibited in an animal that from his youth must inevitably be injured or ruined in the struggle. The gipsies used to be the principal horse-dealers in Hungary, but they have been getting into comparative disrepute since the establishment of the noble studs scattered through this district. He who wants a horse, or to speculate in horses, may now go to head-quarters and choose for himself.
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