Agricultural History Review, Volume 43 Part 1 (1995), pp. 47–60

The draft power and hauling capacity of the horse remained of fundamental importance to the economy and defence of Victorian Britain. This article seeks to examine various aspects of the supply of horses in the Victorian era. It shows, moreover, that lack of attention to selection in the female line resulted in both a quantitative and qualitative shortages in the supply of some categories of horses, while overseas exports substantially depleted stocks of breeding animals for agriculture, trade and the Army. Shortage of supply and inefficient purchasing arrangements threatened the continuity of army remounts, and various official agencies, prompted by German successes in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1, reviewed the situation. The reports of the House of Lords committee of 1873 and subsequently of the R.oyal Commission on Horse Breeding of 1888 were little more than platitudinous and refused to recommend government involvement in equine improvement, despite the efforts of continental counterparts in this direction. However, the establishment of the Remount Department as a special branch of the Army in 1887 brought about qualitative improvements in military horses, as did the various stallion improvement schemes and premium arrangements put into motion by the Royal Agricultural Society, the Hunters Improvement Society and other official bodies. These were aimed at the generality of horses and laid the basis for twentieth-century licensing arrangements. By the beginning of that century, however, Britain was a net importer of horses and was to remain so for the next three decades. 

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