“The little Egyptian blood-pony”: Fanciful Encounters in the Debate on Thoroughbred Origins in the Twentieth Century

Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, University Library

The “English” Thoroughbred racehorse developed in Britain in the eighteenth century. The breed history starts officially with the foundation of the General Stud Book (G.S.B.) in that century, although the term “Thoroughbred” was not applied to the breed until the nineteenth century. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a heated debate, now largely forgotten, on the origins of the Thoroughbred racehorse. The participants were broadly divided into supporters of a narrative that focused on the “native” origin for the TB, and the proponents of the Thoroughbred as a pure creation from imported “Arabian” horses. The debate was carried out largely in print, through journals, magazines, and books. Ripples from the debate were still in evidence in the 1980s, and indeed continue in some quarters today. Examination of the work of the participants in the debate, their evidence, and arguments, reveals much about English society of the period. Indeed, it reveals more about the people involved in it than the horses. Were the angry exchanges about the origins of the Thoroughbred really about the breed, or do they reveal deeper tensions and personal projections onto the non-human animal that is considered to be the horse “thoroughly bred for racing”? This paper draws on research for my PhD thesis and Galloway Nag publication.