Questions 1-10 refer to the following passage.

    Horse owner who plan to breed one or more mares should have a working knowledge of heredity and know how to carefor breeding animals and foals. The number of mares bred that actually conceive varies from about 40 to 85 percent, with the average running less than 50 percent. Some mares that do conceive fail to produce living foals. This means that, on average, two mares are kept a whole year to produce one foal, and even then, some foals are disappointments from the standpoint of quality.

    By careful selection, breeders throughout history have developed various kinds of horses with a wide variety of characteristics to suit many different needs. The Great Horse of the Middle Ages, for example was bred for size and strength to carry a heavily armored knight. The massive horses of such breeds are often called “cold blooded.” The Arabs bred lithe dessert horses that were small and swift. These animal are often referred to as “hot blooded.” Cross-breeding of hot blooded and cold-blooded horses for certain characteristics produced breeds ranging from riding horses to drafthorses.

    The Thoroughbred id considered by many to be high point of elegance and fine selective breeding. Many person mistakenly apply the name Thoroughbred to any purebred horse. But a Thoroughbred is a distinct breed of running horses that traces its ancestry through the male line directly back to three Eastern stallions: the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Barb.

    For convenience the breeds of horses are often divided into three major groups:

• (1) ponies,
• (2) heavy, or draft horses, and
• (3) light horses.

In line 11. “lithe” most nearly means