132 THE BREEDING AND KEAKING OF HORSES 



Mr Jardine of Arkleton, upon his estate of Thorlieshope, a 

 fine sheep farm lying at the head of the Liddel Water, not far 

 from Eiccarton Station on the North British Railway, has been 

 most successful in rearing Clydesdales, which have often dis- 

 tinguished themselves in local show-yards, and gained higher 

 honours after passing out of his hands. It is well mixed grassy 

 land, with patches of heath and moor, limestone rock abounding 

 nearly throughout the farm ; and although lying, as indicated, in 

 a high altitude, Mr Jardine scarcely ever houses his young 

 horses until rising three, or when they are taken up to begin a 

 useful life, merely throwing them a little hay when the weather 

 proves very severe, or when the snow lies deep on the ground. 

 They will thus lose much of their summer's gain. This must be 

 inevitable to a certain degree, but Mr Jardine observes, " they 

 more than regain it in early spring," getting much sooner into 

 condition than those wintered under cover. At all events it 

 has the great advantage of- economy, and makes rearing horses 

 pay, which is more than can be said of most industries upon tlie 

 farm at the present time. Holding that all soils are, or can be 

 made, by drainage and liberal dressings of lime and bones, suit- 

 able for the breeding and rearing of horses, we may -now consider 

 the diseases arising from pasturing on the various soils. 



Horses depastured on enclosed lands must of necessity have a 

 limited area to travel over. Where the soil is of a hard gravelly 

 nature, the perpetual jar on the unyielding turf is almost certain 

 to cause ringbone, if not a deeper seated injury in the coffin- 

 bone, commonly termed navicular disease ; but with the excep- 

 tion of this, and wet undrained clays, we are not prepared to 

 acknowledge that any particular soil superinduces disease. The 

 great panacea for all ills is liberal, generous feeding, as we have 

 experienced that horses, when kept in a healthy state, rarely 

 take and readily throw off disease, such as strangles, to which 

 all are subject, although most frequently in such a mild form 

 that it passes away without being noticed. We have found horses 

 are, as a rule, the healthiest of all live stock upon the farm, very 

 rarely having lost a horse, and then only when disease has been 

 imported by a new purchase brought on to the farm, and that 

 most frequently caught in transit, through the slovenly manner 

 in which horse boxes are kept and cleaned by railway companies. 

 Disease in many shapes and forms may and does spring up in 

 breeding establishments, the recurring frequency of which the 

 owner may attribute to something wrong in the soil, in the 

 water, in anything or everything they eat or drink. To such we 

 would say — look well to the matrons of your stud that there be 

 no hereditary disease or malformation inherited from them ; be 

 most careful in the selection of your sires, sparing no expense to 

 secure the service of the most sound and perfect animal in make 



