128 THE BREEDING AND REARING OF HORSES 



oats, or cliaff, boiled or steamed together, and well mixed with 

 bran and good oat straw for fodder, will keep the youngsters in 

 ■a growing state until the month of May, or till such time as a 

 good bit-e of grass is obtainable, when they can be turned out to 

 graze for the season, and will readily lay on flesh if fair pasturage 

 be given. This treatment continued year by year adding a pound 

 or two more of oats, &c., when taken in for the winter, as their size 

 and strength increases, will bring animals to an age iit for use in 

 n healthy sound condition, and they will be found doing useful 

 w^ork years after their pamj^ered brethren have been consigned 

 to the knacker, or if prolonged days be granted them, to some 

 unfortunate and miserable occupation. As with Clydesdales so 

 with horses for road or field, which for the last sixty years on 

 this farm, have been most successfully and extensively reared 

 as described ; in fact running out with and faring exactly as 

 their less aristocratic brethren, — in proof of which we can 

 point to showyard honours bestowed upon them at the Highland, 

 Hoyal, and other showyards throughout the country, whether for 

 Clydesdales, the thorough-bred, or half-bred hunter. 



The breedin^^ of horses for road or field and as remounts for 

 our cavalry was considered so important as to engross the 

 attention of a Select Committee of the House of Lords in 

 Pebruary 1873 ; but the only result arising therefrom was the 

 abolition of taxes on horses by Sir Stafford Northcote. The 

 Highland and other societies have been, however, doing good 

 work in offering large prizes (£100) for thorough-bred stallions, 

 suitable for getting huntere, which are the stepping-stones, the 

 starting-point of all improvement in this direction; and however 

 much we may regret that their efforts have hitherto l^een so 

 slightl}' appreciated, it is the only practicable means of encourage- 

 ment, which, let us hope, will some day bear fruit. Scotland, 

 as a rule, is not adapted for a hunting country, consequently 

 few packs of hounds are kept, and therefore no great demand 

 for hunters. On the other hand, Clydesdale horses have been 

 bringing extraordinary high prices, which induced nearly all 

 breeders to go in for them, and this to such an extent that the 

 country is now flooded with young colts and fillies of this breed, 

 which, except the very best class, can scarcely l:>e turned into 

 money profitably, and while they have become plentiful, road 

 and field horses have become more scarce year by year. Here, 

 then, is a field from which farmers need fear no competition. 

 Foreign horses we have in abundance, and always will have, 

 "but they are only useful for the most ordinary purposes, and 

 never will command a high figure, while the home-breeds, if 

 well bred, will always maintain their prestige as the best horses 

 in the world, sought after where attainable at any cost. His 

 Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, who gives in the county of 



