THE BUSINESS HORSE. 243 



Business has brought me in contact with hundreds of men desir- 

 ous of raising!: colts, and they almost invariably make the remark 

 that their mare is the best in the country ; that she is the best 

 blooded of any in that part of the State ; that she possesses won- 

 derful powers of endurance, great roading qualities, and is one of the 

 best workers in the world. In short, a wonderful animal, and if she 

 could only produce a colt her equal it would be worth hundreds of 

 dollars to him. Ask him if she is sound and all right, and in many 

 cases he would say, ''Well, no, not exactly; she has a small ring- 

 bone, and is a little cockled-jointed, knees slightly sprung, and her 

 wind isn't just right." Upon personal examination I find a poor, 

 old, crippled, broken-down and worthless mare. And yet in his es- 

 timation she is a treasure. How absurd the idea to try to raise good 

 horses from such stock ! 



Frequently the question is asked if colts will inherit the disabili- 

 ties of their dams. I say no, not necessarily. If the mare has a 

 spavin, ringbone, heaves or anything of the sort, the colt will not 

 necessarily inherit that difficult}', but is ver}' liable to inherit a weak- 

 ness where its mother is affected. To illustrate : A mare may have 

 what we call the heaves. Now, I never knew a colt up to two or three 

 years old to be troubled with the heaves. In man}' cases, we all 

 know, the heaves are caused b}' eating too much dry ha}', and the 

 only reason for the colt being troubled in that way is by its liability 

 to inherit that appetite for food which caused the heaves in its dam. 



But some will say, "I have a mare that is in some way or other 

 blemished, and I want to raise a colt, and I am not able to purchase 

 a good sound mare. What shall I do?" I say do the best you can 

 under the circumstances and raise a colt ; but I will also say, if it is 

 possible breed from sound stock, and thereby obtain the best results. 

 It costs no more to raise a sound colt, one that will command the 

 highest price in the market, it will take no more time to care for him, 

 to educate him, no more food to feed him than it will to raise a colt 

 that will bring fifty per cent less. I have come to this conclusion, 

 that the horses for us to raise as farmers are the general purpose 

 horses, and why? In the first place, by raising a general purpose 

 horse we have one suitable to perform all kinds of work on the farm, 

 and when we have a surplus the maiket is ready to receive them at 

 a good living price ; and, further, we have the satisfaction of know- 

 ing that we have sent out into the markets of the world an animal 

 that will do good service to the purchaser and redound to the credit 



