48o COLONIAL HORSES. 



a sufficient number of horses of the required stamp on one 

 station. Often, a stalHon runs with forty or fifty mares, 

 out of which it would be hard to pick a fairly well-matched 

 four-in-hand team, even putting colour on one side. In 

 such a case, it is impossible for a stallion, no matter how 

 suitable he may be in himself, to get uniform stock from 

 such widely-differing mates. The only way to attain a 

 fair amount of uniformity in any class of stock, is to have 

 the parents, and if possible, the grand-parents, of the 

 desired type. A mare that breeds a couple of bad foals 

 should be ' culled ' at once. Much good might be done to 

 horses in Australia by instituting, as in France, steeple- 

 chases for staUions and mares only ; by doing away with 

 two-year-old races, at all events, in the spring ; and by 

 hmiting the short distance races to geldings. 



" Many parts of New South Wales and Queensland 

 should be able to compete with all other countries in 

 breeding saddle-horses ; although in hot climates there is 

 a tendency in horses to grow light, which should be guarded 

 against by using sires and dams of good bone and substance. 

 Horses bred in the interior where the land is high are 

 superior to those which are produced on a lower altitude. 

 In the desert country of Central Queensland, horses do 

 splendidly on the spinifex ; but a great part of the North- 

 ern Territory, and the hot damp districts on the northern 

 coasts, are not suitable for horse-breeding. 



" Excellent Clydesdale horses are bred in Victoria and 

 New Zealand ; but, at least in the former place, it is con- 

 sidered advisable to keep up the type by frequent impor- 

 tations from England." 



Mr. A. B. Paterson {The Sydney Mail, 22nd March, 

 1902) says that " on visiting England one is at once 

 struck by the difference between the English and Austra- 

 lian horses. The English riding horse, hunter, or charger 

 is a massive animal with the strength of a dray-horse ; 

 his loins are as broad as a table ; his hind quarters are filled 

 out and fleshy ; his ribs are round, with immense depth 



