34 THE HORSE. 



mind what we have termed the golden rule of horsemanship, alwa^vs a little 

 to feel the mouth of the animal he is upon. 



A farmer and more particularly a small farmer, will prefer a mare to a 

 gelding, both for riding and driving. She will not cost him so much at 

 first ; and he will get a great deal more work out of her. There can be 

 no doubt that, taking bulk for bulk, a mare is stronger and more lasting 

 than a gelding; and, in addition to this, the farmer has her to breed from. 

 This and the profit which is attached to it is well known in the breeding 

 counties ; but why the breeding of horses for sale should be almost 

 exclusively confined to a few northern districts it is not easy to explain. 

 Wherever there are good horses, with convenience for rearing the colts, 

 the farmer may start as a breeder with a good chance of succes. 



If lie has a few useful cart-mares, and crosses them with a well-knit, 

 half-bred horse, he will certainly have colts useful for every purpose of 

 agriculture, and some of them suffiiciently light for the van, post-chaise, or 

 coach. If he has a superior mare, one of the old Cleveland breed, and 

 puts her to a bony, three-fourths-bred horse, or, if he can find one stout 

 and compact enough, a seven-eighths, or a thorough-bred one, he will 

 have a fair chance to rear a colt that will amply repay him as a hunter or 

 carriage-horse. 



The mare need not be idle while she is breeding. She may be worked 

 moderately almost to the period of her foaling, and with benefit rather 

 than otherwise : nor is there occasion that much of her time should be 

 lost even while she is suckling. If she is put to horse in June, the foaling 

 time will fall, and the loss of labour will occur, in the most leisure time 

 of the year. 



There are two rocks on which the farmer often strikes : he pays little 

 attention to the kind of mare, and less to the proper nourishment of the 

 foal. It may be laid down as a maxim in breeding, however general may 

 be the predjudice against it, that the value of the foal depends a great deal 

 more on the dam than on the sire. The Arabs are convinced of this, 

 for no price will buy from them a likely mare of the highest blood ; and 

 they trace back the pedigree of their horses, not through the sire, but the 

 dam. The Greek sporting-men held the same opinion, long before the 

 Arab horse was known. " What chance of winning have I ?" inquired a 

 youth whose horse was about to start on the Olympic course " Ask the 

 dam of your horse" was the reply, founded on experience.* 



The farmer, however, too frequently thinks that any mare will do to 

 breed from ; and, if he can find a great prancing stallion, with a high- 

 sounding name, and loaded with fat, he reckons on having a valuable 

 colt : and should he fail, he attributes the fault to the horse, and not to his 

 own want of judgment. Far more depends on the mare than is dreamt of 

 in his philosophy. 



If he has an undersized, or a blemished, or unsound mare, let him 

 continue to use her on his farm : she probably did not cost him much, 

 and she will beat any gelding ; but let him not think of breeding froir 



* Bishop Hall, who wrote in the time of Elizabeth, intimates that such was the opinioc 

 •f horsemen at that period. He asks, in one of his satires (Lib. iv.) 



-dost thou prize 



Thy brute beasts' worth by their dams' qualities? 

 Say'st tliou this colt shall prove a swift-pac'd steed 

 Only because a Jennet did him breed ? 

 Or say'st thou this same horse shall win the prize 

 Because his dam was swiftest Trauchefice V 



