BREEDING OF HORSES. 595 



What Kind of Mares to use for Production of 

 certain Grades of Horses Breeding without an intelligent aim 

 is somewhat of a lottery; but it need not be so if the breeder will 

 commence with a definite end in view any sort of animals whether 

 cart or carriage animals, driving or trotting horses. The breeder should 

 not use, if he can avoid it, a single mare whose dam and grand dam, 

 as well as sire, were not good specimens of the,ir kind. It is not 

 . .nsisted that acquired habits are always transmissible, but it is im- 

 oossible to say when they become so, and when there is no predispo- 

 sition in that direction; but the wisdom must be insisted upon, of 

 care and circumspection on the part of breeders in the selection of 

 the creation of their stud. Physiologists declare and experience 

 proves that the transmission of acquired peculiarities is limited 

 to what is simple modification of the natural constitution. The 

 abnormal characteristics are inherited frequently, but they are not 

 so certain of transmission as are the acquired traits which accord 

 with the nature of the animal. 



Health and Soundness Imperative Too much stress 

 cannot be laid upon the importance of 'health and soundness. All 

 the great writers are forcible upon this point. In the application of 

 the general laws which govern the transmission of hereditary quali- 

 ties in the business of breeding horses, the first step is for the 

 breeder to decide in his own mind what sort of horse he wishes to 

 produce. If his fancy or interest lead him to breed horses for the 

 race course, he must keep constantly in mind the fact that for this 

 purpose, whether for running or trotting, speed and endurance of the 

 very highest order are indispensable; and here the least unsound- 

 ness will prove fatal. In order to live through the severe ordeal of 

 training, and the still more trying one of the " bruising " campaign, 

 which taxes the utmost powers of the horse day after day, there 

 must be no weak spots in his composition. There must be no soft 

 spongy bones and joints; no brittle or contracted feet; no tendency 

 to curbs, spavins or ringbones; no weak tendons or feeble limbs, 

 in the horse that is to prove a profitable campaigner. No matter 

 how much speed the get of any stallion may have shown, if as a 

 rule they have proven seriously defective in any part of their 

 machinery, he should be avoided as a sire by those who are breeding 

 for the turf, whether as runners or trotters; for the race-course will 

 speedily search out and bring to light the least taint of unsoundness 

 or weakness in any part of the organization. Feet and legs, bones 

 and tendons, joints and muscles, heart and lungs, brain and eye, 

 must each do its part thoroughly in the successful race horse. 

 There must be that nice adaptation of the machinery, and that fine- 

 ness of texture in the material of which the machine is built, to 

 enable it to withstand the strain that is put upon it, and which dis- 

 tinguished the great campaigners, like "Lady Suffolk," "Flora 

 Temple," "Goldsmith Maid," English "Eclipse" and his great 

 American namesake, from the flashy ones that blaze out fora single 



