598 BREKDINO Ol HORSES. 



The Constitution, or Vital Power Beyond this the 

 internal anatomical construction of his respiratory organs, of his 

 arterial and nervous system in a word, of his constitution gener- 

 ally is calculated to give him, what he possesses, greater vital 

 power, greater recuperatory power, greater physical power, in pro- 

 portion to his bulk and weight, than any other known animal, added 

 to greater quickness of movement, and to greater courage, greater 

 endurance of labor, hardship or suffering in a word, greater (what 

 is vulgarly called) " pluck," or " game,' than will be found in any 

 other of the horse family. 



But it is not to be said, or supposed, that all blood horses will 

 have these qualities in an equal degree, for there is as much, or 

 more, choice in the blood horse, as in any other of the family, since 

 as in the blood of the thoroughbred horse, all faults, all vices, all 

 diseases, are directly hereditary, as well as all virtues, all soundness, 

 all good qualities it is more necessary to look in the blood horse 

 to his antecedents, his history, his performances, and above all to 

 his shape, temper, soundness and constitution, than it is in any 

 other animal of the horse family. 



Follies in Breeding To breed from a small horse in the 

 hope of getting a large colt; from a long-backed, leggy horse, in 

 the hope of getting a short, compact powerful sire; from a blind or 

 broken-winded, or flat-footed, or spavined or ring-boned, or navicu- 

 lar-diseased horse, with the hope of getting a sound one; from a 

 vicious horse, a cowardly horse what is technically called a ''dung- 

 hill" with the hope of getting a kind-tempered and brave one; all 

 or any of these would be the height of folly. 



Traits in the Sire to Ensure Good Stock The blood 

 sire (and the blood should always be on the sire's side) should be, 

 for the farmer breeder's purposes, of medium height, say fifteen and a 

 half hands high, short-backed, well ribbed up, short in the saddle place, 

 long below. He should have high withers, broad loins, broad chest,, 

 a straight rump the converse of what is often seen in trotters and 

 known as the "goose rump;" a high and muscular but not beefy 

 chest; a lean, bony, well-set-on head; a clear, bright, smallish, well- 

 placed eye; broad nostrils and small ears. His forelegs should be 

 as long and as muscular as possible above the knee, and his hind- 

 legs above the hock, the same; and as lean, short and bony as pos- 

 sible below these joints. The bones cannot by any means be too 

 flat, too clear of excrescences, nor too large. The sinews should be 

 clear, straight, firm and hard to the touch. 



From such a horse, if the breeder can find one, and from a 

 well-chosen mare (she may be a little larger, more bony, more, 

 roomy and in every way coarser than the horse, to the advantage 

 of the stock), sound, healthy and well-limbed, he may be certain, 

 accidents and contingencies set aside, of raising an animal that will 

 be creditable to him as a scientific stock breeder, and profitable to 

 him in a pecuniary sense. 



