318 BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c. 



exhibits an imkindliness of growth, a corresponding weakness, and there is 

 scarcely an organ that possesses its natural and proper strength. 



Of late years, these principles have been much lost sight of in the breeding 

 of horses for general use ; and the following is the explanation of it. There 

 are nearly as good stallions as there used to be. Few but well-formed and 

 valuable horses will be selected and used as stallions. They are always the 

 very prime of the breed : but the mares are not what they used to be. Poverty 

 has induced many of the breeders to part with the mares from which they used 

 to raise their stock, and which were worth their weight in gold ; and the jade 

 on which the farmer now rides to market, or which he uses in his farm, costs 

 him but little money, and is only retained because he cannot get much money 

 for her. It has likewise become the fashion for gentlemen to ride mares, almost 

 as frequently as geldings ; and thus the better kind are taken from the breeding 

 service, until old age or injury renders them worth little for it. An intelligent 

 veterinary surgeon, Mr. Castley, has placed this in a very strong light*. 



It should be impressed on the minds of breeders, that peculiarity of form and 

 constitution are inherited from both parents, that the excellence of the mare 

 is a point of quite as much importance as that of the horse, and that, out of a 

 sorry mare, let the horse be as perfect as he may, a good foal will rarely be 

 produced. All this is recognised upon the turf, though poverty or carelessness 

 have made the general breeder neglect or forget it. 



That the constitution and endurance of the horse are inherited, no sporting 

 man ever doubted. The qualities of the sire or the dam descend from genera- 

 tion to generation, and the excellences or defects of certain horses are often 

 traced, and justly so, to some peculiarity in a far- distant ancestor. 



It may, perhaps, be justly affirmed, that there is more difficulty in selecting 

 a good mare to breed from than a good horse, because she should possess some- 

 what opposite qualities. Her carcase should be long, in order to give room for 

 the growth of the foetus ; and yet with this there should be compactness of form 

 and shortness of leg. What can they expect whose practice it is to purchase 

 worn-out, spavined, foundered mares, about whom they fancy there have been 

 some good points, and send them far into the country to breed from, and, with 

 all their variety of shape, to be covered by the same horse ? In a lottery like 



* " Any one," says he, " who, during the tributed to get the best material for breeding 

 last twenty or five-and-twenty years, has had out of the farmer's hands. Thirty years ago 

 frequent opportunities of visiting some of our few gentlemen would be seen riding a mare 

 great horse-fairs in the north of England, must it was unfashionable. There was, con- 

 be struck with the sad falling-off there is sequent! y, but little demand for her, and she 

 everywhere to be remarked in the quality of was left for the most part in the farmer's 

 the one-half and three-part bred horses, ex- hands, who were then to be seen riding to 

 hibited for sale. The farmers, when taxed market, mounted on the finest mares, and 

 with this, complain that breeding horses does from among which they selected the best for 

 not sufficiently repay them ; and yet we find the purpose of breeding. Like will produce 

 large sums of money always given at fairs for like, and the stock would seldom disappoint 

 any horses that are really good, but bad ones them. 



are not at any time likely to pay for rearing, Then there is the demand for the foreign 



and less now than ever, on account of the market. Within the last twenty years, a great 



advanced rate of land, and the increased ex- number of our finest three-parts-bred mares 



pense of production. The truth is, that have been exported to various portions of the 



farmers do not, now-a-days, breed horses so Continent, and particularly to France and 



generally good as they used to do, and this is Germany. They never find their way back 



owing to the inferior quality of the mares again. The money brought into our country 



which they now commonly employ in breeding, by their export is a mere trifle a drop in the 



They have, to a great degree, been tempted to ocean while we are doing ourselves incal- 



part with their best mares, and thus breed from culable mischief by allowing some of our best 



the refuse. The stock consequently dete- materials to pass out of our hands for ever." 



riorates, and they are disappointed. Veterinarian, III., p. 371. 



" The great demand for mares has also con- 



