HORSE BREEDING 77 



peculiar to the female sex are the least objectionable and most 

 easily counteracted by care in the selection of the sire. 



If the mare has strength, good constitutional vigor, is of good 

 size, and free from constitutional defects or unsoundness, she will 

 do to breed. 



THE SELECTION of the SIRE is of much consequence 

 and is frequently too little considered. It is chiefly through the 

 sire that improvement in our domestic animals is secured. We 

 should at the outset select a stallion that is better than the mares 

 bred to him. He should be in the first place of the breed best 

 suited to the conditions of the breeder's business and market, and of 

 a breed and type that will cross well with the mares chosen. He 

 should not be of an entirely different class from his mares, or un- 

 certainty and much variety of progeny will result. In size he 

 should generally be larger than the mare, for improvement in size 

 is by no means the least object in breeding. A good big horse is 

 better than a good little horse. The draft sire should weigh a ton, 

 the coach sire 1 300 to 1 500 pounds, and the speed sire about 

 1 200, so that he may add something to the size of his colts, as 

 well as to their other points of excellence. 



The stallion should be more compactly and strongly made than 

 the mare, not only as a sex characteristic, but that he may beget 

 rugged, strong foals. He should be finely finished, upstanding, 

 stylish, and superior in action, for all these characters are valuable 

 and need to be improved in breeding. His temper, courage and 

 intelligence are also important, and particularly his prepotency. 



Prepotency is an individual characteristic that can only be de- 

 termined by test ; but the sire that has the prepotency to stamp his 

 virtues uniformly upon his progeny is an animal of rare value. 

 Pedigree is valuable chiefly as an indicator of prepotency, for the 

 pure-bred sire is usually more prepotent because of his lineage. 

 The kind of a pedigree that is most certain to produce prepotent 



"/ have used the Bicfcrnore Gall Cure ever since it came out, and it is 

 good. <%. 7. Reynolds, 'Perry, III." 



