HUNTER. 67 



a straight-crouped mare the quarter will never be 

 bad. No small earcased, or narrow-chested, or 

 lanky-thighed horse or mare should be bred from ; 

 and no horse or mare with a very long back, or 

 badly set-on head should be bred from : I am 

 speaking as to breeding for the cavalry. Regard- 

 ing the head itself, I should not care what it was 

 like : the less brains a troop-horse has the better ; 

 but I would not breed from a stallion with a small 

 eye, neither would I ever breed from one with 

 a very large yard. Every stallion must have har- 

 mony of proportion united to general substance, 

 and never be overladen at the top of the shoulder 

 blade-bone ; and every brood-mare must also pos- 

 sess these qualifications, besides being particu- 

 larly broad in the haunches. Another great error 

 that is committed, is in the difference of the size 

 of the horse and mare. Not more than an inch 

 and a half difference in the height should ever be 

 allowed, and even that is too much, unless the 

 manager has proper discrimination with regard 

 to the form : for instance, put a very fine, sub- 

 stantial, well-built stallion of fifteen hands to a 

 rather slight but yet well-formed mare of four- 

 teen hands two inches and a half; the chances 

 here, with make on both sides, are ten times as 

 much against a symmetrical produce as if the 

 height had been the other way, and a very fine, 



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