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and shew are the objects, more than the essentials, of form and utility ; 

 and the fitness of the mare, important as that consideration is, seldom 

 comes into the question : strange as it may seem, cattle improvement has 

 been carried farther than that of the Horse, and we have yet had no 

 Barkwells and CuLLEYS, among our professional breeders of saddle 

 horses; nor was a knowledge of horse-breeding, by any means, the forte 

 of either of those eminent men. Indubitably, some public plan of im- 

 provement is loudly demanded by the public interest in this case, to- 

 wards which I have lately furnished some hints to our great breeders, 

 without the experience of that attention, which I humbly conceive the 

 subject to merit. 



The grand disadvantage of breeding hacks and hunters, is the great 

 length of time required, before they are fit for use or sale: Namely, five 

 years from their foaling, whereas Racers and cart-horses, come into use 

 and into the market, at between two or three years old, and even the 

 yearlings are saleable. This disadvantage, hoAvever, affects not, or 

 in a less sensible degree, those who reside in sufficient proximity to 

 the breeding districts, where the occupation is divided, and all the v 



advantages produced, of Adam Smith's division of labour; one breeder 

 proceeding upon the plan of selling his stock at a year old, another 

 at two or three and so on, that a market may be found for every gra- 

 dation between the yearling, and the five year old, fitted and made up 

 for the London dealer. The system, perhaps, is confined to the Northern 

 counties. The present liberal prices (1807) ought surely to operate as 

 an encouragement, not simply to breeding road horses, but to breeding 

 them useful and well-shaped, since the difference in the market price 

 between a five year old of such valuable description, and one of the 

 common leggy, sickle-hammed, knock-joint species, will be upon an 

 average more than twenty pounds, a handsome premium surely for a 

 little labour in the acquisition of skill, a far greater desideratum to my 

 full conviction, than any additional expence. 



The STALLION AND MARE should iiot Only approach, as nearly as pos- 

 sible to the thorough shaped, but be free from certain defects, or 

 constitutional tendency to those defects. The principal of these are 

 restiveness, blindness, and perhaps spavins, round and gourdy legs, 



nnd 



