THE HORSE, 3 



one, and the avaricious disposition of the other, thns 

 render it next to impossible to get good sound stock, 

 either to use or to breed from. 



Blood-horses are completely broken down ^^-ith the 

 severity of their early training and racing ; or else, if 

 they continue to rim on, and well, for three or four 

 years, they command such enoinnous prices, that few 

 locaHties would remunerate the pra'chaser of a first- 

 class stallion, unless the breeders could be induced to 

 change their present opinions and practice. This, per- 

 haps, is the point at which reform should commence ; 

 and I am inclined to think that those parties who keep 

 brood-mares would wiUingly incur a much gTeater ex- 

 pense than they do at present, if they were properly 

 alive to, and aware of, the importance of the matter. 

 In general, they have such ill-digested notions on the 

 subject, that they are better satisfied to pay a small sum 

 for the services of a wi-etched, weedy, useless animal, 

 than to give a remunerating retmn to the pm-chaser of a 

 first-rate, sound, and high-priced horse ; in fact, they 

 know so little about the points of a horse, that they 

 generally choose the one whose deformities are hid by 

 a mountain of beef. " Such men," says the sensible 

 author of 'The Pocket and the Stud,' "breed from 

 any mare that will breed, get a common country forty- 

 shilling su'e, or, if then* aspuing thought carries them 

 so high, some thorough-bred one, whose shape, make, 

 blood, and performance, bring liim to about the same 



