MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION. 49 



slower than in youth or at maturity. The ideal 

 condition is achieved when just enough work 

 is given to keep all the bodily functions at their 

 best. I count a full day's work none too much 

 for a stallion from his fifth at least to his 

 twelfth year and often much longer. 



With the extension of my experience I have 

 become more and more firmly rooted in the be- 

 lief that the working of the stallion and the 

 mare, in the draft breeds especially, is an abso- 

 lute essential to a high degree of success in 

 breeding. It follows then that the working of 

 the parents has had its influence on breeds. If 

 this is true the manner of working and the tem- 

 perament of the people ordering the labor must 

 also have exerted their influence on breeds 

 which brings us back once more to the personal 

 equation and environment. 



It seems clear that this accounts in large de- 

 gree for the prevailing popularity of the Perche- 

 ron in the United States and explains why its 

 offspring finds such favor with the American 

 people. There are no great studs of idle mares 

 in France. It is hard to buy mares there in 

 show condition. It is common enough to see 

 mature draft stallions imported from France 

 with the collar marks upon them. I do not re- 

 call ever having seen similar marks on a stallion 

 imported from the United Kingdom. The 

 French horse is driven by men of quick nervous 

 temperament, flashy and mercurial at times, 



