BREEDING. 119 



when his services were actually required, he spent the whole of 

 his time in lying down ; he could not exercise himself, and it 

 would have been cruelty to attempt to force him. Newminster 

 was latterly in the same plight, and to this was attributable the 

 softness of much of his stock, though his Touchstone blood has 

 told satisfactorily in his descendants. Indeed, as a rule, English 

 breeders are more than careless in a variety of most essential 

 matters. Some have theories which they endeavour to carry out, 





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Stallions at exercise. 



but which relate solely to the blood. They study pedigrees either 

 with the view of not breeding in and in, or per contra of 

 obtaining a certain amount of inbreeding in the third generation. 

 Others take a broader line, to wit, that Eclipse being the most 

 flagrant specimen of inbreeding, that system must therefore be 

 right yet how few sufficiently study shape, make, and constitu- 

 tion? Men do not reflect that if a mare lacks propelling 

 power she should be put to a horse with big hind quarters, and 

 so on with shoulders, girth, and constitution ; and we maintain 



