454 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



and highly profitable. The unskilful or 

 careless breeder will often so badly pair the 

 animals, that the good points of each will be, 

 in a manner, lost ; the defects of both will be 

 increased, and the produce will be far inferior 

 to both sire and dam. 



Of late years, these principles have been 

 much lost sifflit of in the breeding of Horses 

 for general use ; and the following is the ex- 

 planation of it. There are nearly as good 

 stallions as there used to be. Few but well- 

 formed and valuable Horses will be selected 

 and retained as stallions. They are always 

 the very prime of the breed ; but the mares 

 are not what they used to be. Poverty has 

 induced many of the breeders to part with the 

 mares from which they used to raise their 

 stock, and which were worth their weight in 

 gold ; and the jade on which the farmer now 

 rides to market, or which he uses in his farm, 

 costs him but little money, and is only retained 

 because he could not get much money for her. 

 It has likewise become the fashion for gentle- 

 men to ride mares, almost as frequently as 

 geldings ; and thus the better kind are taken 

 from the breeding service, urrtil old age or 

 injury renders them worth little for it. 



We would wish, then, to impress it on the 

 minds of the breeders, that peculiarity of form 

 and constitution are inherited from both 

 parents ; that the excellence of the mare is a 

 point of quite as much importance as that of 

 tiie Horse ; and that out of a sorry mare, let 

 the Horse be as perfect as he may, a good 

 foal will rarely be produced. All this is re- 

 cognized upon the turf, although poverty or 

 carelessness have made the general breeder 

 neglect or forget it. 



It is recognized in the midland counties in 

 the breed of cart-horses ; and the strict atten- 



tion which has been paid to it, has brought 

 our heavy Horses to almost the same perfec- 

 tion in their way as the blood-horse. It is 

 strange that iuour saddle-horses, our hunters, 

 and, to a great degree, our carriage-horses, 

 this should be left to chance. The breeder 

 begins to care little about the quality of the 

 mare, and the progeny is becoming compara- 

 tively of little worth. Experience, it is said, 

 will make fools wise, but experience will here 

 be bought at a very dear rate, both as it re- 

 gards the breeder and the community. 



That the constitution and endurance of the 

 Horse are inherited, no sporting man ever 

 doubted. The qualities of the sire or the 

 dam descend from generation to generation, 

 and the excellences or defects of certain Horses 

 are traced, and justly so, to some peculiarity 

 in a far distant ancestor. 



It may, perhaps, be justly affirmed, that 

 there is more difficulty in selecting a good 

 mare to breed from, than a good Horse, 

 because she should possess somewhat opposite 

 qualities. Her carcase should be long, to 

 give room for the growth of the foetus, and 

 yet with this there should be compactness of 

 form and shortness of leg. What can tliev 

 expect who go to Smithfield Market to 

 purchase a number of worn-out, spavined, 

 f(jundered mares, about whom they fancy 

 there have been some good points, and send 

 them far into the country to breed from, and, 

 with all their variety of shape, to be covered 

 by the same Horse ? In a lottery like this, 

 there may be now and then a prize, but there 

 must be many blanks. " If horse-breeders, 

 possessed of good judgment, would pay the 

 same attention to breed and shape as Mr. 

 Bakewell did with sheep, they would probably 

 attain their wishes in an equal degree, and 



