OF FARRIERY. 



4^ 



greatly to their advantage, whether for the 

 collar or the road, for racina: or for hunting:." 



As to the shape of the stallion, little satis- 

 factory can be said. It must depend on that 

 of the mare, and the kind of Horse wished to 

 be bred ; but if there be one point which 

 we should say is absolutely essential, it is 

 this, " compactness" — as much goodness and 

 strength as possible condensed in a little 

 space. If we are describing the reverse of the 

 common race of stallions for hunters and 

 coach-horses, the fault lies with the bad taste 

 and judgment of the majority of breeders. 



Next to compactness, the inclination of the 

 shoulder will be resrarded. A huare stallion, 

 with upright shoulders, never got a capital 

 hunter or hackney. From him the breeder 

 can obtain nothing but a cart or dray-horse, 

 and that, perhaps, spoiled by the opposite 

 form of the mare. On the other hand, an 

 upright shoulder is desirable, if not absolutely 

 necessary, when a mere draught Horse is 

 required. 



It is of no little importance, that the parents 

 should be in full possession of their natural 

 strength and powers. It is a common error, 

 that because a mare has once been good, she 

 is fit for breedina: when she is no longer 

 capable of ordinary work. Her blood and 

 perfect frame may ensure a foal of some value, 

 but he will inherit a portion of the worn-out 

 constitution of her from whom he sprung. 



On the subject of breeding in and in, that 

 is, persevering in the same breed, and select- 

 ing the best on either side, much has been i 

 said. The system of crossing requires much 

 judgment and experience ; a great deal more, 

 indeed, than breeders usually possess. The 

 bad qualities of the cross are too soon engrafted 

 on the original stock, and once engrafted there, 



are not, for many generations, eradicated. 

 The good ones of both are occasionally neu- 

 tralized to a most mortifying degree. On the 

 other hand, it is the fact, however some may 

 deny it, that strict confinement to one breed, 

 however valuable or perfect, produces gradual 

 deterioration. The truth here, as in many 

 other cases, lies in the middle ; crossing should 

 be attempted with great caution, and the 

 most perfect of the same breed should be 

 selected, but varied, by being frequently taken 

 from different stocks. This is the secret of 

 the course. The pure south-eastern blood is 

 never left, but the stock is often changed with 

 manifest advantage. 



A mare is capable of breeding at three or 

 four years old; some have injudiciously com- 

 menced at two years, before her form or her 

 strength is sufficiently developed, and with 

 the developement of which this early breeding 

 will materially interfere. If she does little 

 more than farm-work, she may continue to be 

 bred from until she is nearly twenty ; but if 

 she has been hardly worked, and bears the 

 marks of it, let her have been what she will 

 in her youth, she will deceive the expecta- 

 tions of the breeder in her old age. 



The mare comes into heat in the early part of 

 the spring. She is said to go with foal eleven 

 months, but there is sometimes a strange irre- 

 gularity about this. Some have foaled five 

 weeks earlier, while the time of others has beeu 

 six weeks beyond the eleven months. We may 

 take, however, eleven months as the average. 

 In running-horses that are brought so early to 

 the starting-post, and whether they are foaled 

 early in January or late in April, rank as of 

 the same age, it is of importance that the 

 mare should go to cover as early as possible : 

 in a two or three-year-old, four months world 



