OF FARRIERY. 



461 



perfection in which it is now bred ; and, that, 

 were the fashion of the turf such as it was in 

 the day of Ciiilders, such Horses would be 

 found in England as mankind knows not by 

 experience or tradition. Racing, too, is yearly 

 on the increase, and consequently, tlie produce 

 multiplies in a similar degree. Here then, 

 without the risk, and at half the expence, of 

 breeding, a supply of the best blood is avail- 

 able to all who would embark in a very pro- 

 mising scheme of rural enterprise. 



" In the large breeding studs, the foals se- 

 lected by the proprietors, or set aside at high 

 prices for the turf, are those promising an 

 early maturity, and possessing purely racing 

 qualities. Neither of these will be required 

 by the purchaser who has four years' law to 

 allow his colt or filly, and who, under any cir- 

 cumstances, is sure of finding pace enough for 

 his purpose. Having procured one or two 

 yearlings, or according to the room he has to 

 spare, I would recommend that they be turned 

 into the best upland pasturage his farm 

 affords ; the exercise they will take up and 

 down hill, giving an early freedom to the 

 shoulder, so essential to a hunter. Plenty of 

 room, too, will be very desirable ; and now 

 and then an incentive to break bounds will 

 not be amiss, provided the fences be not of a 

 dangerous description. This practice it is 

 that makes most of the Irish Horses perfect 

 leapers before they are backed. The forcing 

 system of the racing paddock will be by no 

 means necessary where so much time will be 

 allowed the fruit to ripen ; but corn, at inter- 

 vals should be given, and much succulent 

 food avoided. Coarse rushy bottoms inter- 

 sected with drains, now and then alternated 

 with an upland run where circumstances will 

 permit, is the treatment whinh I should re- 



commend as the best adapted for young blood 

 stock. 



" In the second winter I would put a head- 

 stall upon them in the straw-yard, and use 

 them to be handled. In the thirJ, I would 

 occasionally have them led with the head tied 

 up in a cavesson across the fallows, and if a 

 drain offered, they should be made to jump 

 it ; but by no means should they be backed 

 till the autumn of their fourth year: they will 

 then be four years and a half old, and ren- 

 dered tractable by the course already pur- 

 sued. It is needless to say that no false 

 economy should bias the selection of a person 

 for this most important office. It is at this 

 crisis of his fate that in most cases a Horse is 

 made or marred. Not only is his temper 

 jeopardised, and that ruined he is worthless; 

 but if allowed to be, as it is technically called 

 screwed (for which his transition from idleness 

 to labour peculiarly disposes him), rarely, if 

 ever, can the machine be again restored to 

 order. 



" Your colt then being broken by the end 

 of his fourth winter, you have the succeeding 

 spring to make him fit for sale, aiid at five 

 years old bring him into the market ; enough 

 that it be whispered that a farmer has a 

 thorough-bred five-year-old fit to carry twelve 

 stone to hounds, to ensure him more purchasers 

 than he can deal with. Say his \earling costs 

 him fifty pounds; his four years' keep and all 

 incidental expences, one hundred more ; this 

 is over-rated ; and at the prices such mer- 

 chandise now commands, he will have no 

 cause to regret his speculation. Let nothing 

 induce a breeder to send a colt with a breaker 

 on him to hounds. Such an exhibition is exe- 

 crated in every field, and is the sure road to 

 unpopularity. Let him sell his Horse as 1 

 6 A 



