HUNTER SIRES 



thoroughbred, or a practically clean-bred horse, will supply 

 all that is required, provided that he is sound ; but in the case 

 of the last named it is a sine qua non that his manners should 

 be exceptionally good. Opinions vary a little on the subject 

 of the best height for a hunter, but the majority of hunting 

 men prefer a horse of as near i6 hands as possible. Smaller 

 ones may, as a rule, be cleverer, but size will tell when it comes 

 to galloping ; in fact, in the case of hunters, as in other things, 

 a good big one will always beat a good little one, for he 

 must not only be clever at his jumps, but he must have 

 stride enough to get over the ground. 



Hunter Sires. — In the opinion of a great many hunter 

 breeders the only possible sire for the purpose of breeding 

 hunters is the thoroughbred. The correctness of this theory 

 is, however, disputed by plenty of practical men, who see 

 that a system of constantly breeding mares which are full of 

 thoroughbred blood to thoroughbred horses must eventually 

 produce a race of hunters which will be to all intents and 

 purposes clean bred. There would, of course, be no objection 

 to this, rather the reverse, were it felt that such horses 

 would possess the substance required for a weight-carrying 

 hunter, but as this is not the case, and as ms iy breeders 

 whose mares have thrown light-L^oned, more ' x less weedy 

 fillies do not care to put these animals *^j thoroughbred 

 horses, many eligible brood mares are wasted every year, 

 simply because there is no stallion to be found that would suit 

 them. As a consequence, a strong and certainly justifiable 

 impression exists in many quarters that the hunter-bred 

 stallion is worthy of encouragement, and assuming that such 

 animals would be the pick of the colts bred on the lines 

 accepted on all sides, viz., a desirable thoroughbred sire and 

 half-bred mare, the desire that such horses should be utilised 

 for stud purposes is at least reasonable. Meanwhile, the 

 expression hunter sire is an anomalous one, as it is usually 

 applied to a thoroughbred horse which is used for breeding 

 hunters, though it is also used to describe the very few 



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