HINTS TO YOUNG BEEEDERS 151 



ill-shaped, and worthless animals, for the simple reason 

 that they possess height and size, though experience 

 has taught us that moderate-sized, or even little mares, 

 are more likely to bring forth valuable foals than are 

 big, gawky ones. Yet how often do breeders sacrifice 

 harmony of proportion to size and substance ! Another 

 fatal error which is still more common is to breed from 

 a worn-out mare at the age of fourteen or fifteen 

 years, because she has carried her owner safe and well 

 to hounds. The produce of such a mare is seldom 

 worth rearing, yet year after year hundreds of amateur 

 breeders try the experiment, because they do not like to 

 lose the services of a valuable hunter till she is past her 

 work in the hunting-field. A six or seven-year-old 

 mare is the most likely to produce good foals. Such 

 mares doubtless command big prices, but with care 

 and an average amount of Dame Fortune's favours, the 

 purchaser should soon recoup himself with interest, since 

 from a good, sound young mare you may expect to have 

 ten or a dozen fine colts, which in due time may sell at 

 an average of £100. The greatest care must be taken 

 to find out that the mare is free from hereditary defects 

 by examining through former generations and collateral 

 branches. Cataract, or any form of constitutional 

 blindness, roaring, when not caused by inflammation, 

 spavins, and curbs, since they arise from malformation 

 of the hock, are considered as hereditary defects, but 

 any defect should be regarded with the greatest 

 suspicion. 



The choice of a stallion is not only the initial 

 difficulty, but one of the greatest difficulties with 



