LIVE STOCK. 397 



" recuperatory power, greater physical power, in proportion to his 

 " bulk and weight, than any other known animal, added to greater 

 " quickness of movement, and to greater courage, greater endurance 

 " of labor, hardship, suffering, — in a word, greater (what is called 

 " vulgarly) game or pluck than will be found in any other of the 

 " horse family. 



" But it is not to be said, or supposed, that all blood-horses 

 " will give these qualities in an equal degree, for there is as much 

 " or more choice in the blood-horse than in any other of the family. 

 " Since, as in the blood of the thoroughbred horse, all faults, all 

 " vices, all diseases are directly hereditary, as well as all virtues, all 

 " soundness, all good qualities, it is more necessary to look, in the 

 " blood-horse, to his antecedents, his history, his performances, and, 

 " above all, to his shape, temper, soundness, and constitution, than 

 " it is in any other of the horse family. 



" To breed from a small horse with the hope of getting a large 

 " colt ; from a long-backed, leggy horse, with the hope of getting a 

 " short, compact, powerful one ; from a broken-winded, or blind, 

 " or flat-footed, or spavined, or ring-boned, or navicular-joint-dis- 

 " eased horse, with the hope of getting a sound one ; from a vicious 

 " horse, a cowardly horse, — what is technically called a dunghill, — 

 " with the hope of getting a kind-tempered and brave one ; all or 

 "any of these would be the height of folly. The blood sire (and 

 " the blood should always be on the sire's side) should be, for the 

 " farmer-breeder's purposes, of medium height, say fifteen and a half 

 "hands high, short-backed, well ribbed up, short in the saddle-place, 

 " long below. He should have high withers, broad loins, broad 

 " chest, a straight rump, — the converse of what is often seen in 

 " trotters, and known as the goose rump ; a high and muscular, but 

 " not beefy crest ; a lean, bony, well-set-on head ; a clear, bright, 

 " smallish, well-placed eye ; broad nostrils and small ears. His 

 "fore-legs should be as long and as muscular as possible above the 

 " knee, and his hind-legs above the hock, and as lean, short, and 

 " bony as possible below those joints. The bones cannot by any 

 " means be too flat, too clear of excrescences, or too large. The 

 " sinews should be clear, straight, firm, and hard to the touch. 



