192 HORSES AND RIDING. 



wliich had been tried and turned out an indifferent 

 performer. 



It often happens that a mare breeds successful 

 racers who has not run much herself, but then it 

 may very possibly be that she was herself a very 

 good mare, but that from some accidental circum- 

 stance her capacities were not discovered, and then 

 she would have an advantage even over a winner, 

 because her goodness would be all there, and she 

 would not have suffered any deterioration from the 

 strain and exhaustion attendant on the hard work 

 which is considered inseparable from ti-aining for 

 racing. 



A mare' which has once bred a good runner is 

 more likely to produce some more, even if put to a 

 different horse, than a horse which has got a winner 

 from one mare is likely to get a winner from another 

 mare which could not race herself, and has not bred 

 a winner before. 



People who breed to race must breed to win, and 

 are governed by other considerations than those 

 which ouofht to influence a breeder of hunters. The 

 shape best adapted to race is not that best adapted 

 to hunting, and a good strain of running blood in a 

 faulty-shaped sire is more valuable to a racing man 

 than symmetry of form in another strain, whereas 

 in hunting the strain of blood is of no consequence 

 except as allied with a particular shape that is 

 desired. 



