PART VI 



CHAPTER XX 



BREEDING HORSES FOR PROFIT 



A WELL-KNOWN judgc of high-class hunters, who 

 was judging at a big show in the North, made 

 the remark that "It seems incredible that farmers 

 should expect to breed first-rate hunters out of 

 those sort of mares." He pointed contemptuously 

 to an indifferently bred stableful of mares who 

 had been exhibited as huntress dams, with foals 

 who were bred anyhow, owing to their mother's 

 absence of the best points in breeding for activity, 

 combined with grace and strength. 



We now come to the natural sequence, " Does 

 it pay to breed?" In horse-breeding this is 

 largely dependent on how you set about it. But, 

 generally speaking, there is more to be got out 

 of breeding high-class flat racehorses, under 

 good management, than anything else. The 

 figures are certainly high for the original outlay 

 of high-class mares and a first-rate stallion or 

 two, but, if lucky, the sale prices are proportion- 

 ately big also. Oddly enough, the other extreme 

 is paying also, namely, heavy draught-horses 

 well-mated, powerful, high, and sound generally 

 make large prices in proportion to the cost of 



