198 BREEDING HORSES FOR PROFIT 



treasure you are keeping for your own comfort, 

 treat him as such ; and never take a few pounds 

 profit for an animal that suits you, if you can 

 afford to keep it. It will never pay you ; as if 

 suited, you cannot replace the horse you have 

 just sold so easily as you imagine. 



With horses have a fixed object in view, and 

 strive to attain it, and recollect that most horses 

 can be greatly improved if properly cared for 

 and ridden or driven well. Most half-bred 

 horses are bred on careless lines, and therefore 

 turn out in an unsatisfactory manner — breeders 

 paying a good deal of attention about the sire 

 and too little over the dam. You must breed 

 from sound dams and sound sires if you wish 

 to breed sound stock. And you must break a 

 hunter in the manner in which a hunter should 

 be broken if you wish to make a decent price. 

 Yet these obvious truisms are rarely observed. 

 Are they ? Ask anybody who has made a life 

 study of equine matters, and the answer will be, 

 " Very rarely." 



Mating Thoroughbreds 



It is impossible to be sure of obtaining a good 

 result from mating a valuable sire horse with a 

 first-rate mare. As an instance of this, the case 

 of Simon Magus is worth quoting — a horse bred 

 at Welbeck by the present Duke of Portland. 

 The sire of Simon Magus was the renowned St. 

 Simon ; the dam was Wheel of Fortune, a mare 

 which, during her racing career, the late Fred 

 Archer declared to be the best he ever rode. 



