90 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



principle or capacity does not inhere in all stallions 

 alike. It does not follow that a stallion, however per- 

 fect he may be both in conformation and temperament, 

 will make a good stock-horse, or prove a source of 

 profit to those who patronize him. It is at this point 

 that so many blunders are made, and from which so 

 many failures result. At this point two roads diverge, 

 one of which leads to success, the other to certain disas- 

 ter. How essential, then, that a warning and directing 

 hand should be set up at this point, seeing which no 

 breeder can be uncertain which path to take ! The 

 fact is this, that in addition to temperament and per- 

 fection of structure, over and above desirableness of 

 nervous and muscular organization, there does exist 

 in certain horses the power to propagate their most 

 perfect points and characteristics, which other horses, 

 equally perfect in themselves, perhaps do not have. 

 What this power is, or where it is, or how the horse 

 comes by it, no one can tell. It cannot be implied: 

 nothing short of an actual demonstration can prove 

 that it exists. It is this which makes a stallion wor- 

 thy to be kept as a stock-horse ; and nothing else 

 can. No matter how beautiful, nor how sound, nor 

 how speedy, nor how well connected in pedigree, a 

 colt may be: he should never be advertised to the 

 breeding public, until, by actual service with his own 

 brood-marcs, his owner is made aware of his capacity 

 to reproduce his own excellences in his get. I main- 

 tain that any other course includes a fraud upon the 



