116 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



it should be the ambition, of every owner. A fractious, 

 lawless, violent horse is a disgrace to the head groom 

 and the stable. A horse that cannot be controlled by a 

 word is not fit to serve a mare. The squealing, plun- 

 ging, savage sort are unfit for public service, and should 

 be avoided by the breeder. In addition to the fact that 

 they endanger the health and life of the mare, they also 

 impress her unfavorably ; and these parental impressions 

 have, as I hold, much to do with the life and character 

 of the foal. Every fortunate birth, over which the Fates 

 smile propitiously, is the result of fervent but amiable 

 intercourse, to which either parent yields with gladness, 

 and not the result of an insane and brutal act from 

 which the female seeks to fly in fear and terror. And 

 I hold it to be a law written in the very nature of 

 things, that a violent, ungovernable stallion is unfit for 

 the purposes of the stud. When breeders refuse to 

 stint their mares to such brutes, they will disappear, and 

 not before. The owners of such creatures can only be 

 reached through the pocket. Mercenary considerations 

 they feel the force of, and none others. Let these 

 violent stallions alone, and their owners will get better 

 ones, and not before. 



Touching the state of the stallion's health at the time 

 of service, this should be said : It should be perfect ; 

 and perfect health in the horse kind, allow me to 

 remind the reader, is not shown by fatness. A horse is 

 not a hog ; and that state which types the excellence of 

 the one does not type it in the other. Fat stallions are 



