THE DAM. 141 



cant. To this general law there are certain exceptions. 

 Now and then you find a brood-mare that seems to have 

 no marhing power at all : they give nothing to the foal 

 save the food on which he grows. From the moment 

 he is born, he is perceived to be the sire's own child. 

 The dam seems only to have carried it ; been, as it 

 were, a receptacle for it; carried it as something that 

 did not belong to her, but to another, and which she 

 was to feed and nourish and introduce. Only this, and 

 nothing more ; for this literally was all she did. She 

 left no stamp or impress of herself upon it at all, either 

 as to size, color, structure, or temperament. Such 

 brood-mares to the breeder are simply invaluable. 

 With them he Jcnoius what he shall get ; and that which 

 defies all calculation, and baffles all intelligence, is re- 

 moved, — uncertainty. But this is, as I have said, the 

 exception : in the average order of nature it is not so ; 

 and hence the character and condition of the dam from 

 which the foal is to come, is, to the breeder, a matter of 

 gravest concern. Several things a brood-mare should 

 be sure to have, which we will now enumerate ; the 

 first of which is blood. The value of pedigree in this 

 connection can scarcely be over-rated. We take it for 

 granted that no respectable breeder would breed to a 

 horse of unknown lineage. That would be queer breed- 

 ing indeed ! The pedigree of the stallion, then, being 

 known, and the pedigree of the brood-mare being also 

 known, the breeder can forecast, with a reasonable de- 

 gree of certainty, the characteristics and qualities of the 



