180 THROWING PEARLS BEFORE SWINE. 



men and for many countries, and is a very safe horse 

 to breed. The taller, higher bred, racing-looking nag 

 has also his admirers and his particular country ; but 

 in either, symmetry and muscular power must be the 

 great aim of the breeder if he means his horse to be 

 at a proper time worth educating. It is true, if a 

 man happens to have bred a light ten-stone hunter, 

 if he is clever there are ten-stone men to be found to 

 buy him : but such a horse will not in one case in a 

 hundred pay half his expenses when sold. With a 

 colt likely to grow into such a horse, it would be 

 economy to send him as a present to the kennel : you 

 would be sure to get thanks for him ; and you will be 

 sure not to make a guinea by him if kept : in short, 

 he is certain (I may say) to prove a heavy loss that 

 is, if reared in the way and at the expense a colt 

 must be reared if he is ever intended to make a fine 

 horse. 



We have hunters, from the regular half-bred to the 

 thorough-bred horse. I believe most men will allow 

 that for the pace hounds go now the breeder must act 

 upon a very different system, if he means to sett, to 

 that pursued fifty years since. We must have very 

 high breeding to get the pace, and great strength to 

 support it. The pace, that is the speed, is very 

 easy to get ; but speed and strength, combined with 

 all the knowledge, care, and expense we may use, 

 must only be expected in a very few out of the number 

 of colts we may breed. It is the loss on the others 

 that renders breeding so expensive, and its realisation 

 in the few that causes those few to bring such 

 enormous prices as they do. 



In breeding the half or three-quarter bred horse, 

 different men go on different principles. The ge- 



