284 RIDING FOR LADIES, 



land. Well-nurtured animals — those that had never been 

 subjected to any sort of training — would be certain to 

 bring forth finer and healthier specimens of horseflesh than 

 aged quadrupeds, who were only put to the stud because 

 they had met with accident, or had broken down. I cannot, 

 for my own part, believe in such animals perpetuating a 

 V3.1uable or healthy stock ; and experience has amply 

 proved that it is only after long periods of repose — 

 during which the waste and exhaustion consequent upon 

 training and running have become mitigated, if not ab- 

 solutely cured — that racing mares and sires attain celebrity 

 through the progeny that they produce. 



Turfites might pick up many a good and paying thing, 

 if breeders would only relinquish some of their standing 

 prejudices, and be induced to set apart a certain number of 

 untrained animals for stud purposes, selecting the best of 

 the foals produced by them, and keeping these apart until 

 their sixth year ; by so doing, they would generate a 

 company of clippers that would make fortunes for their 

 purchasers, and fairly open the eyes of the racing world. 

 Strange to say, the system finds but little acceptance — a 

 fact shown by the bad, weedy, and mis-shapen lots that 

 are sent out to contest many of our leading races. More 

 of them break down in the training than ever actually go 

 to the post ; and, even among the starters, how few are 

 found in the run home really contesting the race. The 

 horseflesh of the country has degenerated under the pur- 

 suance of a wrong system ; and yet, it is asserted that 

 racing is kept up to improve the national breed of chasers 



