SHUN INFIRMITY MORE THAN AGE. 2G9 



don't tolerate the same defect in both parents, especially if they 

 are related. Perfect health and perfect temper shonld be 

 insisted on. 



655. — For the more complete nourishment of the foal, we 

 should prefer the mare a little more lymphatic, and the horse a 

 little more nervous than we wished the foal to be, but we would 

 never venture on any great extremes either Avay. The more the 

 parents are alike the less risk you will run as to what the foal 

 will be. This similarity in the parents is especially important in 

 breeding pure bred stock where the foal will be used for breeding 

 purposes. 



AGE. 



G56. — So long as robust health and vigour are secured, age 

 is not a matter of much consequence. AVe should prefer the 

 prime of life, between four and sixteen, and if one parent Avas 

 getting rather old we would take care that the other was quite 

 young enough. Bat there is no denying the great fact that 

 some of the best horses in the world have come from two-year- 

 old sires, and others from sires over twenty-five. We would 

 discard no thrifty, healthy animals from breeding, that had 

 proved capable of producing good stock, and should prefer 

 such proved parents to any unproved ones. We should value 

 a horse or mare all the more, for breeding, that retained their 

 own health and vigour to an unusual age, but we should not 

 expect good results from a parent that was infirm from any 

 cause. 



TEMPER. 



G57. — Too much allowance is usually made for the temper 

 of an entire horse. In good hands he should be as gentle and 

 tractable as a gelding, and if he is not he is not fit to breed 

 from. In breeding gambling machines for the turf, temper is 

 unfortunately regarded as a thing of very secondary consequence, 

 but for ordinary purposes it is one of the very first requisites. 

 The English Thoroughbred is naturally deficient in a quality that 

 has not been sought for by liis breeders, just as he would bo 



