BREEDING, STOCK-RAISING, ETC. 451 



to the progeny. There has been proof upon proof that blind- 

 ness, roaring, thick wind, broken wind, spavin, curb, ring- 

 bone, and founder have been bequeathed to their offspring 

 both by the sire and the dam." 



"Whatever may be the case in England it is not thus in our 

 country. Rarely, indeed, do American farmers attempt to 

 breed from such stock, although they may, perhaps, do so in 

 exceptional instances, where it is the mare that is diseased — 

 not once in a thousand times, however, from an unsound 

 horse ; and even were this end sought, it is our opinipn that 

 few American horses, of either sex, would breed when dis- 

 eased to such an extent as to transmit their maladies to their 

 offspring. 



Nor do we*believe that hereditary disease is of nearly so 

 frequent occurrence in England as the books would persuade 

 us. The disorders called such are, for the most part, such as 

 the low, damp, dark stables of their great cities, in which 

 they are often built under ground, would naturally give rise 

 to; and here, in all probability, Is one great source of mis- 

 chief in the large majority of cases. Then the mistreatment 

 of the mare while, with foal, together with the unkind and 

 irrational neglect of the colt after weaning, is a prolific cause 

 of those ailments and infirmities to which the first years of 

 the horse's life are subject, and many of which cling to him 

 until the day of his death. Few foals make their advent 

 into the world otherwise thati in at least a tolerably sound 

 condition, unless abuse of the mare during gestation has be- 

 gotten some innate weakness or other, when neglect, expos- 

 ure and abuse will rapidly do the rest in dev^eloping disease 

 in the young animal. 



Even the hereditary character of certain disorders in the 

 human being is, perhaps, less firmly established than is com- 

 monly asserted; but, however this may be, the so-called 

 law has so many exceptions when attempted to be applied 

 to the horse, that one can hardly help pronouncing it in- 

 operative, in his case. Some of the finest colts we ever knew 



