84 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



age were the progeny of sires and dams of mode- 

 rate pretension ; for instance, Queen Mary, the 

 mother of Blink Bonn 5^, was only called a fourth- 

 class mare, and before breeding Blink Bonny was 

 sold for £20. Then, again, we find the dam of 

 Eobert the Devil only a miserable plater, yet both 

 these mares were of sound pedigreC; no screws 

 being found among their ancestors. The mare 

 having been decided on as a fit subject for the 

 honour of brood mare, we must look for the horse 

 best adapted for getting hunters. When speak- 

 ing of unsound mares, I mean mares with here- 

 ditary failings. A mare may only have three 

 legs, and yet be fit for breeding purposes ; if her 

 lameness is the result of an accident and not of 

 hereditary causes, the mare may be considered 

 sound. The horse should be sixteen hands in 

 height, of a good colour, with lofty fore-head, 

 a neck as light as possible (yet short-necked 

 horses are generally clear-winded), clear wide 

 jaws and nostrils, large and thin shoulders, strong 

 and muscular thighs, deep chest, and short back; 

 above all his joints should be strong, firm, and 

 closely knit. His legs and pasterns should be 

 rather short, and the cannon flat, the feet rather 

 large and sound. Horses with round legs never 

 wear, and are sure to go lame ; long hind-legged 

 horses can never gallop down hill or take bold 

 leaps with weight on their backs Avithout flounder- 

 ing and coming to grief. Having found both 

 mare and horse good, we may naturally expect 

 a good foal, and to make a good foal a clever 

 hunter, we must commence with it at its mother's 



