CHAPTER XIII. 



BREEDING ITS INCONSISTENCIES AND ITS DISAPPOINTMENTS. 



« 



There are very dissimilar kind of horses produced in this country, tlie 

 breeding of which concerns many different classes of proprietors, and all 

 of which are ushered into this world with most opposite formalities; 

 therefore no author may pretend he is qualified to write about every de- 

 scription of animal, with any air of authority. The person, however, 

 who has long thought upon the subject, and who, by education, is 

 fitted to arrive at a just opinion, may reach a conclusion which, with- 

 out appeahng to the prejudices or interfering with the mysteries of 

 any particular class, nevertheless shall, in its decision, apply with equal 

 force to the entire body. 



The writer states thus much, because, though not absolutely without 

 experience, he yet can put forth no pretension to be specially initiated 

 into those practices and tricks which ignorant people suppose to be re- 

 quisite for the essential regulation of particular affairs. Neither does he 

 aspire to be esteemed a proficient in jockeyship, which the public appear 

 to imagine involves everything concerning the equine race. The follow- 

 ing pages are indited by an individual who, fond of the subject, and in- 

 structed as a veterinarian, has now attained an age when the mind 

 should be equally above the errors natural to schools and the supersti 

 tious, which appear to be inseparable from general society. 



There is one fault which is exempUfied with the like strength by all 

 parties who, in England, assume they understand the breeding of horses. 

 Every proprietor, when so engaged, endeavors to render the mare sub- 

 servient to two or to three distinct uses. All will bum the candle at 

 both ends ; then the public sympathizers raise a loud exclamation be- 

 cause such willful extravagance does not specially serve any economical 

 or any useful purpose. Nobody dreams of propagating from an animal 

 until its body has been injured and its vitality has been weakened by 

 services rendered to an exacting master. The results which labor can 

 impress upon a living organism may be observed emphasized upon the 

 manufacturing classes of Great Britain ; but much as has been published 



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