T44 TuE Book of the Horse. 



for the small South American mares. After the thoroughbred, what is most required is an 

 active, clean-legged, smart-looking horse, about 15.2 hands, such as I have often seen in trades- 

 men's goods carts in the streets of London. 



Breeding horses in the River Plate States, so much favoured by pastures and climate, and 

 with an unlimited quantity of mares from which to select, cannot but prove lucrative if carried 

 on by men of intelligence, and with a fair knowledge of their business. But they must be 

 prepared to expend time and money in the introduction of thoroughbred stock, and be content 

 to await the result. The day will come when the southern continent will be a formidable rival 

 of the northern in the exportation of horses, and it depends upon the exertions of the breeders 

 whether that day be remote or otherwise. 



HORSE-BREEDING IN THE RIVER PLATE STATES. 



The common system of breeding in the settled districts at the present day differs very 

 little from the natural system which the horse had established for himself on the open plains 

 some 300 years ago. The herds are divided into families called Manadas, which pasture all 

 the year round in the open, exposed to all the vicissitudes of weather and seasons, and are, 

 as occasion requires, driven up to the homesteads and enclosed in the "corral," for the branding 

 of the foals, denuding the mares of their manes and tails for the sake of the hair, or for the 

 domestication of the colts. Newly-formed Manadas are frequently enclosed during the night 

 as a precaution against straying ; also when horse-stealers are about, and when mosquitoes are 

 prevalent, the annoyance from these being such that horses will stray long distances up wind 

 during the night. Each of these Manadas has a stallion at its head, and consists usually of 

 twenty or thirty mares, with a sprinkling of colts and fillies. Over these the stallion keeps most 

 jealous watch, pursuing and bringing back, in no gentle manner, any mare which attempts 

 to wander. By instinct, the stallion does not allow full-grown fillies, his own progeny, to 

 remain in his harem, and he suffers them to be appropriated by his rivals without opposition. 

 He will also appropriate any stray mare which may come his way, and occasionally he will 

 make a raid on a neighbouring Manada, and attempt to steal away a mare or two, when 

 right royal fights take place between the rival stallions, and the prize is carried off by the 

 victor. These fights are very frequent in the plains, and occasionally are to be witnessed 

 between horse and stallion donkey, often ending in the victory of the latter ; indeed, the 

 horse as a rule does not seem to care much about attacking the donkey, having a wholesome 

 dread of his teeth, which he uses in fight with the same tenacity which distinguishes the 

 Bulldog. 



The selection and occasional changing of stallions for their " Manadas " is the only 

 improvement or modification of the system established by the horse himself at the time of 

 the conquest, at least as far as concerns the great majority of native breeders ; exceptions 

 are to be met with in a few of the native and most of the foreign breeders. 



The old class of " Domadores " (breakers) — a set of reckless centaurs — is now almost 

 extinct ; in fact, I only saw some half-dozen during the latter years of my residence in 

 the Argentine Republic, 1865 to 1875. That such is the case is, however, matter for small 

 regret, for, though they were grand horsemen, and endowed with a courage which made light 

 oi perils calculated to dismay a foreigner, they were bad breakers, and so violent and rough 

 in handling horses, that they ruined a vast number that passed through their hands. About 

 the year 1855 I employed one of this class to break some ten or twelve colts. His daring 

 and the way he stuck to a buck-jumper, was soniotliing wonderful to belu)ld ; no cffct or 



