BREEDERS AND BREEDING 87 



No doubt a good deal may depend upon an 

 animal's constitution, however, albeit I hold that 

 constitution is strengthened by absence of over 

 pampering. 



Shade on a stud farm is most desirable, but in 

 my opinion one of the most important things of 

 all is the water supply, which must be absolutely 

 pure and good, emanating either from chalk or 

 lime. Good short sweet pasture is what horses, 

 delight in, and it must not have been overdone 

 with horses — it should have been grazed by cattle. 

 I know the case of a Master of Hounds who kept 

 a large stud of horses, and who used the manure 

 from them year after year on his hay meadows. 

 In course of time his horses absolutely refused to 

 eat the produce of these fields. So it was grazed 

 by his herd of Alderneys, and fresh land was 

 mown for the hay for the hunters. 



It is, I think, reasonable to expect that a high- 

 class mare on the Turf will produce a better 

 animal than a moderate performer, a notion, how- 

 ever, that is far from being universally entertained 

 by breeders, many of whom regard only breeding 

 and make and shape, caring nothing for how 

 the mares have run when in training ; and it 

 is true enough that some notable horses — e.g., 

 Victor Wild — have been the produce of moderate 



