100 THE HORSE : ITS KEEP AND MANAGEMENT. 



is not so now. Those farmers who have a good team of 

 horses can make more money out of them than any other 

 class of people, because they begin to use their young 

 horses at an early age, so that they more than earn their 

 own living. It is a different matter with those who have 

 only a limited space of ground at their command and 

 have no use for young horses. Then again, no animal 

 has been more improved upon during the last ten years 

 than the horse. I put this down to a great extent to 

 the various horse shows which have been held in different 

 parts of the country for the last few years ; and in 

 another ten years time we shall have better bred horses 

 than we have at present. 



There is a great deal of land lying waste in England, 

 even now, which might easily be used for breeding horses, 

 in fact, a good deal of it has been used for this purpose. 

 Many farmers and gentlemen who understand this kind of 

 business thoroughly go to the auction sales in London and 

 buy splendid mares very cheap, that is mares which have 

 been worked on the stones very much, or have met with a 

 slight accident. Such animals as these can be bought up 

 at very low prices ; I have known them to be got at from 

 5 to ,25 each really good mares, which have bred 

 from four to nine colts after they were what the London 

 people call worn out mares. When they are put to work 

 in London while young they usually go wrong in the legs 

 or feet. 



Such mares as I have described often come in very 

 useful to the farmers, as they usually work them a bit on 



