Selection of Mares. 37 



junction with the head ; high withers, thin shoulders, 

 and, above all, long, sloping shoulders. A straight 

 shoulder is an abomination; it renders speed impos- 

 sible, and gives a rigid, inflexible motion, often pro- 

 ducing the bad fault of stumbling. She should be 

 wide-chested and deep in the heart place. Her 

 quarters should be strong, well let down, long and 

 sickle-shaped above the hocks. It is better that she go 

 with her hocks somewhat too wide apart than too near 

 together — the former point indicating power, the 

 latter weakness, of a bad kind. It has been shown that 

 a breed mare may, nay, should be considerable longer 

 in the back than one would choose a working horse to 

 be, but if she be particularly so, it is desirable to put 

 her to a particularly short-backed and close-coupled 

 horse. 



The next thing to be observed by the horse-breeder, 

 in raising stock of any kind, after the blood and form 

 of the mare and the qualities of the stallion, is the 

 temper and condition of the dam. The former, be- 

 cause nothing is more decidedly transmissible in the 

 blood than temper ; the second, because, unless she is 

 in good health and vigor, it is impossible that she can 

 produce vigorous and healthy offspring. 



The first time a mare is to be covered, it is of the 

 utmost importance that the stallion should be the best 

 that can be procured, as instances have been known 

 where the stallion having possessed some striking points, 

 the colts of the mare have shown those points for several 

 colts after, though a different stallion was used. 



