Condition of a Stallion. .< 35 



ind powerful muscles. Too many farmers are content 

 with the form and figure of a horse, without regard to 

 3ondition. 



A remarkable case occurred in England, some years 

 since. George the IV. owned, and was m the habit of 

 riding as a hunter, a horse of unequaled excellence. 

 His Royal Highness caused a few of his mares to be 

 bred to him in the spring, after he had been kept in 

 the highest condition as a hunter throughout the winter, 

 and the i)roduce, on gro^^^ng up, proved every way 

 worthy of their sire. When His Royal Highness be- 

 came seriously engaged in the cares of Government, 

 and therefore relinquished the pleasures of the chase, 

 being desirous to perpetuate the fine qualities of this 

 stock, he ordered the horse to be kept at Windsor for 

 public covering, provided the mares should be of the 

 first quality ; and in order to insure a sufiicient number 

 of these, directed the head gix)om to keep him exclu- 

 sively for such, and to make nd charge, with the ex- 

 ception of the customary groom's-fee of half a guinea 

 each. The groom, anxious to pocket as many half 

 guineas as possible, published His Royaf Highness's 

 liberality, and vaunted the qualities of the horse, in 

 order to persuade all he could to avail themselves of 

 the benefit. The result was, the horse bemg kept with- 

 out his accustomed exercise and in a state of reple- 

 tion, and serving upw^ards of a hundred mares yearly, 

 the stock, although tolerably promising in their early 

 age, shot up into lank, v/eakiy, awkward, leggy, good- 

 for-nothing creatures, to the entire ruin of the horse's 

 character as a sire — until some gentlemen, aware of the 



