CHAPTER IL 



HOW ro BREED A HORSE. — CHOICE OF THE MARE. 



SIZE, SYMiSlTRY AND SOU]ST)XESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BLOOD — POINTS 

 OF THE BROOD MARE— DISEASES HEREDITARY— CONDITION OF THE 

 MARE— SHOULD HAVE MODERATE WORK "WHEN WITH FOAL — FOOD AND 

 CAHE DURINa GESTATION — HEALTH AND TEMPER — GENERAL RULES. 



We now come to another and by no means secondary 

 part of the business ; that is to say, to the choice of the 

 mares. And here we say that the first thing to be looked 

 for is, not blood nor performances, but size and symmetry, 

 accompanied, as a matter of course, by constitutional and 

 structural soundness. Blood from the sire, beauty from 

 the dam, is the golden rule of the breeder. We know it 

 is commonly said by farmers, concerning some miserable, 

 undersized, ewe-necked, cat-hammed wretch of a mare, 

 broken- winded, ring-boned and spavined, " Oh, she will do 

 to raise a colt out of !" So she will ! But what will the 

 colt be ? The breeder had better, for all purposes, espe- 

 cially for his own pecuniary benefit, have shot her at once ; 

 for the colt will not be worth the mare's grass, let alone 

 the price of the stallion's services. When we say that 

 blood is not to be looked for, we mean not as a primary 

 necessity. Of course, it is to be looked for, thus, — that a 

 _fine mare, having the breeding points finely developed, 

 got by a prime thorough-bred horse, is a preferable animal 

 for a dam, to an equally fine mare who has no thorough 

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