26 HOW TO BREED A HORSE. 



blood at all. But, on the contrary, a mare with all the 

 best bloods in the world in her veins, if she has not good 

 shapes, good size, and good points, is not fit for a stud 

 mare. We do not merely mean as to the absence of ac- 

 tual deformities, or constitutional disease, such as spavin, 

 ringbone or navicular disease, but as to lack of structural 

 excellence and beauty. We go so far as to say that a 

 farmer had far better let alone breeding from a niare which 

 he knows to be herself a good and tru3 one, if she be cross 

 made, unsightly, and deficient in points of strength or in 

 action ; for excellence will sometimes be found, acciden- 

 tally and exceptionally, in all shapes, even the most 

 unlikely. But it will be found, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, that the ill shapes will be transmitted, while 

 the excellence will not. Therefore, say we, when a good 

 old mare, however good she may have been, if she want 

 size, bone, muscular development and form, has done her 

 work, it is better to let her go, her duties done, than to 

 seek to turn her to farther profit by breeding from her, 

 since the profit is extremely likely to prove a loss. An 

 unproved mare, of fine form and good temper, with plenty 

 of bone, good constitution, and free from unsoundness or 

 vice, is a better animal from which to raise stock than the 

 toughest bit of mare's flesh that ever stood on iron, if she 

 materially lack any one of those conditions. 



" In choosing the brood mare," says an excellent modern 

 writer on the horse, though he is speaking of thorough- 

 breds, " four things must be considered : First, her blood ; 

 secondly, her frame ; thirdly, her state of health ; and 

 fourthly, her temper. 



"In frame, the mare should be so formed as to be 

 capable of carrying and well nourishing her off-spring ; 

 that is, she should be what is called ' roomy.' There is 

 a formation of the hips which is particularly unfit for 



