54 HOW TO BREED A HORSE. 



expulsion of the Spaniards from tlie Northern Provinces, 

 the supply of Arabian stallions was cut off, and, since that 

 time, in the Perche district of Normandy, their progeny 

 has, doubtless, been bred in and in ; hence the remarkable 

 uniformity of the breed, and the disposition to impart their 

 form to their progeny beyond any breed of domestic an- 

 imals within my knowledge. Another circumstance 

 which, I think, has tended to perpetuate the good qualities 

 of these horses, is the fact of their males being kept entire ; 

 a gelding is, I believe, unknown among the rural horses 

 of France. You may be startled at this notion of mine, 

 but, if you reflect a moment, you must perceive that in 

 such a state of things — so contrary to our practice and that 

 of the English — the farmer will always breed from the best 

 horse, and he will have an opportunity of judging, because 

 the horse has been broken to harness, and his qualities 

 known, before he could command business as a stallion." 

 There can be no possible question that the writer is correct 

 in this view of the advantage, so far as breeding is con- 

 cerned, of preserving all horses entire and ungelded ; as it 

 must naturally and necessarily follow, where a great 

 majority of the males of any breed are gelded when young 

 colts, and a few only are selected to some extent by chance 

 to serve as stallions, that many of the very best, and per- 

 haps actually the best, of every year, are deprived of the 

 means of perpetuating their excellence. This, undoubtedlj^, 

 is one of the causes of the constant preservation, if not im- 

 provement, of the race-horse ; that, inasmuch as thorough- 

 bred colts are never, unless from some peculiar cause, such 

 as indomitable vice, deprived of their virility, the breeder 

 has all the males of the race from which to select a stallion 

 at his pleasure, instead of having only a small number 

 from wliich to select. Yet even in the thorough-breds 

 the breeder sometimes has cause to regret the caprice or 



