PRINCIPLES OF HORSE BREEDING 



M. W. Harpei? 

 Professor of Animal Husbandry, Cornell University, Ithaca. 



The development of the modern breeds of the horse dates back 

 abont three centuries when the English began to improve their 

 horses, which resulted in the formation of the present thorough- 

 bred breed of running horses. Most of the early attempts at 

 improvement were for an increase in efficiency of the horse for 

 sport and war. During the eighteenth century, however, much 

 attention was given to horse breeding for economic purposes. 



To Robert Bakewell we owe much for this movement. About 

 1Y60, Bakewell assumed the management of the estate on which 

 his father and grandfather had resided at Leicestershire, Eng- 

 land. Young Bakewell conceived the idea that he had only to 

 select the most valuable strains, such as promised the greatest 

 returns to the breeder, and that he should then, by careful atten- 

 tion to progTessive improvement, be able to produce a breed 

 from which he could derive maximum advantage. Bakewell 

 recognized two cardinal principles of animal improvement : first, 

 that similar produces similar, and second, that form bears close 

 relationship to function. Based upon these principles, he origi- 

 nated a system, the application of which has resulted in our 

 specialized breeds of horses. 



SELECTION 



In the improvement of our horses, selection plays an all-im- 

 portant part, since it enables us to encourage the production of 

 those horses that meet the demand, and to prevent, in part at 

 least, the production of undesirable animals. Thus in selecting 

 horses for breeding purposes there are four important factors 

 to be considered : first, individual merit or the perfection of the 

 animal as a representative of its race, type, or breed ; second, 

 the pedigree or purity of ancestry, and the probable capacity 

 of the individual to reproduce itself or show improvement ; third, 

 the suitability of the two animals to be mated ; and fourth, breed- 

 ing performance when offspring are available for observation, 



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