THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE. 21 



is by this time aware, the money formerly given for Queen's 

 plates is now diverted into another channel, and under the 

 auspices of the Royal Commission on Horse-breeding, an 

 annual sum of ^5,000 is now given to subsidising thorough- 

 bred sires which shall serve the mares of tenant farmers at 

 the nominal sum of forty shillings. Now, the most that this 

 arrangement can effect for some time is to place a sound sire 

 within the reach of the average farmer, without giving him 

 the trouble of asking a single question about its soundness. 

 That is guaranteed at any rate as certainly as ever conflict- 

 ing opinions allow by the fact that the horse is the winner of 

 a Queen's Premium. Yet ever since the Queen's Premiums 

 have been awarded, not a little grumbling on the part of 

 exhibitors has taken place concerning the strictness of the 

 veterinary examination. A ringbone, even at mature age, 

 has caused more than one horse to be discarded ; while no 

 matter how perfect shoulders and loins may be, no matter 

 how much bone may be found below the knee, or how flat 

 and clean the legs, any unsoundness in the respiratory organs 

 leads to disqualification. 



We are thus confronted with a curious two-fold anomaly. 

 In the first place we have two standards of soundness one 

 for the sires of racehorses, another for the sires of hunters, 

 hacks, cavalry remounts, &c. Nor does the anomaly stop 

 here. People unacquainted with the Turf might suppose that 

 the greater strictness were exercised over those sires which 

 are destined to beget racehorses ; but no ! a certain number 

 of breeders are content if they can get a galloping machine, 

 hoping (if we assume that they are not agnostics in the 

 matter of hereditary unsoundness) their horse may be that 

 one which shall not inherit the weak points of his sire or 

 dam. When we come to hunter sires, however (recruited, it 

 must be remembered, from the ranks of blood horses), not to 

 mention Shires, Clydesdales, Hackneys, Suffolks, Clevelands, 

 Yorkshire-bred horses, cobs and ponies, we find soundness in 

 wind a sine qua non. In short, therefore, the readiness with 



