46 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



confusing to the public, and bewildering even to experienced 

 breeders who very naturally may enquire what sort of horse 

 it is that judges want. 



In selecting a Hackney mare, the seeker after the right sort 

 of animal should always be on his guard against permitting 

 a very natural regard for that most elastic of all equine 

 virtues quality to override his judgment, and cause him to 

 give preference to an animal that looks like being three parts 

 thoroughbred, over a long, low, heavily-boned mare, who knows 

 how to use her shoulders and bend her hocks, and whose 

 pedigree alone should prove that she is bound to throw a Hack- 

 ney. In the expression of this opinion the writer does not 

 desire it to be imagined for an instant that he is unappreciative 

 of the value of blood and style about a Hackney, but at the 

 same time having often wondered why it is that some judges 

 give prizes to mares that are almost ladies' hacks, he ven- 

 tures to suggest with all diffidence that the rage for quality 

 may be carried a little too far, as there is always a chance of 

 getting too much even of a good thing. 



If a brood mare is too much on the leg and deficient in 

 bone the probabilities are that a plain, heavy horse will be 

 selected for her with the idea of ensuring that plenty of sub- 

 stance shall be about the foal. This is perhaps an inevitable 

 result of breeding from light mares, but a coarse sire is almost 

 certain to transmit some of his plainness to his stock. Thus, 

 as his sons are likely to be bred from in time there is always 

 a probability, unless their mares are all most carefully se- 

 lected , of many of their foals throwing back to the plain 

 grand-sire, and, consequently, a light mare may prove a 

 medium for introducing coarseness and loss of quality into a 

 strain, simply on account of the efforts that have been made 

 by her owner to counteract her own defects. Still, necessity 

 knows no law, and it often occurs that an owner finds himself 

 in the awkward position of having to breed from an animal 

 which he does not really fancy. In such a case, if he is a wise 

 man, he will be very careful about introducing the blood of the 



