THE HUNTER. IOQ 



country ; but, as a rule, as mentioned elsewhere, size means 

 power, and it is a succession of big fences that beats the little 

 horse. It may be that the 15-hand Arab is equal to the Eng- 

 lish horse of three or four inches higher, but the majority o t 

 hunting men would be slow to assent to the claim ; conse- 

 quently the breeder who can offer a buyer nothing but small 

 horses must be prepared to pay for his fancy in the shape of a 

 reduced price. It is not contended that the cross between an 

 Arab and a hunting mare is necessarily small, but usually 

 they give one the idea of being nothing more than light 

 weight horses. 



The breeder cannot too soon realise the fact that the choice 

 of a suitable sire is only one step towards breeding a hunter. 

 It is of paramount importance that the dam should be equally 

 good in her way. Yet many breeders, small farmers especially, 

 when they are not themselves great horsemen, persist in breed- 

 ing from weedy, undersized or worn-out mares. It is not until 

 a mare is past work that some of them think of sending her 

 to the horse. The very natural result of this is that nine out 

 of ten of the produce are fit for nothing better than to put in 

 a butcher's cart, indeed, sometimes they have not pace enough 

 for that ; and then the breeder exclaims that horse breeding 

 is a delusion, and that after all the expense and trouble have 

 been undertaken he has had to sell a four-year-old for about 

 20 or less. The wonder would have been if the animals had 

 brought any bigger prices. Even when the greatest judgment 

 is exercised when both parents are just what one would think 

 they ought to be, and when everything is done to bring on 

 the young stock there must be a certain number of failures ; 

 but when judgment and prudence are cast to the winds, who 

 can wonder if disastrous results follow ? 



In the first place it is no more worth any one's while to set 

 out with the idea of breeding light-weight hunters than it is for 

 them to lay themselves out for breeding a stamp of horse that 

 shall sell for ^"25 or ^"30. In the ordinary course of things 

 the breeder, even if in the long run he be successful, will find 



