BREEDING 269 



less liable to succumb to the ordinary ills which young horse- 

 flesh is prone to. Important considerations are that amongst 

 half-breds the time of foaling is later, and that both mare 

 and foal live a more natural existence than do their better- 

 bred neighbours. As a rule the thoroughbred foal is 

 necessarily born during the first three months of the year ; 

 the half-bred in May, June, or even July. Thus the thorough- 

 bred spends the greater part of his early days under cover, 

 while its dam must perforce be fed on dry food. The half- 

 bred, on the other hand, is generally foaled out of doors, and 

 in weather that is usually genial. The dam, while giving her 

 foal milk, has the benefit of the young grasses, and the colt 

 itself is able to run about from morning to night. 



Whether the system of stinting mares so early in the year 

 is a good one is open to grave doubt, but so long as the 

 age of thoroughbreds dates from the ist of January, and 

 two-year-olds can win as much money as is now possible, 

 so long will it be deemed incumbent on breeders to bring 

 them to hand as soon as possible, and this can only be done 

 by causing them to be foaled very early in the year. Public 

 breeders are the greatest offenders, if the term may be used, 

 for, with few exceptions, all the yearlings, bred expressly for 

 sale, are submitted to auction during the two Newmarket 

 July Meetings, or at Doncaster in the early days of Sep- 

 tember ; and it is the object of the public breeder to send 

 his youngsters into the ring as big as possible. Now, in 

 order to have a yearling really big at eighteen months 

 old or less it must be forced, and it is this unnatural forcing 

 which causes so many of the best-bred and best-looking of 

 public yearlings to turn out failures on the racecourse. 

 Year after year one sees yearling colts sent into the ring 

 nearer i6 than 15 hands high, and fillies half a hand less, 

 whereas had these youngsters been brought up less arti- 

 ficially they would certainly have averaged nearly a hand 

 less in height at that period of their existence. In addition 

 to being overgrown in the matter of inches, many of them 

 have been fed on soft food until they are far too fat, and 

 thus their worst points are often completely hidden. One 

 can hardly blame the breeders, who are of course anxious 



