BEP0F.T3. €$ 



limb, healtlifulness of constitution, endurance of performance 

 and whatever else makes the most perfect animals. " Ereed- 

 ing," says a modern writer, " is always more or less a lottery,'* 

 but when carried on by dams and sires of unknown pedigree, 

 it is a hundred fold more so than it need be. " Were I," says 

 Stonehenge, to establish a breeding stud, whether of cart Or 

 carriage horses, hacks or hunters, I would never introduce a 

 single mare whose dam and grand-dam as well as the sire and 

 grand-sire are not producable as good specimens of their re- 

 spective kinds. Beyond the second remove there would al- 

 ways be some difficulty in going with the low-bred mares, but 

 I would certainly go as far as this in all cases. If the sire and 

 dam, grand-sire and grand-dam, were, on the whole, of desira- 

 ble form and performances, I would choose the produce as a* 

 brood-mare, but not otherwise ; and though of course, I should 

 be obliged to pass over some important defects in individuals, 

 I would not do so if they were common to all, or nearly all, of 

 the four. In this way I should expect to do more than by 

 simply choosing 'a great roomy mare' without knowing her 

 pedigree in the belief that she would bo sure to reproduce her 

 likeness." 



Having determined on turning one's attention to breeding 

 liorses, the next point to be considered, is, tlie kind of horses 

 to be bred, whether farm horses, roadsters, trotters, or saddle- 

 horses. Select as good mares as can be found in view of all 

 the conditions, such as are specified above, then, use a sire of 

 the best blood of the various breeds known, such as the 

 thorough-bred, Cleveland Bay, &c. If it be desirable to breed 

 trotters, use the pure thorough-bred sire, the best type of that 

 blood and race that can be obtained. 



