CHAP. in. THE BREEDING OF HORSES. 417 



The reader will find further information on the subjects dealt with 

 in this chapter in three illustrated pamphlets, written by Professor 

 Sir George Brown, C.B., for the Royal Agricultural Society, and pub- 

 lished by Mr. John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. They are 

 "Animals of the Farm in Health and Disease" (Is.), "Dentition as 

 Indicative of the Age of the Animals of the Farm " (Is.), " The Struc- 

 ture of the Horse's Foot and the Principles of Shoeing " (Qd.). 



CHAPTER III. 

 ON BREEDING HORSES. 



THE breeding of horses, as a distinct concern, can be carried on with 

 success on those farms containing tracts of coarse pasturage, 

 which cannot be advantageously appropriated to the fattening or 

 grazing of other animals. Of this description are part of the North 

 Riding of Yorkshire, the fens in the county of Lincoln, the pastures 

 of Leicestershire, and some of the midland counties. In the horse- 

 breeding districts of the fens much of the land is, however, of very 

 good grazing quality, and the better the turf the better the horses. 

 The same attention must be paid to symmetry of form, purity of 

 blood, and individual excellence, as in the breeding of cattle. It is 

 unnecessary to repeat that which has already been said of the principles 

 of breeding generally, but it must never be forgotten that in every 

 species of animal, and including both the male and the female, "like 

 produces like." If they are not incompatible, the form and the 

 qualities of both the parents will descend to the offspring; and it 

 is from the care with which animals of different sexes are selected, 

 generation after generation, possessing certain excellences and certain 

 predispositions, that these results, in process of time, become the 

 distinguishing characteristics of definite breeds. 



From this arises another circumstance that should always be borne 

 in mind, opposite qualities in the parents are to a certain degree 

 neutralised in the offspring. If a large heavy horse covers a small light 

 mare, the offspring will be lighter than the sire and heavier than the 

 dam. Thus we have the power of remedying many serious faults in the 

 one and the other. Let it therefore be remembered that the entire 

 attention should not, as is to j commonly the case, be confined to the 

 stallion : without going so far as to say that as much depends upon the 

 mare as upon the horse, in regard to the form and other good qualities 

 of the progeny, we would impress on everyone the fallacy of breeding 

 from a mare that is good for nothing else. The weaknesses, vices, or 

 diseases of such an one are sure to be inherited by her offspring. No 



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