HOESES AND HOUNDS: 



A PEACTICAL TEEATISE ON THEIE MANAGEMENT. 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER OIS" THE HORSE. 



Illi ardua cerrix, 



Ai'giitumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga; 

 Luxuriatque toris animosiun pectus : honesti 

 Spadices, glaucique." — Virgil, Ge. iii. 79. 



Demand and higli price of well-bred horses — Mistakes in selection of brood 

 mares, and bad economy in purchasing inferior animals— Hints on feed- 

 ing yoimg stock, especially during the winter — Superior value of horses 

 to other stock — Paddocks — Feeding — Exercise. 



From the high prices which well-bred horses of good form 

 and figure have commanded, for many years past, and still 

 maintain, it is matter of sur])rise that breeding this kind of 

 stock, as a system, has not been more generally adopted by 

 the enlightened agriculturists of the present day. Good 

 hunters have always sold at a high figure, but it is no 

 unusual circumstance to find carriage horses in the hands of 

 our London Job Masters, at the present moment, valued at 

 300 guineas the pair. Good weight-carrying hunters are 

 always in request, for which from 200 to 300 guineas is not 

 an unusual price realized by dealers. Horses of this descrip- 

 tion, however, are seldom met with out of the great northern 

 districts, Avhich have hitherto produced the finest animals ; and 

 to the great fairs at Horncastle, Rugby, and other places, dealers 

 from all parts of England, and the continent also, are attracted 

 to make their purchases. In the midland and western counties, 

 few good horses are ever produced by farmers, and the reason 

 assigned is, that it does not pay them to breed horses. I admit 

 that it does not, and never will pay them to raise such animals 



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