CHOICE OF STALLIONS AND MARES. 29 



better form, and fit to start with fewer sweats, 

 than others ; but when the breed is continued in- 

 cestuous for three or four crosses, the animal, he 

 thinks, degenerates. By breeding in-and-in, how- 

 ever, he does not insist upon the necessity of breed- 

 ing from brother and sister, or putting a mare to 

 her own sire, or the sire to his own dam ; but after 

 the first cross, to return to original blood. A re- 

 cent proof of the good effect of a close affinity in 

 race-horses may be found in the produce of the 

 dam of his late Majesty's favourite mare Maria. 

 By those celebrated stallions, Rubens and Sooth- 

 sayer, they were worthless ; but by Waterloo and 

 Rainbow, grandsons of Sir Peter, and thus com- 

 bining much of her own blood, they could run to 

 win. 



We now come to the most certain source of pro- 

 ducing good racers, namely, the choice of stallions 

 and mares, and the treatment of the produce in 

 their colthood. But as regards the two first-named 

 requisites, reference must be had to the parts of 

 the country in which horses are intended to run. 

 If, for the short races of Newmarket, so much the 

 fashion of the present day, a differently formed 

 animal would be required to one intended to clear 

 his way on the provincial courses. But whether it 

 be one description of a race-horse or another, al- 

 though the laws of nature are not always certain, 

 a proper junction of shape, or similarity in forma- 

 tion of horse and mare, together with a due regard 

 to blood, gives the fairest prospect of success. We 

 admit it is difficult to account for the degrees 



