166 HINTS TO horsehen; or, 



mean one whose price we will set down at from three 

 to five hundred ; such sire would bring, perhaps, five 

 guineas a mare for his services, and would serve say- 

 sixty ; this brings him, in point of proportion as to a 

 return of money, about on a par with the one that 

 costs two thousand ; the diiference between the two 

 being the amount of income they bring : a result as 

 much to be anticipated as that the man who invests 

 two thousand in an annuity, of course has a right to 

 a larger income than he who invests five hundred. 



The great advantage a first-rate sire holds out to his 

 owner, is the certainty of his services being sought, 

 though he be an untried one. Here it may be useful 

 to the totally uninitiated in such matters, to explain 

 what the term '' untried " means, as they might na- 

 turally enough imagine it meant untried as a race- 

 horse ; this is, however, not the case : it means un- 

 tried as a sire, that is, that his produce have not 

 appeared in public as race-horses. Eut there have 

 been instances of sires, who have been themselves 

 untried as to their merits on the turf, from their 

 having met with accidents that prevented their run- 



