154 CONFESSIONS OP A HOESB DEALER. 



plenty of corn, but the whole of the milk of a cow. The 

 age at which they are run (two years) renders this high 

 feeding necessary, as, without unnaturally high feeding, 

 many would not he worth the litter they lie upon, as is 

 often the case when bred by persons not intending them 

 for racing. 



Those who have never seen a newly-dropped thorough- 

 bred foal, would be surprised to see their utter and sin- 

 gular helplessness, many not being able to move about 

 for several days after being foaled. This is the result of 

 constitutional weakness in the parents, as the foals of all 

 other breeds of horses in the world run about as soon 

 as dropped. The whole country is at the present time 

 overrun with light straight-legged animals, the weedings 

 of racing studs, which, having been tried and found 

 wanting in pace, are sent to a repository and sold for 

 whatever they will fetch : there are plenty of these tilly- 

 willy stallions travelling the agricultural districts in the 

 season, their owners circulating cards containing lists of 

 pedigrees up to Flying Childers, or the Markham 

 Arabian at every roadside inn or market-house in the 

 district they travel ; many farmers are thus allured to 

 give them a trial, and the result is generally disappoint- 

 ment and loss. Dealing men and judges of horses care 

 nothing for pedigree when allied to a weak, shallow 

 form. I have frequently seen, in the midland counties, 

 and elsewhere, strange-looking animals produced by 

 crossing with these racing stallions, having cart-horse 

 quarters and thorough-bred heads and fore-hands. 



