THE BREEDING OF HORSES 183 



of the original demi sang (French half-breed) for army service; 

 also in the production of hunters. 



Most uniform results are obtained when the hereditary tend- 

 encies of the two breeds crossed incline in the same general 

 direction, as in mating a Standardbred and a Saddle horse, or a 

 Thoroughbred with either, and are least satisfactory when radi- 

 cally opposed hereditary forces are united, as in breeding a 

 trotter to a Shire. Such extreme crosses may prohibit any blend 

 of characters and often result in a colt possessed of a draft 

 horse head and body on a trotter's legs and feet, or some similar 

 combination of the extreme characters of each. 



Cross-breeding was attended by much greater advantages 

 during the formative periods of our breeds than can be claimed 

 for it at the present time. With a particular breed especially 

 well adapted to almost all requirements, there is little excuse for 

 mixing them up. 



Some of the renovating effects of cross-breeding may be se- 

 cured, yet the identity and integrity of the breed maintained, by 

 resorting to the so-called climatic out-cross, the mating of indi- 

 viduals of the same breed but reared under different conditions 

 of environment, as English and American or Australian Thor- 

 oughbreds, or Kentucky and California Standardbreds. The 

 most extreme system of crossing involves species instead of 

 breeds, and is called hybridization. 



Equine hybrids are the mule and the zebroid. The common 

 ancestor within the genus, in tliis case, is so extremely remote 

 as to render the hybrids sterile. Bovine hybrids, however, are 

 more or less completely fertile, the supposition being that their 

 common ancestor was more proximate. 



The nick, commonly referred to by horse breeders, is a 

 mating resulting especially favorably in a foal superior to either 

 parent. It is supposed to be due to a special affinity of hereditary- 

 forces which results in a most harmonious blend or union. A 

 mare may produce good colts to the service of one stallion, but 

 mating with another stallion of equal merit as a sire may result 

 in utter failure, so far as the character of the get is concerned. 



Atavism or reversion is the reappearance of the type of a 

 remote ancestor or a harking back to a preexisting form. It is 



