THE BREEDING OF HORSES 189 



in one State while barred from service in another. Local con- 

 ditions govern, of course, in the case of each State, but there can 

 hardly be sufficient difference in the prevailing conditions to- 

 warrant such a variety of laws. 



The objects of stallion laws should be (1) to protect the mare 

 owner, by preventing misrepresentation of the breeding or the 

 soundness of the stallion; (2) to protect the owners of superior 

 breeding stallions by eliminating or discouraging the use of infe- 

 rior competitors ; (3) to promote the interests of the mare owners 

 by encouraging the purchase and standing of better stallions ; 

 and (4) to promote the interests of the stallion 0A\Tier by edu- 

 cating the mar© owner to be discriminating in his patronage. 



The first object is best insured by requiring an examination 

 of the pedigree registry certificates and a uniform inspection, 

 by one board or commission, of every stallion for which applica- 

 tion for license is made, all stallions found acceptable to be class- 

 ified according to breeding, whether pure-bred, grade or scrub, 

 sound or unsound, and said classification to be specified clearly 

 in the license certificate. 



Purity of Breeding. — Pure-bred is such an arbitrary term, 

 contingent upon so many conditions, that it is more accurate and 

 just in many cases to certify a stallion to be registered or unreg- 

 istered rather than of pure breeding or not of pure breeding. In 

 many instances ineligibility to registry may be strictly technical, 

 due to neglect on the part of previous owners, and may not in 

 any way alter the purity of breeding of the stallion or his value 

 as a sire. The fact that the horse is unregistered, however, can- 

 not be disputed. 



Hereditary unsoundness is such an elusive condition, so diffi- 

 cult of prognosis, that to specify just what conditions of unsound- 

 ness shall, by their presence, disqualify for sei'v^ice, will necessi- 

 tate the elimination of many individuals of much breeding value, 

 although their get may be in no way predisposed to the unsound- 

 ness which they themselves possess. The same unsoundness may 

 be quite regularly transmitted in one case while perhaps never 

 appearing to be hereditary in another. The most careful obser- 

 vation and inquiry warrant the conclusion that spavin and roar- 

 ing, for instance, can only be regarded as of an hereditary nature 



