200 TALES AND TRAITS OF SPORTING LIFE. 



be done towards making the young one temperate before 

 ever he reaches this trying* stage in his career. 



The horse is by natm'e a social animal j and, especially 

 after weaning-, two or three of the foals will do better in 

 company, due care being- taken that any one of them does 

 not become too much of '^ the master-pig-," and get all the 

 good thing's for himself — to correct which they should be 

 separated at feeding time. When together they wilL 

 challenge each other to ^' strike out " a bit ; whereas tW 

 solitary mopes about with but little incentive to try h^i 

 paces, and is much like a boy brought up at his mother's* 

 apron-string, or a young foxhound that has lost his friends. 

 I should hope by this that a duly qualified veterinar}^ 

 surgeon is within hail of most farmers, and I would leave 

 it to this gentleman to throw his eye occasionnlh- over 

 the little stud, arrange the proper period for castration, 

 and other such detail that will necessarily have to be 

 adapted to time and place. On any such minutiae of the 

 matter it is not within my purpose here to enter, even if 

 it would be profitable to do so» This paper rather pro- 

 fesses to deal with the great pinnciples of breeding riding- 

 horses, and in seeing these carried out with a little more 

 heart and judgment than they generally have been. 



One word more for the veterinarian. Nothing can be 

 more wholesome than the regulation which, after consider- 

 able discussion and division, the Council of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society are still able to insist upon as part of 

 their proceedings — viz., that every horse entered for exhi- 

 bition shall be examined and passed by a duly-appointed 

 veterinary surgeon previous to his facing the judges. It 

 is true that the latter should and might be able to reject 

 an unsound animal without such assistance; but their 

 edict wo-'1d^ot carry the same weight, especially with 



