36 ' LITTLE' BIG' HORSES 



good and good-looking a lot as could be bred. They 

 were out of the real old stamp of mares by Marquis, 

 Birdcatcher, and Star of Erin. 



I have constantly worked and hunted many of the 

 smaller, more compact animals as four-year-olds, but 

 then they were of that stamp of Irish perfection known 

 as 'little bie' ones. Alas! what has become of these 

 little giants nowadays ? 



In the last twenty years or so our old-fashioned 

 class of Irish brood-mares have been permitted to 

 supply the demands of the foreigners not only with 

 their produce, but they themselves have been quietly 

 picked up and taken from us ; and now we are 

 paying dearly for such, and the folly of our farmers 

 and breeders in parting with them. The proverbial 

 golden goose has gone, but where are the eggs ? 

 Farmers still breed, it is true, but what has become of 

 the long, low, well-ribbed, short-legged, roomy mares, 

 which were so frequently to be met with in Ireland long 

 ago ? The breeders seem to be possessed by this new- 

 fangled idea of pace, and every other good quality is 

 sacrificed to obtain it. The old stamp of mares was 

 nearly always perfect in shape, and there was little or 

 nothing which it was necessary to correct by crossing ; 

 but the present fashion has driven the breeder into the 

 fatal error of putting the mare to a Clydesdale stallion 

 prior to her being subsequently put to a thoroughbred, 

 under the mistaken idea that the mare will throw a 

 big foal afterwards when stinted by the thoroughbred 

 — a fatal delusion, and one which accounts for many 

 what may be termed ' swindles,' a big price being in 

 such instances often paid for a three-year-old showing 

 substance and apparent stamina. But before the said 



