192 , VICIOUS SIRES. 



This would be a most desirable thing in a bullock or 

 a poor man's horse, but really an imperfection in a 

 race-horse. Throwing up fat is not always a proof of 

 health, and it is health, not flesh, we want in a race- 

 horse. In a mitiixated sense the same thino- is wanted 

 in a hunter, and without sound constitution we can- 

 not get health. 



Although I have said vice and various tricks are 

 hereditary from the sire, under particular circum- 

 stances 1 should be tempted to breed from a vicious 

 sire for a race-horse, as vice is less objectionable in 

 him than in horses for general purposes. It is very 

 objectionable in a race-horse, and for this reason it 

 would be only in very particular cases that I would 

 risk its being transmitted to the produce ; but no- 

 thing should induce me to use a vicious sire for 

 horses intended for other purposes than racing. 



Blind sires are objected to by many : I would cer- 

 tainly be shy of using one : whether I did or not 

 would depend on circumstances. If I could trace bad 

 eyes back to any other of the family, I most certainly 

 would reject such a sire at once; and, supposing this 

 had not been the case, if the horse had naturally sus- 

 picious eyes — that is, a description of eye likely to go 

 blind — I would reject him at once also. Training and 

 severe racing must show its effects somewhere on all 

 horses, in some of course more than in others ; and 

 that effect (barring accidents) will certainly be shown 

 most in the least perfect part of the anatomy, be it 

 eyes, lungs, constitution, legs, or feet ; therefore any 

 constitutional weakness I would certainly avoid the 

 risk of having perpetuated. 



Roaring is a disease upon which I have heard a va- 

 riety of conflicting opinions. There can be no doubt 



