94 



Suffering from these inherent disorders, a horse can never be relied 

 upon to run systematically in the same form. Generally the disease 

 is latent and can't be discerned, much less traced ; but all of a sudden, 

 and without apparent reason, he will go amiss. It is therefore wrong to 

 blame a trainer or jockey for a horse running in-and-out, unless there 

 is direct evidence of dishonesty. 



It is also well for the public to know, especially those critics and 

 would-be cicerones who at times air themselves in the press, that a 

 horse is not a barrel-organ, which as long as it be ground will repeat 

 the same tunes. They should remember if they ever knew, or learn 

 if they don't know, that horses are in their constitution like men, and 

 equally liable to sudden disorganisation of system by indigestion, loss 

 of sleep, nervousness, change of habitation, diet, and even change of 

 water. That being the case with all horses, no matter how sound they 

 may be by nature, it is manifest that those unfortunates which suffer 

 from organic troubles born ia them are all the less to be depended 

 upon. Is it, therefore, more difficult to understand a horse being fit 

 one day and unfit the next, or unfit one month and fit the next, than a 

 man being so 1 



To the experienced and extensive horse-breeder I don't presume to 

 suggest anything, but to the ordinary tenant-farmer who goes in for 

 breeding a weight-carrying hunter or other good class of horse I would 

 submit the following code: (a) Don't let your mare be stinted in the^rs^ 

 instance by any other than a well-bred horse, (b) Never breed from a 

 mare that has had her first foal by a common bred horse, (c) Breed 

 only from well-bred, useful, sound, and well-shaped mares, that have 

 not been overworked as a tsvo or three year old, or kept long in 

 training, and bear in mind that height does not always imply size. 

 (d) Select for your mare a horse which from breeding, conformation, 

 temper, etc., etc., she is most suitable for. (e) Don't put her to him 

 w^hen she is in a state of lassitude, bad temper, or suffering from 

 disease, eveti though of a temporary nature. (/) The horse should at 

 the time of service be equally free from such, {g) Never breed from 

 either mare or horse which is afflicted with roaring, or other hereditary 

 disease. (A) While carrying her foal give your mare plenty of exercise 

 but no hard work, and feed her well, {i) Feed well also the foal from 

 the time he is able to eat, remembering the old saying that " the be^t 

 of a horse goes in at his mouth." 



If these rules, so simple and so easily carried out, were to be observed 

 systematically by our farmers, I am very sure the best possible results 

 would follow. 



As to training their young horses, all the Irish farmers have to do is 

 to stick to the ould 2jlan, and if the English were to adopt it they 

 would not find it a bad one. 



We are at times too fond of grumbling, and the habit usually tends 

 to lead us into the idea that certaiu thirgs are not existing in as good 

 state as they were formerly. This is exemplified in horse-breeding. 



/ 



