-n,J^- .-■^....-.-•TT»=i^--;> ■■^f? 



172 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



THE GRAZIER 



From Porter's Spirit of the fimes. 



The American Horses in England. 



Mr. Tea Broeck has thought fit to enter 

 two of the American horses, viz, Pryor and 

 Pryoress, for races to be run at the Ywk 

 August meeting, commencing on Wednes- 

 day, the 19th of that month, or three weeks 

 subsequent to the conclusion of the Good- 

 wood gathering, whence they will have to 

 be sent per railroad upwards of three 

 hundred miles. Prioress alone is entered 

 for the first event, namely, the Chesterfield 

 Handicap. For the second, the Great Ebor 

 Handicap, (Ebor being the ancient name 

 of the City of York,) both Pryor and Prior- 

 ess are named. We cannot but express our 

 surprise that Mr. Ten Broeck should have 

 ventured to enter the American horses for 

 any English handicap race — or entrust the 

 weighing of them to any English handicap- 

 per. Our readers are, by this time familiar 

 with the method adopted of afiSxing such 

 weights *o each htJrse entered, as will, in 

 the opinion of the handicapper, or disposer 

 of weights, bring good, bad and indifierent 

 animals to one common level, and give each 

 and all an equal chance of winning. From 

 his decision there is no appeal; his will is 

 autocratic, and, if not content to run at 

 such weights as he thinks proper to impose, 

 nothing is left you but to withdraw your 

 horse or horses, and of paying the lesser 

 forfeit nominated in the bond. 



The system of English handicaps was in- 

 stituted for the express purpose of giving 

 profitable employment to inferior horses, 

 and not with the view of rewarding merit, 

 or equine superiority, which is, whenever 

 found among the entries, and publicly known 

 as such, "crushed down" by weight to the 

 level of the veriest "leather flapper" that 

 ever started for a race. Out of the im- 

 mense number of race horses annually bred 

 in England, but a small minority exhibit 

 that degree of excellence which fits them to 

 become contestants for great "weight fdr 

 age events," with any probability of suc- 

 cess; for the balance of "weeds and the 

 wasterells," it was necessary to do some- 

 thing, or else their owners would have been 

 compelled to have sent them into the horse 

 market for sale at any price they would 

 fetch, which would be a mere trifle, as the 

 modern English thoroughbred is unfit by 

 breed and nature for any laborious work. 

 There was a time when the English coach- 

 ing system was at its zenith, and speed was 

 required, when cast off blood stock was in 

 demand ; but that time is past, for the rail- 



ways have annihilated the fast stages of 

 other days, and "park hacks," "ladies' 

 horses," and "street cabs," are, with a few 

 hunting and steeple chase exceptions, the 

 only uses to which inferior race horses could 

 be applied, were it not for that compara- 

 tively modern racing innovation, "the hand- 

 icap." Well designed, it is true, to en- 

 courage inferiority, and yet like all other 

 systems, imperfect and obnoxious to censure 

 from the fact that the participators will dis 

 guise, as far as they can, the quality of the 

 animals they intend entering, in order to get 

 them as lightly weighted as possible, whilst 

 it is no uncommon occurrence for a horse to 

 be "ran to lose" an entire season, with the 

 view of his reputation being sufficiently 

 damaged to enable his winning some one or 

 other of the rich handicaps of the ensuing 

 one, to be calculated on as next akin to a 

 certainty. Many such instances we could 

 cite, whilst others have occurred, and will 

 again, where several parties have "played 

 the same game" aad the would be victim- 

 izers have themselves beea victimized. 



It is for such a scramble as this that our 

 horses are entered. 



The Period of Gestation in Mares. 



[From an Essay written for the Notto- 

 way ("Va.J Farmers' Club, by Geo. Fite 

 gerald.] 



The rearing of colts possesses sufficient 

 practical interest to make it worthy of such 

 inquiries and observations as will tend to 

 render it most successful and profitable. 

 After a mare has been let to a^horse, it 

 may become a question of some moment to 

 her owner, at what time to expect her to 

 bring forth her foal. There is a tradition 

 among us, to the effect that this event takes 

 place, if I mistake not, at the end of eleven 

 months, with as many days added as the 

 mare numbers years of age. How nearly 

 this period would conform to actual results 

 in the multitude of cases, I am not pre- 

 gpared to determine. But from some obser- 

 vations which I have been enabled to make 

 and researches into natural history to which 

 my atteatioa has beea drawn, it would seem 

 that there are many cases in which it bears 

 but a faint semblance of truth. In the 

 year 1848, 1 put two mares to a jack on the 

 same day, the 5th of May, and without 

 being put again, they foaled respectively 

 on the l4th and 25th of April following. 

 In the one case 1 1 months and 9 days, 

 aud in the other 11 months and 20 days. 

 One mare supposed to be 6 years old, and 

 the other was 8 years old about the time of 



