HORSE-BREEDING IN INDIA. 01 



are sired, grandsired, and even great grandsired by the Norfolk 

 Trotter. Frcqueutly we get moustrosities in the shape of a colt 

 with a Norfolk Trotter body and Country-bred legs, a wretched 

 animal whose legs are not fit to carry his body. This sort of beast 

 is a perfect godsend to the Thorough-bred advocates. His short- 

 comings are trumpeted abroad, and, if he bo found in a, fair, the 

 whole place rings with the discovery. There may be twenty head 

 of nice stock by Norfolk Trotters in his immediate vicinity, but 

 they are never taken notice of. The goose amongst the swans 

 attracts all eyes. Yet these very men on a judging committee 

 at a fair, will turn the Thorough-bred stock out of the ring in 

 shoals and be very much surprised when they are informed at 

 the end of the business that the major part of the prizes and all 

 the highest have been awarded by their own decision to Norfolk 

 Trotter stock. This I have seen not once, but over and over 

 again. Some years ago an Artillery OfiBccr walked round some 

 stables in India, holding 25 or 30 Norfolk Trotters ; before starting 

 he was asked to point out any he considered too coarse for Field 

 Artillery. From the lot he selected two; vvhen asked if Field 

 Artillery never received Walers as coarse, he confessed that they 

 did, and coarser. 



Now, if the stallions themselves are not too coarse for Field 

 Artillery (I am certain many a Colonel of Dragoons would be glad 

 to take the majority as remounts in the ranks of his regiment), how 

 can the stock of such horses, out of lighter mares than themselves, 

 be too coarse for Army purposes. This is a conundrum I am 

 unable to find an answer for. 



The Half-bred English. — This class I am not an admirer of. 

 Undoubtedly many arc fine horses, and some of the flyers from 

 Genei-al Parrott's stud had a strain of this blood. The most popular 

 horse in the Horse-breeding Department of the N.-W. P. was a 

 stallion of this breed, so much so, that advances were made by 

 dealers on his unborn foals. But in spite of this, I distrust a cross- 

 bred horse, especially when put to an equally cross-bred mare; the 

 result must be mongrel, good perhaps, but quite likely to be worth- 

 less, and, if a filly, not likely when her time comes to add to the! 

 equine poptilaLion to produce anything worth having. The If cUf-, 

 13 



