GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 39 



The term of so-called feultlessness, however, is not to be taken 

 in so strict a sense, when used in conjunction with the tried 

 thoroughbred, as when applied to the untried half-bred. 



In the former, every deviation from the true shape is ren- 

 dered more distinct by the exertions inseparable from the train- 

 ing ground and the racecourse, and, by the tension or straining 

 of the sinews, muscles and tendons, even develops into a visible 

 defect. In the half-bred stallion the disposition to the same 

 imperfection slumbers perhaps still nearer the surface, and 

 would scarcely allow him to pride himself on his cheaply 

 acquired freedom from blemish, if he were ever compelled to 

 leave his dolee Jar niente and undergo severe trials. 



My opiinion as to the relative value of true shape and per- 

 formances in the choice of a stallion to breed from, that is, 

 what percentage of the one might be sacrificed to the other, 

 may, not inaptly, I believe, in figures be thus expressed : 

 I require the sire, intended for the production of thorough- 

 breds, for every per cent, less performance three per cent, mo e 

 exterior — the form, however, should never be less than good 

 second class ; for that of half-breds I reverse the proportion, 

 and give for every jjer cent, exterior three per cent, perform- 

 ance. To breed racehorses from a stallion who himself did not 

 belong to the first or second class on the turf is imprudent, for 

 the instances of an inferior stallion p)roducing a superior race- 

 horse are of such very rare occurrence — this used to be tried, 

 not without success, most frequently in France, but has latterly 

 there also begun to bear bad fruit — that the numerous fruitless 

 experiments which must be made before that one is found 

 would in all likelihood swallow a fortune. 



Now, taken into consideration that England, for instance, 

 produces every year a thousand thoroughbred colts, and of 

 that number not more than one or two develop into racehorses 

 of the first class, and perhaps two or three of a second class, 

 good enough to breed thoroughbreds from ; considered further, 

 how lenient the English breeder is with regard to certain im- 

 perfections of shape which, in Germany, would condemn the 

 horse at once, and that, on the other hand, the, in England, 



