BREEDING AND REARING. 9 



On the other hand, she had not the best of 

 hocks (though they stood long and severe 

 work), and these, I regret to see, are re- 

 produced in her foal, by a horse perfect in 

 respect of his. Thus, in one particular 

 animal, we find a double proof of the cor- 

 rectness of the theory that the dam is more 

 likely to transmit defects of this kind than the 

 sire. But this must be accepted rather as a 

 general than an absolute rule, subject, as all 

 natural rules are, to occasional yariations. 



Happily, it is seldom necessary to breed 

 from any but constitutionally strong parents, 

 but in the case of light horses we 

 must bear in mind that the country is at 

 the present time flooded with infirm and 

 comparatively useless sires, prematurely 

 broken down by injudicious treatment at 

 a tender age. Still, many of those which 

 come from a good old stock may be worth 

 using with thoroughly sound mares of ex- 

 ceptional stoutness, but care should be taken 



