HOW YEARLINGS ARE BRED TO BE SOLD. 129 
stud ; and there only as failures no less marked than they had 
proved in racing. 
Nor should yearlings out of old mares, hitherto failures at 
the stud, be totally disregarded, for at times such old mares 
breed good ones. Of such produce we have examples in the 
following: Crucifix, who was sold by the side of, and with 
her dam, for sixty-five guineas ; Caractacus, Hero,and One Act, 
all good animals, whose dams before had produced nothing— 
indeed, had figured for many years before at the stud as 
useless breeders of a more degenerate race than themselves. 
It is now the fashion to have yearlings sent for sale, 
walked only from the stable-door to the rostrum, like so many 
fat beasts at Smithfield or some other cattle-show. Breeders 
see, and for their own purposes take advantage of, the pre- 
vailing taste for large animals ; and by having their yearlings 
well fatted are sure of a market. Let them but be fat, and 
it does not seem to matter what they may be like in other 
respects. The kind of feet and legs they have, or how these 
are set on, the really essential point to a buyer, is not of the 
slightest consequence ; for if good judges refuse to buy, there 
are plenty of others eager to take their place. 
Thus it comes about that year after year trainers have 
sent to them large, heavy-shouldered, slack-loined, little- 
legged brutes, that would fall over a straw, with instructions 
to prepare them for their engagements. And whilst it may 
be taken for granted that if horses cannot walk well they 
are nut perfect in any of their other paces, yet if these in- 
capables are not metamorpnosed into good-looking animals 
by the tollowing year, and do not win many races, the train r 
is reproached. The blame is laid upon his unskilful trect- 
ment or total neglect ; whereas the fault is with the purchaser, 
in buying great unwieldy brutes, without a single quality tu 
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