132 THE PURCHASE OF YEARLINGS. 
for I may add that (whilst with me) not one of them was ever 
lame from ring-bone, splint, curb, or thorough-pin. In other 
respects, too, they were more free than most horses from 
diseases of every kind; I never lost one by death, or had a 
roarer amongst the whole. 
So satisfactory a result, it will be admitted, is worthy of 
attention ; and it may be asked, How was it brought about? 
The answer is, through exercise unrestrained, not forced, 
aided by a plentiful diet of good hay and corn and soiling 
their natural food. 
With these experiences, we may dismiss all fears of the 
result of rough appearance in yearlings without a second 
thought. The lesson we learn is to look well to the method 
of their treatment since foaled, and we shall not go far wrong 
in our selections. That which is wanted is muscle, not fat. 
The one implies strength, the other physical debility, burden- 
ing their tender limbs with an unnatural weight they cannot 
sustain, making some crooked and others weak. 
Further to account for Sir Tatton’s breeding so many 
sound horses, it may be said he scrupulously attended to the 
shape of the ancestors, and chose only those standing well on 
their legs. If by chance a yearling stood a little back in his 
knees, or the least upright in his pasterns, the Baronet would 
be the first to call your attention to the defect by saying (as 
he always did), ‘‘ He does not stand quite pretty on his legs;” 
and if such a one were not sold, he would give him away rather 
than breed from him—so great was his aversion to those 
that did not stand well. It is open to other people to breed 
sound animals if they will only follow his most excellent 
example, instead of breeding, as most do, from any crooked- 
legged, deformed brutes, if only they have a brother's or sister’s 
fame to recommend them favourably to the public notice, 
