I INTRODUCTION 13 
breed and rear good foals, but by mismanagement 
and bad breaking send them away at unprofitable 
prices; all of whom yet continue, year after year, 
turning out useless, undersized, and unclassed brutes 
from mere habit. It is preferable even to see this 
than the custom of not attempting horse-breeding at 
all. How many farmers use the first horse that 
passes their gates! And when a foal has somehow 
or other been got, they practically leave it to shift 
for itself, and you may see the unfortunate little 
animal wandering in a bare pasture, in a tight, 
staring skin, and as it grows older but not much 
bigger, huddled in with anything else into some foul 
and unventilated outhouse, out of which it emerges 
after its first winter in a half-starved condition, and 
is then left for a couple of years more to lead a dirty, 
neglected, half-fed existence. Yet some of these 
turn out remunerative enough to encourage the 
breeder (but no true lover of horses) to “chance 
t’ awd mear” again and to let “t’ faul tak its chance” 
after. 
