82 Animal Husbandry 
141. Codperative breeding. — From observations made in 
localities where horses are bred in a commercial way, it would seem 
advisable to breed on the coédperative plan. It is apparent that 
the formation of horse-breeding associations in townships and 
counties would do much to advance the progress of the industry. 
Such associations should be formed of breeders who possess the 
same class or breed of mares. It would be the work of such an 
association to protect the interests of its members, provide suit- 
able stallions each year for use on the mares owned by the members, 
advertise stock, attract buyers, hold sales, make exhibits at the 
county, district, and state fairs, hold meetings for discussion of 
horse-breeding matters, and educate the farmers of the locality 
to better methods of breeding, feeding, and developing marketable 
horses. 
142. Selecting breeding stock. — In the selection of breeding 
stock, we must keep in mind the principle of heredity that ‘ like 
produces like.’ This applies to the brood mare as well as to the 
stallion. Bad qualities in the mare are as likely to appear in the 
colt as are bad qualities possessed by the stallion. The influence 
of the mare in the transmission of qualities to the foal is often 
underestimated, and frequently ignored entirely by horse-breeders. 
This‘cannot be other than a serious mistake, and the farmer who 
keeps worthless mares for breeding simply because he cannot sell 
them, will not be able to compete with his neighbor who keeps 
only the best brood mares, even though they both patronize the 
same stallion. 
It is a serious but common error in breeding horses to suppose 
that the bad points in one animal can be fully offset or overcome 
by the good points in the mate. The statement that the stallion 
controls the outward characters and the mare the internal characters 
has led many breeders to think that the offspring would resemble 
the paternal pirent irrespective of the mother. Such is not the 
case. The foundation of successful horse-breeding is to mate 
two animals each of which is as nearly perfect as possible. 
