PRACTICAL HORSE BREEDING 2^1 



degree possible as the result of intelligent breeding and 

 development. 



It would seem logical to expect that if we used un- 

 sound sires and dams their progeny may prove equally 

 unsound, or if one parent is unsound its unsoundness 

 may offset the soundness of the other parent and endow 

 the offspring with a tendency to like unsoundness. Many 

 breeders have fallen into the grievous way of considering 

 any broken down, halt, maimed, blind or otherwise un- 

 sound mare fit for breeding purposes when no longer 

 able to work. It is certainly poor policy to knowingly 

 use unsound breeding animals and thus promote un- 

 soundness in the offspring. 



Uniformity and persistency in breeding. — ^We have not 

 had sufficient regard for uniformity and type in our 

 horse-breeding operations. All sorts of crosses have been 

 made, with the result that our horses are of mixed breed- 

 ing and many of them mongrels and misfits. The only 

 certain method of raising the general average of our 

 horses, in respect to type, quality, action and specific 

 utility, is by persistent breeding to sires of the same 

 breed until the blood of that breed has wholly obliterated 

 the native blood derived from the mares originally used. 

 Were this practice followed, for even a few generations, 

 we would find general excellence of form, quality, action 

 and utility, such as characterize the breed, used in the 

 work of improvement. 



Our farmers have been using pure-bred sires, to a 

 greater or lesser degree, for more than half a century, yet 

 few, if any, communities have persistently used such sires 

 in a right line until the characters and quality of any one 

 breed have become predominant. The importance of 

 persistency of effort in horse breeding is well illustrated 

 in the district of La Perche, in France. This county has 

 become famous throughout the world for one breed of 

 horses — the Percheron — which possesses marked breed 

 prepotency and breeds so true to type. The Clydesdale 



