37 



o 



breeding can again be resorted to, and so regulated 

 by the selection of the thoroughbred or hackney as 

 to reproduce improved size, strength, and constitu- 

 tion, in the stock of driving and riding horses 

 available for general use. The great object of 

 breeding on this principle is the production of 

 animals of improved form which will repay the 

 breeder ; and experience has exemplified that this 

 has only been attained in an eminent degree in 

 those cases where the females were larger than the 

 males. 



"Were I," says Sir J. S. Sebright, writing in 

 the past century, "to define what is called the 

 art of breeding, I should say that it consisted in the 

 selection of males and females intended to breed 

 toofether, in reference to each other's merits and 

 defects. 



"It is not always by putting the best male to the 

 best female that the best produce will be obtained ; 

 for should they both have a tendency to the same 

 defect, although in ever so slight a degree, it will in 

 general preponderate so much in the produce as to 

 render it of little value. We must, therefore, observe 

 the smallest tendency to imperfection in our stock 

 the moment it appears, so as to be able to counteract 

 it before it becomes a defect." 



Mr. Sawrey Cookson, writing from Darlington 

 to Lord Cathcart, is worthy of attention. He 

 says — " Many breeders of thoroughbred stock, 

 irrespective of shape either in sire or dam, send 



