for about fifteen months and are then distributed among 

 regiments. Before this distribution takes place, breeders rhay 

 select any mares that promise to make particularly good 

 brood-mares, paying a little more than the average price for 

 the animals so chosen. Few, however, take advantage of 

 this privilege. 



Mr. Frederick Wrench, in the Badminton Magazine of 

 December, 1899, describes the stallions in the Rural Stud 

 at Celle, near Hanover. There were, at the time of his visit, 

 250 horses in this establishment, fourteen of which were 

 Thoroughbred and all the rest Half-bred Hanoverian. Of 

 these latter Mr. \\'^rench says : " The regular Hanoverian 

 type is a dark brown or chestnut placid-looking harness- 

 horse, standing at least 16. i, with great limbs, a good 

 look-out, a fairly good back, and long enough to fill any 

 harness." These Hanqverian horses trace their ancestry 

 back to stock which was imported into Germany fifty or sixty 

 years ago by Mr. H. R. Phillips. 



The names of both Irish and Yorkshire Half-bred horses 

 still appear on a few of the pedigree cards fixed in each stall 

 at Celle, where the number of stallions in 1905 had been 

 increased to 275. 



Hackney blood was widely diffused over the horse- 

 breeding districts of Germany, Hanover, Oldenbourg, 

 Holstein, Mecklenburg, and East Friesland ; for, once 

 Mr. Phillips had introduced the Hackney to his German 

 customers, sires and dams with the blood of Performer 

 (foaled 1810) and Ramsdale's Phenomenon (foaled 1835) were 

 eagerly bought up to cross with the local stock. It is exceed- 

 ingly probable that the inter-trade in harness-horses between 

 England and Germany dates back to a much earlier period ; 

 the best of the German coach-horses and our own have so 

 much of the same character in common that they would 

 seem to be descended from practically the same stock. 



In addition to the 18 "Rural Studs" referred to on 

 page 30, there are six State breeding-otuds with about 740 



32 



