PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 161 



perhaps, be justly affirmed that there is more difficulty 

 in selecting a good mare to breed from, than a good 

 horse, because she should possess somewhat opposite 

 qualities. Her carcass should be long to give room 

 for the growth of the foetus, yet with this there should 

 be compactness of form and shortness* of leg." 



The next point is the selection of a stallion. It is 

 easy enough to say that he should be compactly built, 

 "having as much goodness and strength as possible 

 condensed in a little space," and rather smaller rela- 

 tively than the mare, that he should be of approved 

 descent and possess the forms, properties and charac- 

 teristics which are desired to be perpetuated. It is 

 not very difficult to specify with tolerable accuracy 

 what forms are best adapted for certain purposes, as an 

 oblique shoulder, and depth, rather than width, of chest 

 are indispensable for trotting ; that in a draft horse this 

 obliquity of shoulder is not wanted, one more upright 

 being preferable, and so forth ; but after all, a main 

 point to secure success is relaMve adaptation of the 

 parents to each other, and here written directions are 

 necessarily insufficient and cannot supply the place of 

 skill and judgment to be obtained only by careful study 

 and practical experience ; nor is it always easy, even if 



* Mr. Youatt here probably refers to length below, rather than 

 above, the knee and hock. 



