660 



Licensing of Stallions. 



[Oct., 



LICENSING OF STALLIONS UNDER 

 THE HORSE BREEDING ACT, 1918. 

 SEASON 1921, 



The second year of the operation of the Horse Breeding Act, 

 1918, under which it is illegal to travel a stallion for service or 

 to exhibit it on premises not in the occupation of its o^vner with 

 a view to its use for service unless the horse is licensed, is now 

 completed, and the Ministry is in a position to furnish informa- 

 tion as to the results of the operation of the Act in England and 

 Wales during the past season. The number of stallions licensed 

 was 3,816 and 244 were refused (18 of the latter on appeal). Last 

 year the comparative numbers were 3,749 and 404 respectively, 

 and it will be noted, therefore, that there has been a small in- 

 crease in the number of licensed stallions this season and a con- 

 siderable decrease in the number of refusals. Of the 3,816 

 licensed ^talhons 3,418 were pedigree animals and the remaining 

 398 were horses that were not entered or accepted for entry in 

 any recognised stud book. 



As will be seen from the Table annexed, 2,316 or 08 per cent, 

 of the pedigree stallions Hcensed, were of the Shire Breed, good 

 evidence of the popularity of this breed. 



The following diseases or defects are prescribed in the Eegula- 

 tions of 1919 for England and Wales, made under the Act, as 

 rendering a stallion unsuitable for the service of mares, 

 namely : — Cataract, roaring, whistling, ringbone (high or low), 

 sidebone, bone-spa\dn, navicular disease, shivering, stringhalt, 

 and defective genital organs. The Table hereunder gives the 

 number of each breed or t}^e of stallion in respect of which 

 licences have been refused and the diseases or defects with which 

 the animals were affected. It will be noted that the most common 

 diseases on aceount of which stallions were refused licences were 

 whistling, roaring and sidebone, which account for 124 refusals 

 out of a total of 244. 



Appeals were lodged against refusals of licences in 44 cases 

 and 26 of them were successful. 



During the travelling season the Ministry's Inspectors were 

 instructed to stop stallions they met on the road and to require 

 the production of the licences, and it is satisfactory to be able to 

 report that in only comparatively few instances were the stallions 

 unaccompanied by their licences and only in seven instances 

 were the stallions unlicensed. Failure to comply with the Eegu- 



