1910.] The Theory of the Four Stallions. 993 



Suffolks, — for in the past the breeding of these types has been 

 much more profitable than the raising of lighter animals. 

 On the other hand, those interested in the breeding of light- 

 legged sires have, with few exceptions, concentrated their 

 attention on the Thoroughbred. The consequence is that 

 while we possess the finest race-horses and cart-horses in the 

 world, our intermediate breeds of the types required by the 

 Army for artillery and transport purposes are disappearing, 

 as, for example, in the case of the Irish horse, or have already 

 disappeared, as in the case of the pack-horse of Cornwall. 



The result of this disappearance of intermediate breeds is 

 that whereas it is comparatively easy to secure trueness 

 of type when breeding at either end of the scale — light or 

 heavy — the production of a good intermediate animal is 

 largely a matter of chance. A common experience now is 

 that when two animals, a thoroughbred and a heavy mare, 

 each perhaps a good specimen of its own type, are mated, 

 the offspring, so far as appearance goes, may be fairly satis- 

 factory, but when the half-bred has been brofcen-in and is 

 tested at work, he proves a disappointment : instead of a com- 

 bination of the courage and staying power of the sire with 

 the substance of the dam, the young horse may turn out a 

 sluggish, soft animal ; or it may be that his stamina is not 

 up to his pluck and he develops into a "bad-doer," expensive 

 to keep and difficult to sell ; or the quality of his bone may be 

 found wanting, and splints and other ailments develop. 

 Such experiences naturally discourage the horse-breeder, and 

 it seems clear that until we get rid of some of the uncertainty 

 that lies behind our present system of mating together 

 animals which differ widely in type, the breeding of the 

 intermediate class of horse cannot become popular. 



The objections to the present system do not end with the 

 first cross. Even when, as the result of mating the thorough- 

 bred and the cart mare, a first-rate animal results, this animal 

 is of relatively little use for breeding purposes. Half-bred 

 stallions are seldom employed, for everyone realises that the 

 stock will not be true to type; but half-bred mares are bred 

 from, with the result that, however good in themselves, they 

 produce foals of very unequal merit. This is a point to which 

 breeders have not given nearly enough attention. They 



