their  Breeding  and  Management. 
47 
Luttrell,  and  other  gentlemen  no  doubt  equally  well  up  in  the 
subject,  and  I think  they  have  left  very  little  more  to  be  said  on 
the  point  how  to  breed  the  hunter  and  hack.  The  question  is, 
how  and  inhere  to  find  the  raw  material — especially  the  roomy 
mares — which  all  the  writers  mention.  For  the  last  quarter  of 
a century,  and  most  likely  for  a much  longer  period,  our 
breeders  have  been  selling  the  “ geese  which  laid  the  golden 
eggs,”  and  the  intelligent  foreigner  has  been  buying  them.  He 
would  take  none  but  the  sound,  the  well-made,  short-legged, 
active  mares,  and  he  has  left  us  what  Mr.  Bright  called  4 the 
residuum,’  and  the  result  is  that  we  have  a short  crop  and  many 
weeds. 
44  It  hardly  pays  a farmer  to  breed  a half-bred  horse,  except 
under  particular  circumstances,  and  it  pays  him  better  and 
with  greater  certainty  to  breed  cart-horses,  sheep,  and  cattle, 
and  therefore  we  are  obliged  to  depend  largely  upon  foreign 
countries  for  our  horses  as  well  as  our  food,  a thing  our 
ancestors  would  not  have  believed,  and  which  does  not  redound 
to  our  credit  as  Englishmen.  Foreign  countries  are  wiser  in 
their  generation.  They  do  not  leave  the  supply  to  chance  or 
the  caprice  of  individual  breeders,  who  cannot  be  expected  to 
go  on  breeding  at  a loss  for  the  good  of  the  country  if  the 
Government  neglects  its  duty. 
44  In  every  other  country  in  Europe  there  are  large  breeding- 
studs,  conducted  on  a well-managed  scheme  for  supplying  every 
district  with  good,  sound,  useful  stallions,  bred  for  the  purpose, 
and  sent  out  with  a proper  certificate  of  soundness  to  serve  the 
mares  of  the  farmers  and  small  breeders  at  a uniform  and  very 
cheap  rate,  and  no  stallion  is  allowed  to  serve  mares  unless  he 
has  a proper  certificate  of  soundness,  &c.,  &c.  ! This  is  the 
best  and  I think  the  only  sound  plan,  to  do  away  with  the 
4 lame,  the  halt,  and  the  blind  ’ weeds,  which  are  allowed  to 
poison  the  few  good  farmers’  mares  left  to  breed  from  ; and 
these  horses  must  be  sent  to  the  farmer’s  door,  or  he  will  send 
to  the  nearest  horse,  or  wait  till  some  Cheap  Jack  calls  as  he 
passes.  I know  several  noblemen  and  gentlemen  who  have 
kept  good  horses  on  purpose  at  a cheap  fare,  and  have  been  so 
annoyed  at  the  breeders  not  taking  the  trouble  to  send  their 
mares  a few  miles,  that  they  have  given  up  keeping  a good 
horse  for  people  who  did  not  use  him  ! There  ought  to  be  a 
Government  stud  for  stallions,  at  all  events,  and  proper  men  to 
travel  with  the  horses  from  a depot  in  every  county  or  district, 
and  I think  this  would  be  beneficial  and  popular  in  Ireland,  as 
there  is  a demand  for  useful  stallions  to  breed  hunters,  and  very 
few  private  gentlemen  can  or  will  keep  them  now  for  the  good 
of  the  country.  Such  a system  is  carried  out  in  Prussia,  where 
