52 
Half-bred  Horses  for  Field  or  Road: 
By  management,  I do  not  mean  that  cleverness  which,  for 
example,  makes  nine  horses  out  of  ten  look  better  in  a dealer’s 
yard  than  anywhere  else.  By  management,  I would  convey  the 
sense  of  skilful  treatment  which,  embracing  manners,  is  com- 
paratively well  understood.  The  true  horseman  should  have 
an  instinctive  and  minute  perception  of  all  the  circumstances 
which  in  the  horse  occasion  progress  or  retrogression,  pleasure 
or  pain.  Retrogression,  we  may  hope,  shall  be  exceptional ; 
and  progression  should  be  after  the  admirably  gradual  manner 
of  old  Milo  of  Crete,  who  ultimately  carried  an  ox,  but  prudently 
began  with  it,  as  soon  as  ever  it  was  calved. 
The  question,  then,  as  stripped  stands  thus : the  breeding 
of  half-bred  horses  ? The  information,  the  evidence  bearing  on  it 
would,  if  digested  in  exact  method,  arrange  itself  for  convenient 
consideration  under  the  following  subjects — the  two  essential 
factors,  the  horse  and  mare — their  conjunction  and  its  conse- 
quences, and  therefrom  arising  a few  general  observations.' 
The  horse,  the  thoroughbred  horse,  generally  available  for 
half-bred  mares,  in  point  of  shoulders,  substance,  and  sound- 
ness, is  not  as  good  now  as  formerly.  Yet  it  is  generally 
acknowledged  that  blood  should  be  on  the  side  of  the  sire, 
and  a desire  is  generally  expressed  for  that  quality  which  is 
the  evidence  of  blood.  Even  a coach-horse  it  is  said  should  be 
got  by  a thoroughbred  out  of  a half-bred  mare.  There  is  a 
general  and  satisfactory  agreement  of  opinion  that  some  known 
and  named  thoroughbred  horses  have  or  had  a remarkable 
power  of  getting  and  stamping  uniformly  good  cross-bred  stock, 
— such  a horse,  for  example,  as  “ Perion.”  Farmers  should  seek 
stallions  known  to  cross  well  with  half-bred  mares — a sire  with 
known  power  to  stamp  his  own  facsimile.  A big  overgrown 
horse  we  are  particularly  told  should  be  studiously  avoided. 
Such  a one  is  apt  to  get  roarers.  A horse  that  travels  is  more 
prolific  than  one  that  remains  to  serve  at  home.  The  cost  of 
service,  often,  too  often,  unduly  considered,  is  a serious  con- 
sideration. Fashion,  which  is  slavery  in  disguise,  has  had  a 
disastrous  effect — any  such  influence  should  be  ignored  by  the 
farmer.  The  horse  must  not  only  be  good  in  himself,  but  he 
must  be  fitted  to  the  mare  to  blend  with  her.  Violent  contrasts 
in  breeding,  as  in  art,  are  usually  best  avoided.  There  is,  further, 
a disturbing  influence  of  friendship.  I soon  discovered  that  in 
Yorkshire  there  was  a law  in  action,  unknown  to  science, 
which  1 was  obliged  to  name  for  myself:  I called  it  the  wife’s- 
cousin-principle ; applied  by  the  vulgar  it  would  resolve  itself 
into  this  expressive  vernacular  phrase — “ sending  the  mare  to 
the  man,  not  to  the  horse.” 
The  roomy  mare — where  is  the  universally  wanted  roomy 
mare?  The  worth  of  anything  is  best  known  by  its  want.  It 
