Breeding Horses. 
269 
and aged liorses, such as have served mares during the season 
as countrv stallions, at a countrv price : blemishes should not 
exclude ; but onlv lame feet, unsomid wind, spavins, and curbs, 
all of which mav affect the rising generation. Prizes for geldings 
seem to me to be unnecessary, and can have no effect upon the 
object required. 
When a prize of 100/. was given by the Royal Agricultural 
Societv at Battersea. the best stallions were brought from all parts 
of the countrv — even a Derbv winner, to whom was awarded the 
prize. Nevertheless, the object of the Society was not obtained. 
It is not a winner of the Derby or St. Leger — a horse that will never 
be taken from his own stable door — that should come to an 
Agricultural Show, exhibit himself there, and walk off with the 
prize ; but it is a good stiong thorough-bred countrv stallion that 
is available for the use of the ordinary mares of the country. 
This prize did, however, indicate a great fact : a hint suggestive 
of what mav be done bv the 100/. prizes towards restoring our 
losses, and bringing us back again to our original position. It 
has illustrated the great principle that such rewards are highlv 
esteemed bv the owners of valuable horses, and will induce 
them to keep them to show for such prizes : and there surelv is 
great need of them. The countrv is so ill supplied with thorough- 
bred horses that it is almost impossible to find a useful short-legged 
thorough-bred horse that can carry 12 stone across the counti-v. 
This loss is immense : there is no substitute for blood ; there is 
no elegant carriage-horse without it, no good quick-stepping hack 
without it, and no fast, enduring hunter without a great deal of it. 
The anxious breeder, who knows the value of it, will say, 
" Where am I to find it?*' I must admit that this is very difficult 
now ; it was not so a few years since. Blood-horses have been 
getting worse and worse. Great studs of such animals were 
lormerlv kept ; and many of them, too, in my recollection, all 
over 1 orkshire, as well as in manv other counties : thev occasion- 
ally won a Derby, and not unfrequently a St. Leger. Those 
that were not so fortunate carried their m.asters with hounds ; 
carried their masters' huntsmen and whippers. and made valuable 
country stallions. Those bred now are light, weedy, powerless 
and worthless in every national point of view. 
Our cavalry must feel this wonderful falling off. If thev should 
be again brought to contend with some hostile power, it will be 
seen that although we have not lost the steel of our men, we have 
lost the energy of our horses. Let it not be overlooked that 
blood gives pace : pace is power. Blood canies weight ; it is said 
that a thorough-bred horse carrving 32 stone for four miles beat the 
best and strongest horse that could be found, not thorough-bred. 
