352 
Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters. 
least one season after tlieir excellences liad been publicly pro- 
claimed. 
In judging the classes of hunting and roadster or nag-mares, 
some more intelligible definition than has generally prevailed 
is wanted. Yet so closely do these blend one with another that it 
is difficult to draw a line so as to divide them into even two 
classes; there should, however, be a clear distinction between the 
hunting and the thoroughbred mare : the latter, if good, is kept 
to the paddock, and in a general way never becomes the pro- 
ducer of hunters. Moreover, the same objection applies to the 
mare as to the high-class blood-stallion ; they can be walked into 
the yard simply to receive the prize ; the racing-stud would 
furnish mares such as the dam of Kettledrum, which would 
carry off the prize, thereby deterring farmers from producing their 
best, and, moreover, set a wrong example, stamped by authority, 
as to the kind of mares which farmers should try to keep. 
I may refer to an instance in point as an example ; at the 
East Riding Agricultural Show, held at Bridlington about 1853, 
I saw the first prize for the mare for breeding hunters awarded 
to Hygeia, by Physician ; that mare had never been out of the 
racing-stable or the stud. She had bred runners, but nothing 
like a hunter ; and has since been remarkable for becoming the 
great-grandam of Dundee. 
Exhibitions of foals with their dams at local agricultural 
.shows afford encouragement for breeding, and also the first and 
best means of bringing good stallions into early favourable 
notice. 
There are objections to awarding prizes to gelding-colts at 
various ages, either as hunters, nags, or carriage-horses : in the 
first place, the breeder has encouragement enough in the probable 
price he will realise for a good colt ; but a second and more 
positive objection is, that good colts are so pampered by feeding, 
and by being kept up in the stable, that they seldom tu^rn out 
good for much afterwards ; and here, again, the open system 
of giving prizes has led to the colt being taken from place to 
place ; whilst a wise farmer with a really good one would not 
enter into competition of fat against form, a pampered horse 
against a well-kept and level-formed one, gradually growing into 
worth. 
Whenever prizes are given for horses, the judges should agree 
to take into account the use for which that animal is required ; 
and when made as fat as a Christmas ox, horses should be dis- 
(piallfied from competition as much as if they were pronounced 
unsound l)y a veterinary surgeon. 
The scarcity of good blood-stallions, available for farmers, at 
