Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters. 
353 
reasonable charges, is proverbial ; and yet good horses in no 
small numbers are produced annually : how these can be obtained 
as stallions seems to be the question, subordinate only to that of 
a right understanding of the extent to which they should be 
employed, and of h(nv to select the good and avoid the bad. 
On the rules and regulations of the Jockey Club, from time to 
time in force, will depend the extent to which good blood- 
stallions can be obtained, since the temporary failure of our 
supply is in great measure referable to running our horses at two 
years old. 1 distinctly use the word temporary, because I do 
not believe that any radical or general deterioration has taken 
place. If two-vears-old engagements were carried over to the 
third year, and the more real tests of power and lasting qualities 
left to be decided at four, the character of the blood-horse would 
at once greatly improve, and more would be available for stal- 
lions without necessarily more being bred. By such reform the 
forcing of colts would be checked ; indeed, it would be incom- 
patible with success, since protracted accumulation of weight 
would prove an incumbrance. Under a less hurried management, 
young stock would acquire as much good form as under the 
present system before being disposed of, besides the larger pro- 
portion of them which would be developed into useful horses, 
of which manv are now destroyed before they have had a chance 
of showing what is in them. 
Modern steeple-chasing has drawn heavily on the supplv of 
blood-horses, adapted for country stallions ; that sport, which 
formerly was intended to be a test for good riders across country, 
and also of the clever hunter, has to a great extent been the means 
of calling out the indifferent race-horse to beat the horse really 
fit to be ridden to hounds. Many good powerful blood-horses 
have consequently been converted into geldine:s, which, as 
stallions, might have begun in the lower ranks and reached the 
highest. 
The next and most considerable draught from racing: stock is 
that carried off by exportation ; this affects our means of obtain- 
ing stallions to get hunters, because the better class of horses are 
selected — those that have run, have stood their work, and are 
of good size, and sound. Amongst these horses which annually 
leave the country, are some equal to the best of those left behind. 
It may be excusable to point to some inconveniences (though the 
remedy is not so readily seen) ; because until the influences in 
operation are shown, remedies cannot be instituted. Blood- 
horses fit for country stallions are from the above causes much 
higher priced now than formerly, hence the scarcity of them 
amongst country st;Ulion keepers. Some of the best blood-stallions 
in England formerly travelled in Yorkshire, serving country mares 
2 A 2 
