Thoroiuflih-ed StatUons at Notimrjliam. 
259 
absence of the old horses kept in his country when he was a 
young man. To this I attribute the failure of nearly all the 
Glasgow stud horses. They never remained in one quarter long 
enough to be appreciated, and it was difficult to fill a subscrip- 
tion to one of them for fifty mares, when Theon, Ugly Buck, 
and Augur were getting regularly their hundred mares a year. 
These ideas as to the special good a successful hunting sire 
can do in a country have been much strengthened by the recent 
result of the Grand National Steeplechase at Liverpool. It 
was, perhaps, one of the greatest test races of real grit and 
merit that has been witnessed for many years, as the weights 
were very high, and in a field of twenty, comprising many pre- 
vious performers on the flat, the winner was simply a hunter 
bred by a tenant-farmer, and got by the hunting sire Ripponden, 
which was kept at the Belvoir Castle stables by the late Duke of 
Rutland for the benefit of his tenantry. The pedigree of this 
now famous steeplechaser's dam was unknown, but she was both 
hunted and worked on a farm in Leicestershire, and may be 
taken as the type of the ordinary brood mare, such as used to 
be common enough. The same class should become plentiful 
again if farmers would but breed from their young mares, and 
the chances of breeding hunters as good as Playfair should not 
be lost sight of. 
There cannot be a better look-out for the future than that 
which is offered by the programme of the Royal Commission, 
as the sires are not necessarily changed from one quarter to 
another. An owner can keep his horse at home, and he has 
a chance to renew his premium year after year, so as to make 
the horse earn 200^. per annum. In the majority of cases the 
owners may be the best jiidges of the kind of horse best suited 
to different parts of the country ; but great mistakes are made, 
as I am convinced that special strains of mares exist in many 
districts, very suitable for some horses, but very unsuitable for 
others. In the light soils, such as in Devonshire, the working 
animal is no other than the unfashionable-looking hunter. They 
have been bred on the farms for generations, and sometimes 
they are by a thoroughbred horse, and sometimes by the passing 
roadster or trotter, the latter being probably half or three parts 
bred. I could name farms where such horses are bred, and 
very seldom sold, the farmer keeping perhaps nine or ten for 
his work, and breeding a colt every other year to keep up the 
number. These are the farmers who require inducements to 
breed three a year ; and perhaps their old-fashioned stock, full 
of good blood of one sort and the other, might produce the best 
type of general utility horse. In other districts, where the soils 
are heavy, and the Shire Horses or SufFolks do most of the 
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