THE NORTON FARMERS’ CLUB. 
439 
efforts to obtain any of these breeds, will furnish every description 
of horse that can be required. For the production of the three 
first classes I should decidedly prefer that the sire should be tho- 
rough-bred ; and if the parent-stock is only well selected, you need 
not fear obtaining all the size and substance essential for the pro- 
duction of the most valuable of each of these kinds. In breeding 
a hack (and allow me to observe here, that no description of horse 
is so rare and difficult to meet with), neither parent needs to pos- 
sess extraordinary size or power; but in dispensing with these 
properties, we have a combination of other rare and essential qua- 
lities to be secured. Beauty of form and carriage are not only 
important, as enhancing the value of a gentleman’s hack, but as 
indicative of correct proportion, and a light heart. The head should 
be small, lean, and animated, and so set on as to insure its reining in 
pleasantly to the rider. The neck should be light and tolerably 
long, or the horse will appear short in front of the saddle ; should- 
ers and chest deep, well formed and muscular, so as to ensure the 
saddle being well carried ; round and compact in the barrel, with 
loin and quarters firmly united, oval-topped, neat, and strong. 
Above all, he must possess sound legs and feet, a sound consti- 
tution, smooth and quick action, and be safe-footed. A strong, 
active, Welch mare, crossed with a sound, good-actioned blood- 
horse, often produces valuable roadsters ; but as this is a very 
difficult horse to procure, and in attempting to breed hunters of 
greater value we may frequently have undersized ones, calculated 
for hacks, I should never attempt to breed hacks for profit ; but, 
aiming at something more valuable and certain, run the chance of 
obtaining hacks or roadsters from amongst them. I am aware that 
I shall have the old adage quoted against me, that horses go in all 
forms : but without arguing the point, I will admit that heart has 
a great deal to do with action , although I never remember to have 
seen a really fine goer very ill shaped, or the converse ; and while 
I willingly leave what old John Dockray called “ three-cornered 
impossible brutes” to those gentlemen who are perverse enough 
to prefer them, I confess that my own taste would naturally lead 
me to select the most perfect animal in form that I could meet with, 
as the most likely to ensure me truth and superiority of action. 
Horses with straight hocks or steep pasterns are seldom agreeable 
hacks. 
In breeding hunters (the most valuable of all horses except 
racers), three great properties must be combined : viz., power, 
speed, and endurance. The mare should, therefore, be of the best 
description of brood mare, sound, roomy, strong, with good consti- 
tution and nutritive powers, good action, and well bred ; and she 
should be crossed with the most powerful, sound, and good-moving 
