INCREASING OUll SUPPLIES OP CAVALRY HORSES. 31 
put the mare which I have described to a thorough-bred 
horse, with good action, and the spell of immobility is re- 
moved as regards the foal. He will pick up his feet freely, 
and set them down in front of him ; his muscles will be 
supple, his bone flat, and his gait easy : and all this without 
the sacrifice of power or substance. Indeed, I would caution 
the inexperienced breeder who has such a mare, not to 
select too large a stallion, for the offspring of such a union 
is apt to err rather in oversize and in clumsiness than in 
deficient power. 
In former letters I have adverted to the strange mistake 
so commonly made, of connecting the idea of high breeding 
with w r ant of substance It may suffice here to repeat, that 
by no other means than by those I am now recommending, is 
so much efficient power to be obtained. If, indeed, you 
want a “ stand-still horse” for show’, there is nothing like a 
dray horse ; but if you required one to carry from fourteen 
to seventeen stone on his back at a moderate pace, or to draw 7 
a heavy carriage, or to assist in moving a gun, depend upon 
it there is nothing superior to the offspring of a useful, clean- 
limbed, working mare by a thorough-bred horse. 
It is an important matter to be certain that the stallion you 
employ is actually thorough-bred. Many horses travel up 
and down the country with long and showy pedigrees, 
professing to be thorough-bred, which are not so. 1 last 
summer, in Yorkshire, saw in the same field two mares, one 
the daughter of the other. The elder mare was not only the 
better shaped of the tw T o, but gave tokens of being better 
bred. I inquired of the owner whether the sire of the 
younger w as a thorough-bred horse? He answered that his 
owner asserted him to be so ; but that he suspected this was not 
the case. On looking at the horse’s pedigree I found that 
he could not be thorough-bred. Such I believe to be a by- 
no-means-uncommon case, even in Yorkshire. But farmers 
who would not grudge trouble wfith regard to any other 
department of their business, are in this matter unaccountably 
remiss. They put their mare to the first horse which w alks 
into their yard, having no knowledge whatever of him; while 
they are ignorant of the very existence of horses of first-rate 
reputation standing a few miles from their own residence, 
perhaps in the very tow r n w hose market they w eekly frequent. 
The only proof of a horse being thorough-bred, which ought 
to be relied on, is the fact of his being in the Stud Book. It 
is a great advantage if he is also to be found in the Racing 
Calendar. It is by no means necessary for ordinary purposes 
that a horse should have been a brilliant winner; but a 
