130 
ON BREEDING HORSES, &C. 
earn his living at a time when his expenses are most serious, and 
be sold at five years old to pay well for his keep, up to the time he 
began to work, for van horses, which are much in request just now, 
for the purpose of delivery from, and collecting goods to, railway 
stations. 
No bad goer or unsound colt is worth holding till four or five 
years old, unless he can earn his keep. Why has the dealer the 
good goer ] Because he is on the look-out for such, and takes 
care to purchase, or have him promised to him, or some one em- 
ployed by him, before he has reached the place of sale. It is 
astonishing what horses suffer, by comparison, when brought to 
market for sale. There are few persons who can carry those 
niceties of form in their eye that constitute what is termed quality , 
when deprived of the advantage of comparison, except the expe- 
rienced dealer ; and many feel astonished at such a man refusing 
to purchase what is considered by the breeder a fine cleanly-look- 
ing horse, until he comes to be compared with others, brought per- 
haps by themselves to a fair. Through comparison, the secret be- 
comes divulged, it not being the practice of a respectable dealer to 
disparage what he does not intend to purchase. 
It is true, foreigners take a vast number of entire stock out of 
the country ; and I am of opinion it would be better if a limit were 
put to this practice, and so increase the trade for the foreign market, 
and enforce the breeding of them ourselves. But if they take the 
material, they not only produce what they require, but this country 
is deprived of the means of so doing, and thereby is the supply 
rendered scarce in cases of emergency. Further, they now take 
the very description of animals so much required by ourselves, as 
country stallions, their object being undoubtedly not so much the 
production of race-horses as the improvement of their studs. For 
general purposes, they are also careful in selecting their purchases 
free from any defect likely to be entailed on their progeny, or any 
natural formation that would predispose to such, both in mates and 
sires. It is to this weeding our cleanly sound mares out of the 
country, and leaving us the refuse, that I attribute the increased 
number of horses now with spavins, curbs, &c., more than was 
formerly the case ; a circumstance that, in my opinion, calls for the 
especial consideration of Government. 
I shall now make some observations on the Queen’s Plates and 
Racing, as it has had, and is likely to have, influence on the breed- 
ing of horses for the purposes previously mentioned. I do not 
think that these (racing) prizes were given solely for the purpose 
of increasing the amount of sport at different meetings : if so, the 
new scale of weights, and alteration in distance, will bring about — 
indeed it has produced — the desired effect. On the contrary, I 
