212 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 31, 1882. 
mmss 
HOME FARM ' H 
UK 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
BREEDING HUNTERS AND ROADSTERS. 
(Continued from page 1S9.) 
It is no donbt true that breeding hunters and fast horses 
for profit can be best done on good grazing land ; the home 
farmer must therefore, before commencing to breed horses for 
pace, consider the nature of the soil whereon they are to be reared, 
in order that the animals’ health and beneficial growth may be 
assured as far as the soil can influence it. It is well known that 
sheep and cattle bred upon wet undrained land suffer from defects 
in their constitutions, having frequently diseased livers, defective 
feet, and that many animals, although well bred, often meet a 
premature death. Horse-breeding may therefore under similar 
circumstances be attended with many risks, which should be kept 
steadily in view. It should therefore be carried out upon land 
having a dry subsoil; the surface, moreover, should be fertile, 
abounding in carbonate and phosphate of lime. Upon this sub¬ 
soil and this surface we have a right to expect full-sized healthy 
animals if they have been bred from sound parents. A very hot 
and dry surface with gravelly or sandy subsoil is not desirable, 
for these often produce animals with narrow contracted feet—a 
most serious defect in hunters, and roadsters especially. These 
observations, however, are more particularly applicable to stock 
reared entirely on pasture land after a certain age. Capital horses 
are, however, reared chiefly upon food supplied in their sheds and 
racks, having only for the purpose of exercise a paddock of good 
size and well fenced in connection. In this way the advantages 
are great and the risks less, for young animals so brought up are 
more docile and more easily broken in, and at the same time more 
free from accidental blemishes. We have frequently seen well- 
bred horses when allowed their range in pasture districts disfigured 
by blemishes, which in some cases may not injure their working 
powers, yet are sure to diminish their selling price. 
Breeding horses, which is constantly resorted to by farmers, 
sporting men, and amateurs, all of whom have evidence to show 
that they can produce certain desirable qualities in the offspring 
which neither of the parents possessed. The mule may be referred 
to as an illustration on this point; for here we find the produce 
much superior in size, power, and action to the ass, whilst its 
powers of endurance under exposure to weather and privations 
exceed those of the class to which his dam belonged. This 
illustration is often taken as a defence for promiscuous intercourse, 
but the thoughtful business man will not be deceived, and still 
resort to his old and safe guide that “ like begets like.” Nor can 
mating the entire horse with the mare be carried out with success, 
as is frequently done in cattle-breeding—namely, to mate them so 
that the good points in one animal should cure the defects of the 
other in the offspring. But let it be borne in mind that in the 
case of horses, where perfection is the object to be attained, that 
both male and female in themselves should be as perfect as it is 
possible to obtain them. 
•The really good half-bred stallion—such as we used to meet 
with, with his large clean legs, well-defined knee, hock, and 
postern joints, with good head, shoulders, barrel, and hind quarters 
is now become scarce. These horses when about 16 hands high 
formed a connecting link between the thorough-bred and the 
stronger classes ; from such sires mares fit to breed hunters used 
to be obtained, besides many of the most valuable horses in 
England for general purposes : but of late years, whenever such a 
stallion has appeared it has only been to be favoured with a few 
mares preparatory to his being exhibited, and then sold to go 
abroad. To find a really good half-bred stallion of this old stamp 
at five years old has been a rare occurrence during the past twenty 
years or more, even in the chief horse-breeding districts, such as 
Yorkshire, Shropshire, and Norfolk. Mares also of the stamp for 
producing hunters are at present very scarce, as may be inferred 
from the small number presented at exhibitions of general stock ; 
yet with our climate, soil, and national resources the few good 
animals still obtainable for breeding would suffice for laying a 
foundation if we had a stud-book to encourage the production 
and recording stock of the right sort. 
This scarcity of both stallions and mares is not likely to be 
altered unless we resort to the practice of former times, when 
Royal plates of £100 each were given for competition all over 
England for four-year-old horses carrying 10 stone 4 lbs. ; five 
years old, 11 stone 6 lbs.; six, and aged, 12 stone, and decided in 
four-mile heats. The prizes then were a great inducement to 
breeders to rear animals of size and substance, and to keep them 
when obtained. As long as these Royal plates were given to 
horses carrying these high weights, strong thorough-bred horses 
were bred and kept, which, however, in the end broke down, and 
became the most valuable acquisition to breeders of horses in all 
parts of the country. Having become blemished they were no 
longer coveted by foreigners, and remained at home for the rest 
of their lives, helping to produce a race of horses with size, sub¬ 
stance, blood, and action. On the rules and regulations of the 
Jockey Club will depend the extent to which good stallions in the 
future can be obtained. If two-years-old engagments were 
carried over to the third year, and indeed to the fourth year, the 
character of the blood horse would at once greatly improve. 
Again, modern steeple-chasing has drawn heavily on the supply 
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, and therefore many good powerful blood 
horses have been converted into geldings which would have been 
extremely useful as stallions. 
The eye is the best guide in estimating correct forms of the 
horse. Like the sculptor and painter, we cannot proceed far by 
measurement, although, like the artists, we can run our rule 
over one or two points, and then take in the details with the eye, 
commencing, however, with the feet, for the old saying is “ No 
foot no horse,” and then proceed to estimate the general outline 
and shape as adapted for our purpose. In Mr. Gamgee’s essay it 
is stated—“When horses like Little Wonder and Daniel O’Rourke, 
that were sensibly under 15 hands high, are seen to outrun horses 
of 16 hands for the Derby, it is generally thought that the little 
horse has gained over the larger through his quicker movements, 
that more strides must be taken in one case than the other ; or 
else that the lower horse keeps up the pace the longest, as is really 
the case, the larger horse beiDg the weaker. But as regards the 
length of stride, the notion of the little horse having the shorter is 
very probably wrong, and when he has beaten the larger animal 
it generally is by his length of stride, and the same construction 
which gives that faculty confers the power to keep it up.” 
We must again refer to the giving of prizes, for we remember 
when a prize of £100 was given by the Royal Agricultural Society 
at Battersea, the best stallions were entered from all parts of the 
country ; a Derby winner was entered to whom was awarded the 
prize. The object of the Society, however, was not obtained. It 
is not a winner of the Derby or St. Leger—a horse that will never 
be taken from his own stable door—that should come to an agri¬ 
cultural show, exhibit himself there, and walk off with the prize : 
but what is required is a good, strong, thoroughbred country 
stallion that is available for the use of the ordinary mares of the 
country. This prize did, it must be remembered, indicate a great 
fact, a hint suggestive of what may be done by the £100 prizes or 
Royal Plates being revived towards restoring our losses and bring¬ 
ing us back again to our original position. It has gone far to 
illustrate the great principle that such rewards are highly esteemed 
by the owners of valuable horses, and will induce them to keep 
and show them for such prizes, and it should be one of the con¬ 
ditions that such prizetaker should be available for mares at a 
moderate charge in his own district, for there surely is great need 
of them. 
The country is so ill supplied with thoroughbred horses of the 
required stamp and type, that it is almost impossible to find a 
useful short-legged thoroughbred horse that can carry 12 stone 
across the country. This is a great loss, for with substance there 
