488 
BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 
out such assistance; but their edict would not carry the same 
weight, especially with the disappointed owner of a disquali¬ 
fied horse, as the professional opinion of the College-man. 
It is scarcely fair, in fact, to place gentlemen who give their 
services to the Society in so invidious a position—one that 
often renders them liable to much gratuitous abuse. 1 would 
not, however, have the veterinary inspector of the meeting in 
any way interfere or intrude upon the judges when at work. 
His duty is to see that none but sound horses go before them, 
and there to limit his responsibility. Sometimes it will hap¬ 
pen that the judge will associate the two offices in his own 
proper person; but as a rule it is better that the Society 
should appoint its own veterinary surgeon; and I would re¬ 
commend that this course be adopted on the inauguration of 
the thoroughbred premium at Exeter. Of course, such an 
examination should not be confined to the stallions, but 
extended to every class of horses in the entry. It is some¬ 
what significant to reflect how resolutely this plan has been 
resisted in certain quarters, and by certain exhibitors, not 
merely at the meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society. I 
know at this moment of a county show of some repute where 
the presence of the veterinary inspector has been for years 
successfully tabooed, until the number of unsound animals 
exhibited has justly come to create some alarm for the cha¬ 
racter of the breed. I am speaking here rather of cart-horses 
than riding-stock, while I am glad to see that a leading mem¬ 
ber of the direction has put himself to reform this too-flat¬ 
tering fashion of making up a show, and that a preliminary 
veterinary examination will henceforth be embodied in the 
rules and regulations. 
It is very clear that within the last few years the proper 
stimulus has been given for breeding a better description of 
nag-horse,^^ and I am sanguine of still-continued improve¬ 
ment in this way. I have seen most of the famous horse- 
shows, and had the pleasure of being present at that grand 
meeting at Middlesborough, where the first hundred ever 
offered was won by Lord Zetland’s celebrated Voltigeur; 
from the great success of which occasion the national asso¬ 
ciation, but two 3 'ears since, was induced to institute a simi¬ 
lar premium. The Bath and West of England Society is 
now promptly following in the same course, and with every 
prospect of this very agreeable feature in the business of the 
farm being more systematically developed, with proportionate 
advantage to the breeder and credit to the countr 3 % 
