38 
THE HORSE. 
CLASSES OF BRITISH HORSES. 
by experience, that the nearer the characters of the parents approach, the more likely are we to succeed in communicating 
their common properties to the progeny. By extreme crosses good animals may, without doubt, be produced, but this will 
be by a kind of chance, and the greater probability is, that the offspring will be defective in some point or other. Nothing 
may seem so easy to the inexperienced breeder as to produce a splendid coach-horse, or charger, or hunter, by crossing a large 
cart-mare with a thorough-bred horse; yet how rare are the cases in which the offspring of such extreme mixtures is good ! 
Either the body is too large for the limbs, the head too large for the neck, or some other want of harmony of parts presents itself, 
which renders the animal comparatively worthless. This effect is constantly observed in the numerous attempts which are made 
to procure horses of breeding from coarse ungainly mares through the means of extreme crosses. Repeated failures are too often 
required to convince the breeder that this is not the mode by which well-proportioned animals are to be obtained. We may 
readily produce a fine Ox from animals the most dissimilar; but where everything depends, as in the Horse, upon a nice adjust¬ 
ment of parts, it is rare that the dissimilar characters of the parents will be so harmonized in the offspring as to produce a well- 
formed individual. The other error, still more common, is to disregard the soundness and other properties of the mare in breeding. 
A mare, which is good for nothing else, is by too many thought sufficiently good for bearing a foal, and hence numbers of worth¬ 
less animals are destined to a purpose for which they are in a peculiar degree unsuited. Even in such a case, chance may do 
something for the ignorant and careless breeder; but the far greater presumption is, that the offspring will inherit the defects of 
the dam, and prove of little value. 
The remedy for such mistakes is increased intelligence on the part both of those who rear horses, and those who acquire 
them. The breeder, by possessing adequate knowledge of the principles and practice of breeding, will avoid the error of injudi¬ 
cious mixtures of blood, and of employing females for breeding which are unsuited for the purpose; and the consumer will refuse to 
purchase animals which are wanting in that harmony of conformation and constitutional soundness, without which no horse can 
be depended upon for performing the services required of him. The more palpable defects of a large proportion of our mixed 
class of half-bred horses is the want of depth of the chest, the flatness of the sides, and the too great apparent length of the limbs. 
Such horses are technically termed weedy, and they form perhaps the worst class of saddle-horses in any country in Europe. 
They have, for the most part, spirit enough, but they are deficient in strength and bottom; and although they may be easy in 
their paces, they are usually feeble in their limbs, and unsafe. Great numbers of these very worthless creatures are every year 
reared and brought to market, which the result shows not to be worth half the food they have consumed. 
The number of horses reared and maintained in the British Islands is large, and their value forms no inconsiderable amount 
of national capital; and it is for the public interest that they should be cultivated with care. By the returns made under the 
Acts for assessed taxes, it appears that the total number of horses in England, Wales, and Scotland, exclusive of foals, of cavalry- 
horses, and of the many which it cannot be doubted evade the returns, is . . . . . . 844,505 
In Ireland, which pays no assessed taxes, the number may be fairly estimated at ... 400,000 
1,244,505 
The prices of the superior horses are very high; but, rating the mass of all ages at from L.5 to L.35 each, the average is L.20, 
and the total value L.24,890,100. 
