Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/34

26 blood at all. But, on the contrary, a mare with all the best bloods in the world in her veins, if she has not good shapes, good size, and good points, is not fit for a stud mare. We do not merely mean as to the absence of actual deformities, or constitutional disease, such as spavin, ringbone or navicular disease, but as to lack of structural excellence and beauty. We go so far as to say that a farmer had far better let alone breeding from a mare which he knows to be herself a good and true one, if she be cross made, unsightly, and deficient in points of strength or in action; for excellence will sometimes be found, accidentally and exceptionally, in all shapes, even the most unlikely. But it will be found, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, that the ill shapes will be transmitted, while the excellence will not. Therefore, say we, when a good old mare, however good she may have been, if she want size, bone, muscular development and form, has done her work, it is better to let her go, her duties done, than to seek to turn her to farther profit by breeding from her, since the profit is extremely likely to prove a loss. An unproved mare, of fine form and good temper, with plenty of bone, good constitution, and free from unsoundness or vice, is a better animal from which to raise stock than the toughest bit of mare's flesh that ever stood on iron, if she materially lack any one of those conditions. "In choosing the brood mare," says an excellent modern writer on the horse, though he is speaking of thoroughbreds, "four things must be considered: First, her blood; secondly, her frame; thirdly, her state of health; and fourthly, her temper. "In frame, the mare should be so formed as to be capable of carrying and well nourishing her off-spring; that is, she should be what is called 'roomy.' There is a formation of the hips which is particularly unfit for