Horse breeding

“ We have plenty of breeders willing and anxious to secure and continue the breed of the English thoroughbred, but although we are possessed of some of the finest areas in the world for horse-breeding, and in a climate analogous in many respects to Mesopotamia, the original home of the horse, we have unfortunately no one among all those who have amassed wealth who will, either for pleasure or profit, take in hand the formation of a pure Arabian stud. ”

“ Horse-breeding is a highly important industry in almost all European countries, and in several, as Russia, France, Hungary and Spain, the state gives it exceptional support. Almost every district of the continent has a breed of its own: Russia reckons those of the Bashkirs, the Kalmucks, the Domestic animals. Don-Cossacks, the Esthonians and the Finlanders as among its best; France sets store by those of Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, Limousin and Auvergne; Germany by those of Hanover, Oldenburg and Mecklenburg, which indeed rank among the most powerful in the world ”

“ The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the age of two and a half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it has ceased to shed teeth, except it be naturally infertile; it must be added, however, that some horses have been known to impregnate the mare while the teeth were in process of shedding. ”

“ There were, as it happened, only three pinto horses in the entire saddle stock, and these three were the last left of the entire bunch. Now a little boy or girl, and many an older person, thinks that a spotted horse is the real thing, but practical cattle men know that this freak of color in range-bred horses is the result of in-and-in breeding, with consequent physical and mental deterioration. It was my good fortune that morning to get a good mount of horses,—three sorrels, two grays, two coyotes, a black, a brown, and a grulla. ”

“ If successful it will show that we can develop our own breeding stock of horses in this country; it will make light horse breeding less a lottery than it is at present, and will at the same time provide breeding animals which can be used profitably on the lighter horses of the country. ”

“ When a type has been established and is of unquestioned value to the world, it should be preserved most carefully. The French, the Russians, the Germans and the Austrians do this by means of Governmental breeding farms. The English accomplish the same result by reason of the custom of primogeniture and entailed estates. Continuity in breeding is essential to its complete success. In this country when a breeder dies, his collection of horses is usually dispersed by sale to xsettle his estate. ”

“ It seems to me that too little attention has been given to horse-breeding, and that a remunerative trade might be carried on between Kimberley and India, to which this district is nearer than any other part of Australia.
What horses are bred, though otherwise excellent, are small — a defect that should easily be remedied. The cattle, too, are rather on the small side, and this again, by more careful attention to breeding, could be improved upon. ”

“ To maintain the standard of excellence which has been attained at the cost of so much care, it is essential that only the best types should be used for breeding: such horses as are truly framed, are free from imperfections, and above all are free from hereditary unsoundness. The numerous statutes mentioned in the foregoing pages assisted our ancestors in building up the breed which has long been established as permanent. ”

“ If they are to make geldings the colour should match, but if for breeding purposes the colour need not necessarily be the same. Except for making a working gelding, however, chestnuts should be avoided. It is not a desirable colour to propagate, so one can breed enough of that shade without buying one. A remark which may be also made with regard to unsound ones, viz. that most horse-breeders get enough of them without buying. ”

“ It is not probable that any one who was desirous of breeding a horse suitable for the saddle would select a very inferior mare, for, even though her pedigree were unknown, the qualities which suggested her selection would prove her something better. It cannot be denied that occasionally a literal half-breed, by a thoroughbred on common stock, turns out a good animal, and such a cross is often the foundation of valuable types ”

“ Pairing those very unlike, oftener results in loss than in gain. Mating a horse for speed with a draft mare, will more likely beget progeny good for neither, than for both. Avoid all extremes, and endeavor by moderate degrees to obtain the object desired.
Crossing, between different breeds, for the purpose of obtaining animals for the shambles, may be advantageously practiced to considerable extent, but not for the production of breeding animals. As a general rule cross-bred males should not be employed for propagation, and cross-bred females should be served by thorough-bred males. ”

“ Horses are now diffused by the agency of man throughout almost the whole of the inhabited parts of the globe, and the great modifications they have undergone in consequence of domestication, crossing, and selective breeding are well exemplified by comparing such extreme forms as the Shetland pony, dwarfed by uncongenial climate, the thoroughbred racer, and the London dray-horse. ”

“ The races of the horse, sheep, and cow, on the other hand, approximate, as we have seen, to proportionate development. There is, therefore, much less room for improvement. Strikingly in harmony with this interpretation is the fact that, with pigeons, the more highly bred the crossed varieties are, the greater is the gain from a cross. Equally congruous is the fact that the more highly bred the breeds of the horse, cow, and sheep are, the less is the gain. The reason is, careful and select breeding produces increased divergence of character with pigeons ”

“ The importance of this point when considered in reference to the policy which should be observed in the selection of breeding stock is obvious, and, as the whole matter is within the control of the owners and breeders, it will be their own fault if the unchecked transmission of ringbones from one equine generation to another is allowed to continue. ”

“ As it is five or six years after a breeding establishment is started before any of the horses produced can be placed upon the market, the effect of this uncertainty is to discourage would-be horse breeders and influence them toward other enterprises. ”

“ There have been so many wonderfully fast horses developed in this twenty-five years that even to enumerate them and their breeding would take a book by itself. The chief characteristics of the breeding, however, may be said to be in the larger infusions of 71the English blood, the English having gone into the racing machine business before we did. ”

“ But in the famous Blue Grass region the noblest horses of several types and kinds have been bred for more than a hundred years. It is distinctively the breeding place in America of the English Thoroughbred, and comparatively few men who have gone into the reproduction of these interesting and fleet animals have refrained sooner or later from buying or renting farms in 149Central Kentucky to carry on their operations. ”

“ Good horses have a higher value than ever, and as the demand for cheap or poorly bred horses diminishes, the better bred ones survive, and what is lost in number is more than balanced in breed and consequent value. (See Breeds and Breeding.) The principal breeds of racing horses are the Bashaws, Clays, Black Hawks, Hambletonians, Mambrino Chiefs, Pilots, American Stars and Blue Bulls. (See Trotting and Pacer.) The most prominent types of the pony include the Shetland, Galloway, Welsh, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and Canadian breeds. (See Pony.) See also the articles Ass; Mule; Shire Horse ”

“ The fire crackled, and no other sound disturbed the stillness.
"Some one else will breed them," replied the vicar of the stables, with quietness: the sun always seemed to remain on his face after it had gone down. "They will be bred by some one else. The breeding of horses in the world will not be stopped because some one does not wish to breed them. ”

“ We feed them principally on hay and barley, increasing the ration at the breeding season so as to infuse strength into their get by means of their food. The breeding season is the same as for horses, and, like them again, we have the jack handled by a studgroom.
"When a mare has dropped a mule colt or filly we bring it up with care. Those which are born in marshy and swampy country have soft hoofs, but if they are driven up into the mountain in summer, as we do at Reate, their hoofs become hardened. ”

“ This gentleman rides mostly thoroughbreds. He told me that he found it more and more necessary to ride thoroughbreds, or, at any rate, horses as clean bred as he could get them, for the reason that they are now breeding faster hounds than formerly. I wondered why they should breed faster dogs unless at the same time they bred faster foxes. ”

“ It is not for us to determine the knotty point, but we may venture the opinion that the two first definitions of a cross-bred are not convincing to us, since in order to produce a cross-bred it is necessary to have a sire, or a dam, or both of defined breeds. Probably the most correct definition of a cross-bred animal is one bred from the mating of sire and dam of two distinct breeds, but the term is now loosely applied to an animal begotten by a sire or from a dam of pedigree breeding, the other parent being of no particular breed. ”

“ Great care should be taken to breed from such as are most perfect in all the essential points of constitution, form, and size; and weight, uniformity, and fineness of fleece. The closest observation is requisite, to select the best in all respects.
In-and-in breeding should be avoided where practicable, which can be done where there is a careful registry of the sheep through successive generations. Excessive use of rams can never be permitted without decided injury to them and their progeny. In Spain, four rams are supplied to every hundred ewes. ”

“ The sheep-breeder can, however, avoid the effects of in-and-in breeding, and at the same time preserve the character of his flock, by seeking rams of the same breed, possessing, as nearly as possible, the characteristics which he wishes to preserve in his own flock. ”

“ To inbreed them there is only one plan. Select your very best stallion and put him to a certain number of mares, and then put all the good fillies when three years old to their father; also, select your very best mare and put her to another stallion, and go on breeding from her to the same stallion until you have a colt, then put that colt to his mother, and use the produce to breed from with the produce obtained by putting the fillies above mentioned to their father.” A better plan for fixing the size could hardly be imagined. ”

“ Hitherto (if we except fast trotting) there has been little attention paid to breeding for special purposes, as for draft horses, carriage horses, saddle horses, etc., and the majority of people at the present time undoubtedly prefer horses of all work. ”

“ No breeder of sheep ever produced an animal that was not a sheep, although the quality of the fleece or of the mutton may have been greatly improved or varied. Among the domestic fowls, no animal that was not a bird was ever bred by any crossing of breeds, although great varieties of plumage, structure of beak, formation of foot, development of wing, habits of life, adaptation to changes of situation, and many minor peculiarities, have been the consequences of careful and intelligent breeding from different varieties of the same fowl. ”

“ In breeding for the saddle, or for any other purpose, the mare should be nearly of the type the breeder desires to obtain, and she should be of strong frame, perfectly sound, of healthy stock, and with a good disposition. If her pedigree be known, the stallion, well-bred or thoroughbred, should be selected from a strain which has been proved to have an affinity with that of the mare. The mingling of certain strains is almost as certain to produce certain results—not, be it understood, everything that may be desired—as does the mixing of chosen colors on the palette. ”

“ Crossing is only good where you wish to breed animals against natural conditions, as heavy horses on terse food, or Leicester sheep on the downs, or small Alderney cows on rich pastures. Then, the more the breed is crossed by animals bred under favourable natural conditions the better. No horse is so bred in-and-in as our thorough- [120] bred horse and the Arab, and, of course, all pure breeds must be bred in-and-in. ”

“ At no other times, perhaps, have there been such opportunities to obtain lessons in almost everything that concerns horses than at the three shows, for the Shires, the Hackneys, and the hunters. For the last quarter of a century the right roads have been taken to develop and improve the English breeds, and in that comparatively short space of time the effects of sensible and scientific breeding have been quite wonderful on materials existing years, almost centuries, ago, but neglected by past generations, and often enough nearly lost. ”

“ A very large number of instances of this kind have been reported to me by well-known breeders of horses, cattle, pigs, dogs, and pigeons. Sometimes a breeder will fail to obtain offspring from a male and a female of known fertility whom he wishes to couple for some special reasons. The most celebrated living horse-breeder informed me 546that frequently a mare, which in other seasons with other stallions has proved fertile, may be coupled with a stallion likewise of proved reproductive potency, and will fail to be impregnated ”