shape, temper, soundness and constitution, than it is in any other of the horse family.
To breed from a small horse with, the hope of getting a large colt; from a long-backed, leggy horse, with the hope of getting a short, compact, powerful one; from a broken-winded, or blind, or flat-footed, or spavined, or ringboned, or navicular-joint-diseased horse, with the hope of getting a sound one; from a vicious horse, a cowardly horse,—what is technically called a dunghill,—with the hope of getting a kind-tempered and brave one; all or any of these would be the height of folly. The blood sire (and the blood should always be on the sire's side) should be, for the farmer-breeder's purposes, of medium height, say 151⁄2 hands high, short-backed, well-ribbed up, short in the saddle-place, long below. He should have high withers, broad loins, broad chest, a straight rump,—the converse of what is often seen in trotters, and known as the goose rump; a high and muscular, but not beefy crest; a lean, bony, well-set-on head; a clear, bright, smallish, well-placed eye; broad nostrils and small ears. His fore legs should be as long and as muscular as possible above the knee, and his hind legs above the hock, and as lean, short and bony as possible below those joints. The bones cannot by any means be too flat, too clear of excrescences, or too large. The sinews should be clear, straight, firm, and hard to the touch. From such a horse, where the breeder can find one, and from a well-chosen mare (she may be a little larger, more bony, more roomy, and in every way coarser than the horse, to the advantage of the stock), sound, healthy and well-limbed, he may be certain, accidents and contingencies set aside, of raising an animal that will be creditable to him as a scientific stock breeder, and profitable to him in a pecuniary sense.
