Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/50

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42
HOW TO BREED A HORSE.

blood of England, and signally "missed" with that of America. On the contrary, the blood of Glencoe "hit" with the most fashionable blood of both countries; and although he has got more fine stock in America, owing to his having served here during a much longer period, and of course, covered more fine mares, is scarcely more famous as a stock getter in this than in the mother country. In like manner, Leviathan, Sovereign and Sarpedon have all "hit" more or less decidedly, with the older English blood of America; and Trustee must not be forgotten, both as the sire of the incomparable Fashion, and as a horse who has been extraordinarily fortunate in getting roadsters of high quality out of common mares.

Now, although there is no possibility of predicting, absolutely, what bloods will and will not hit, there are at least some facts established which will enable us to venture a conjecture on the subject. It is well known to be the habit of gregarious and polygamous animals, such as horses, oxen, and some others, which are not long-lived—but of which the largest and most powerful males enjoy the company of the females of their own troop or band, of which they are the lords and Sultans, and from which they beat off and banish the younger and inferior animals of their own sex—to copulate, for at least two or three generations, with their own female descendants, while in a state of nature. As they decline in strength, vigor and courage with the increase of years, they are in their turn beaten off, and compelled to give way to some more powerful rival, in the pride and maturity of equine manhood, perhaps from a different horde of animals, and almost certainly from a distinct strain of blood. Hence we come to the conclusion that horses in a wild state are accustomed to breed into the same family and blood; that is to say, with their own daughters and grand-daughters, for about