THE BREEDING OF CAVALRY HORSES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2365, 22 January 1915, Page 9

THE BREEDING OF CAVALRY HORSES

SOME SUGGESTIONS. ' (From a Correspondent.) The breeding of cavalry horses has, I believe, so far nevor been an attractive business for farmers, but by appealing to their 6porting instincts I think we can in this country produce a. type of horse suitable for cavalry which, will be the admiration of the outside world. Racing at present does very little for the breeding of horses up to weight, but brings in a large revenue by the tol:s'.sator. I would suggest that at all race meetings (during the winter, or when the ground is not too hard) there should be races for qualified hunters jumping and carrying weight, ridden by amateurs who are members of a hunt —none of these horses to he trained professionally. I say this as I am sure there are numbers of sporting young farmers who would like to breed, train, and ride a horse if the expenses were slight, and there was a sporting chance of winning a good money prize— £200 to £600—and besides the training and riding would improve their manship. The public would enjoy the races, and bet as freely as on the racehorses of the present day. ■ We might take the matter further, and allow the winners of local hunt races to receive, besides a valuable money prize, the option of having their expenses paid to . some open hunters' race at a centre where they could meet winners like themselves, tne owner of the winner of this event to receive, besides a* really valuable money prize, a gift, of "expenses paid," enabling him to compete in the English Grand National, if . he and the hunting authorities here considered his horse good enough for the event. Supposing this galloping weight-car'' rier is bred anyhow in the first instance, we must try and make a definite type of the breed, and have a stud hook, the entries of which for a start might be selected at our shows thus: The qualifying horses to' be (a) of certain colours, (b) heights, (c) and measurements as to girth and bone below knee (as decided by tlie Defence Department) ; (d) having legs . facing straightly; (e) free from certain _ unsoundness (as decided by the Veterinary Department); (f) capable of jumping certain regulation jumps of height and width (width, for horses without pace cannot cover much ground while jumpthe produoe until five years old to be entered in a "yearly suppler • ment" as now used for English polo ponies, in which the entered youngsters must oe by a thoroughbred, or registered sire out of a maie registered or entered in the yearly supplement.