BREEDING HORSES FOR ENDURANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1925, 6 November 1884, Page 4

BREEDING HORSES FOR ENDURANCE.

* Tub following article on the above subject is taken from an old number of the Live Stock Journal. The rcmaiks contained therein me pertinent, more particulatly at this season of the year when it behoves farmers and otheis owning mires to look out for bound sites with staying qualities : — The vietoi ien of Parole, the American racehorse, lia\e called the attention of bleeders to the want of both speed ami endurance in the i mining hoiscs of Ktiq land, those matchless stei ds which wete supposed to have no n\'il-> in any p.n fc of the world. Unpleasant as these wctoncs niaybctonation.il pude, they ought to teach a \aluable lesson, and one which breeders must leain if English liorscs would not sink into mere weedy nobodies, whose business it i? to follow foreign horses over a race track. It might safely be said that the United States can show to-day ten longdistance ravers to one in England, and for this simple reason— that several persons over theic breed animals as much for endurance as for speed, so that they obtain the finest horses known, and those most ilcsuablc for the use of man. The Amciicans can now boast'the best roadsters and racers in the world, perhaps ; and for this superiority they may thank the vicious system of breeding and racing employed in England. The primary faults in the English system of breeding aic, that both mares and stallions are made dams and siies at too early an age, aucl that broken-down animals having a good name aie prcfeired to those less famous, but which are sound in wind and limb. The offspiing of the fiist must, as a natural consequence, be weedy weaklings, capable, perhaps, of making a fast bpurt, but incapable of any long continued exertion. Their gets must again be inferior to their sites and dams, and so the chain of deterioration is continued until we have nothing better than mere spurters. In my opinion, no stallion should be employed as a siie until he is five or six years old, when he is in piime physical and mental condition ; and the mare ought to be near the same age — say four years as a ba&is, for under this she cannot be said to have that strength of mind and body necessary to produce an intelligent and vigorous offspring. Running two year-olds is a great mistake, in my opinion, and one which should be prevented by the Society which suppresses cruelty to animals ; for nothis moie liable to bieakdown the constitution of the most stuuly and pioiinsing colt than these violent demand-* on its strength and neivous foice, when it ought to be lompmg about in its paddock. What must be done in older to insure a good, fast, sm iceable, and enduring fctock of horses in tins country, is to stop the mnmngof fillies, si-loct only sound vigoi ous animals of matuieane for sues and dams, and make enduiance as much the question of hi ceding as mere .speed. The stamina should, to my thiukinu', be even p.n amount to pare ; foi if lacchoiscs aie of any u&i> npait fiom the amusement they alloid, it is to produce a bieed of horses on winch to mount the civaliy ; and, in t mil; of v.at enduiance in that brand) of the &ei\icci» far more useful than stiide. In fact, the groat fault always found with the English cavaliy has been that, although the hoises were perhaps the handsomest and fastest m the woild, of their kind, they had little endurance, could stand scarcely any sevei ity of climate or want of food, and were so restive and high-spnited in a charge that they could not be icadily handled, so that w hate\er advantage they might have had in velocity was countei acted by the difficulty of eoutiolling Lhc.n w hen the dash was o\ci. The cau^e of their faults was the amount of t'lmrumhbx d blood in them, the unsound condition of the animals whence it ccc c me, and the fact that speed was consid'itd a gicatei desidciatum than stinuna. If ever our cavali ygo to war in Europe w lib any greater power, these laultsuill In- nppaicnt in a slioit time, and if they do /lot piove disastious ■we may thank foitiine foi it. To lemcdy the defects in both our lacing and cavali j hoises, peisons must, theicfoie, bleed fiom sound inatuie animals, and n ake speed and enduiance combined of gitatei impoitince tlian speed alone It might almost seem woith w Inle, in oidei to attain thi-> end, to le^oit to the meaiib employe 1 by lleiny VI Fl , who commanded ;il! defective inferior animals to be deslioyeil, so as to pi event the piop.igatiou of then specie", and who permitted no stallion hi low fifteen hands, and no niaic Ik low Unite' n, to be mated. The lesiilt was, tit.ic England had, in a few yeais, the beat bleed of horses in Euiupc, thanks to this enlightened tyi.uuiy. The generation of gentlemen vho followed the Distinctions of the loyal mandate weic able to mle one huntei all 'lay long aftei Ucviaul, and piobablj* the ne\t also ; but when tli' n descen daiitb (l'jin inded speed moie thin endurance in hoises, tlie stock began to detei ioi ate m a bhoi t time, until, at the present day, we find that a gentleman has to cany two liuutcis to a meet if he hopes to claim a bui-h. It is tiue tint a fox ran all day, and piobably a poition ot the next, a hundred yeais ago, v. heieas it is now caught in a run varying from twenty minutes to four hours, unless it escapes by stratagem ; but to obtain this improvement in the pace of horses, we find that bieedeis have snciificcd endurance — one ot the most valuable qualities in a huntei, hack, oi tioop hone. Xow in the United States pace and stamina aie cultivated togcthei, foi long distance lac^s aie \ciy popular thcie, and tho'-e lioi^cs which have become famous in such nntchos aie cuefully kept foi bi ceiling, and aie not exhausted l»by. ically and mentally by being employed both in the stud and on the tiack. One of the woist faults to be found amongst English hiecdeis of valuable hoi 60S is that they lun their animals until then ivivous and physical foices aie so exhausted that they can no longer win laces, and whin that time comes, if the}' have earned .mv name, they aie placed in the bietding establishment. "What can be the u.sult of such a system but a pucule olFspnng, which aie weak in body and pool in wind, winch have a very sensitive nervous organisation, but are unable to last m a contest for any length of time ? Jn a bleed, ng establishment which I 1 itely visited 1 ioimd decayed siies and dam", which had won certain races, engak'fed in piopngating their species, when they ought, in reality, to have been at the knackci's, or, at the best, employed in diawir.g a carnage, oi carrying a light - weight gentleman or a la ly over a good road, for a few houis at a slow pace, Wh.it can their offspiing be ? It ispoveJ by the fact that, not moie than five or si-: famous colts aie pioduccd annually out of (lie tlnce oi four thousand bom. Jnbiecdii'^ ij also caniid tou fni, and w hat that ie ; iilts in may be leauied from JJai w m h w ntiiigs Auolhei ike made by brecdeis is, in my opinion, to bleed stallions to many nuns, and nuns to difFerent fctallions. The geU in iy sometimes prove splendid animals, but, as a rule, it will be found that they do not, as there is that lack of harmony and feeling between the dam and siie which is necessary to produce good colts, and which can be obtained only by the long association of both ; for the more frequently two animals breed together, the more do their blood get mingled, and the better and purer are their foals. Breeders should therefore mate two animals whose exploits have been few but wonderful ; and care should be taken that the infirmities of one arc counterbalanced by their absence in the other. Another question in breeding horses is, which hns the most influence on the off-

spi ing, the sire or the dam ? As the sire has the most vigour and nervous foicc, he might be supposed to have the irost influence : but such is not always tho case, for Western Australian, which won the St. Leger nnd Dei by of the same 3c-.li', failed to produce scarcely any colts having his virtue, although he was associated with som6 of the most famous ni.ires in Treat Britain. The stallion Stock well, on tho contraiy, was so successful that he produced 111 the same year as many as thirty-two winning colts, which won £32,000 for their ow nois. In this pLico it might be well to note tin 1 lasting influence of the first impressions on the mare, for if her first mate is a fainoiK sno, nearly all her offspring will fcilvc .iftcr him (0 a great extent ; heiu'c the mmsom why she should meet him as much as possible ; for if the " nick" is good, it is almost sure to contnnip so. As an example of this I may mention the case of the celcbratsd marc Phyro, which got six famous racers by one Ijoisc — Pantaloon ; and Ciucih'x and Touchstone produced four magnificent colts. A very few good stallions have produced splendid colts from any high-bred mare, but the instances are rare, and might lie regarded as phenomenal. The owners of these famous fillies did not keep their blood pure, however, but allowed thorn to associate with any animals ; hence the deterioration of the equine species beie, and the reason why Great Britain to-day has fewer horses possessing both speed and power than the United States or France. The i.ice piomises to deteriorate much, moie 111 the future if breeders do not pay greater attention to the laws of nature and common sense ; and England, instead of has ing the finest horses in the world, will have a meie weedy lot, which will be neither showy nor useful, and be unfit either for the r.ice-course, the huntingfield, or the battle-field.