The farmer. Hints on Breeding Hunters.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2030, 11 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

The farmer. Hints on Breeding Hunters.

Oon colunns, says the Live S'ock Journal, re cemly hav.? shown the great desire that exists for reliable information and advioe on the subject o! breeding hunters, and no one ia more qualified to give the necessary directions than i* gentleman who has himself succeeded in rearing first class animal*!. Mr. Robert Pratt, J P., the author of the littie volume before us', was the breeder of Qaeen of Trtzrapa, rlrst-priza brood mure for producing hunters at the Dablin National Hone Show in 1884 and thus possessed thU qualification. He ex plains that the very careless manner in which the writers on the horse have mixed up with •ther topics &uch loose hints as they had to offer relating to breeding, and th6 consequent difficulty of being able to glean information from what has bepn written on the subject, has induced him to publish the treatise in the hope that it may assist breeders of horses to consider and to study caused and effects more carefully, and thus become more successful. Mr. Pratt commences at the beginning of his subject, examining first the qnestiona of generation, sexual character, selection, &s. He alludes to the scarcity of brood mares fit for breeding hunters, and Bays that he will be surprised if, on an average, ten in a hundred of the mares put to stallions in the country are really well-shaped, well-bred mares. Then, he adds, if the general health, soundness, and aotien of the ten very best-shaped mares ont of every hundred are Mamined into, he apprehends that the greater number of those ten best-looking animals will have to be rejected aa being quite unfit to breed from ; conssqnently the proportion of the brood mares used to the proportion of those that are tit to bo used will be about as 99 to one. Under such disadvantageous circumstances, asks Mr. Pratt, what wonder is it that most of the colts bred are ill shaped, unsound, worthless animals? We give the following extraots from Mr. Pratt's useful volume, which we can cordially recommend to the attention of horse»breeders : —

SELECTION OF THE STALLION. Thk itallion'u hctd should bt> clean, sharply obiseled, and fquart : his «y* full of bright, •oft fire ; and bit o tad gracefallj set on. I eoniidar it to b« the very fint imprrtanoe tiuA tbt •toQloQ'f head should showqaallty MAohanoter in the vary highest degree. i: v t^lPW Compactness of his frame and body is : w great importance ; bis legi and feet should be of very great quality ; fo hris foals will inherit much of tho qtulities of the extremities from bim. I regard qnality and cotnpacttess as bairg of mnch mor« importanoe in the stallion than tits. All I have io ;&? in rw* ♦? ♦»»' "'23 of the stallion is that I would not select one that was too much under sized or too muoh overgrown.

in tkeir breed and shape should not le mated to breed. 4. Great big stallions and email msre9 chould never be mated to breed. 5. Il^lf bred etnlliorja of any breed should not be usrd. f>. Avoid breeding in-and in. 7. Do not breed from coarse, loose made mares or horses. 8. Do not breed from black or grey mares or hordes. 9. Dj not breed from marcs and horses, which having bred, produced bad colts. Negative. 10. Determine exactly in your own mind the ohjiracter of tho horse you wish to produee, and never lose si«ht of it. 11. Avail of any opportunity that offers to procure the finest animals and blood that will suit your purpose. 12. To breed half-bred horses, splect a pure thoroughbred hor<se, and a bi;< half-bred mire the better breed sho is the more valuable che will be. 13. To breed weight-carrying hunters, seleot a neatly made, large, roomy, health j, yonng, well-shaped, sound, well bred mare, with good temper and good action, or a tried mare that has been siiccoapful. 14. To breed weight carrying hunters, select a pure thoroughbred stallion, compact, well shaped, sound, healthy, vigorous, with good temper and good action, and one that is the sire of good running horses, and that has got good weight-carrying hunters.