The Farmer. Brood Marcs.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2045, 15 August 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Farmer. Brood Marcs.

Bt Captain W. H. Fife, in the Live Stock Journal. Vtnr little encouragement is given at present by the existing agricultural societies! to brood mares, for the following reasons : -(1) B•oauie the generality of shows are held during the spring and summer months, times when mares are either just about to foal or have their foals at foot, and under either of these circumstances few owners will run the risk of sending their mares any distance to compete. The entries of brood mares are, therefore, tow, and many shows of moderate importtnoe omit the class altogether. The same is the oase with stallion olasses. Both these and brood mare daises to be (successful Bhould be competed between the end of summer and the beginning of spring. (2) There should be more than one class for brood mares. There should be a class for breeding weightcarrying hunters, and another for light weights. There should also bo classes restricted to age, say for mares in foal under the age of five years ; this would encourage farmers and others to breed from youug mares, which is one of the most profitable ways of breeding hunters, as a foal or two is got" from the dam betweeen three and five years old, an age when she is growing into money. There should also be a claBS for m»rea suitable to breed hunterd which have not been used for breeding. This is a class that might, of course, be shown ut any time of year, and would, I feel sure, b° the means of many a good mnre bring put to tho atud that would not otherwise have been bred from. Mares arc nevpr allowed a fair chance at show* in having to compote on rq'inl terms with geldings, the lattet naturally having the advantage of greater size and substance, so it would be only due to tbo marea that they Bhould have % separate class for themselves under the head of " mares suitable for brood mares but whlc 1 have not been u°cdfor Btud purposes." The fanners' idea of what is the rigbtsort of mare to mate with a thoroughbred horse is often very wide of the mark, and such a class would tend to educate their minds as to what is the right sort, and many would be dissu*ded from the idea of breeding from an unsuitable one from the faot of her not being in any way noticed in this class, while others who, through want of knowledge, might not have intended breeding from a good one, might be induced by success at the showyard to try their luck by having a foal from the prize-winner. All such olaceen &c I have named should be encouraged as much as ponsible, and there should be established a hunters' prize-book for all mares that have taken pnzfM or have been very highly commended. Thoroughbred stallions also that win prizes or medals at the Hunterß' Stallion Show phourd be entered in this book, and also those that win at the Royal and other leading shows. The fact of shows being the key to the prize-book would be an inducement to show mares, and the subject would be more generally studied and ventilated. Should an exhibitor have a mare in the prize-book, and get a filly foal from her by a prize horse, and should he succeed in getting this produce into the prizebook, bhe should be most valuable as a brood mare, and each succeeding generation that could be got into the book on her merits, would be additionally valuable, and it would then be a matter of consideration whether an animal ho bred would not be more valuable as a brood mare than she would be to sell for other purposes, and encouragement would thus be given to breed from one of the right r ort which, but for the existence of the prizebook, might never have beed bred from till she was worn out and too old to breed strong and healthy stook.