HORSE-BREEDING FOR INDIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2378, 6 October 1887, Page 3

HORSE-BREEDING FOR INDIA.

TO TIM-: KDITOiI. Sill, —I hiwc boon to hgii'l a few lino.i in reply li» Mr Brnnks’ 1:1*1 lublcr, but have put it oIT fnmi lime, lo Lime, and hayo now iui.-jl.iid the paper containin'; hi> letter, so f. must write from memory. With regard to llumpc of an active cart .giro or well bred man'. 1 }■ ar wo must agree todilTm-; Mr Kiook. thinks one way. ami J fancy that 1 li no reason* for tliink ithe, other way. 1 fail to m-o tliat tiding the same cross the reveise, way is brooding backwards, and I tliink that there are mares among us which would bo very hkely to brood payable stock this way, and which vvoidd certainly not brood anything wmth rearing, if put to a blood horse. Mr Brooks remarks about m i'os bred from the blood sire, and draught mares, that if yon get thorn too heavy the first cross, you have then got good brood in ices to put again to a blood sice, seem to me to to apply equally well, whichever way you breed the first cross; i.o. mares by a draught sire from a well-bred mare should be good mares to put to a blood horse too. Re the best height for a blood sire, Mr Brooks says he docs not admit that a horse standing 10 lids and over need be one whit inferior in shape to one standing In. li. I never claimed tint he need be inferior, 1 only slated that ns a matter of fact he generally is so. Take a dozen horses (thoroughbreds) over 10 lids, and a dozen two inches lower at random, and I would willingly give odds that the larger number of true shaped horses would bo among the lower standing lot. f don’t advocate using “ puny thoroughbreds ” by any means, but 1 decidedly prefer a powerful horse of medium height to a very big one, and to show that X am not alone in my idea 1 will ask Mr Brooks to look up some recent numbers of the “ Field” newspaper If he can obtain access to a file of that paper. For some months past the “ Field ” has been publishing a series of reports on “hunter sires” (i.e. blood sires, standing at fees which rendered them available for halfbred mares), written by a reporter who has been travelling all over England to inspect them. I don’t know the name of the wider, but picked for a job like that, bv a sporting paper of the standing of the “ Field,” he is not likely to be anything but a tirshrate judge of a Ijorso. Throughout his letters kg several times refers to his opinion that the successful hunter sires, the horses that are getting the most weight carrying hunters are the small compact horses, 15. 2 or thereabouts, and mentions particularly as corroboration of bis opinion a conversation he had with an old Devoir-hire stallion owner (the name was given in the article but 1 forget it), a man who had been in the habit of keeping two or three thoroughbred stallions for forty years past. Jfe asked this man’s opinion as to whether the big sires or the smaller ones got the best stuck (for hunters), and the answer was that lie thought the smaller ones did “ nine times out «f ten,” at the same time adding, “ however f keep the big ones because t can’t got the farmers to use anything but a big horse.” My own idea is that the best possible sire for horses for the service would bo an enlarged Arab, such as Mr Blunt is now breeding at his Arab stud in England ; racing men may jeer at them as much as they like, and from a racing point of view they are right enough no doubt, but the material is ten times as tough for all practical working purposes, as the soundest straits of English thoroughbreds that can be picked out anywhere. Mr Blunt’s Arabs bred in England are, many of them, 15. with more bone than any thoroughbred of the same height, and some of them have been carrying 15 stone to hounds. Wo have stallions in the district this season which should suit all tastes, hut toy personal choice from tho lot, if I were going to breed for tho Indian Government, would be i’aitbenopalus, though different horses will best suit different mares.—l am, yours, &c., E. 11. H. Daly. vn Tut; f.iutou. hill, —ln my letter in your issue of to-day about P .rtlicnopams, you make me use the curious expression that hje_ has “powerful quarters and sound thighs. I don’t waul to correct this by saying that his thighs are unsound, but what I actually wrote was 11 powerful quarters ami Hrcoml thighs,” 1 wished to point out that la- hj is power about his gaskins, which is hardly the case, with some of the horses offered for sen ice iu the district.—l am, yours truly, A Waikato F.uimku. October -Ith, ItX'vTho purc-brod Clydesdale stallion Bon Lomond is for service at Mr IV. Gardner's, Jiukulria. Wo draw attention to Mr .Stephen Tucker’s announcement, of a strictly cash