The Breeding of Horses.

Hastings Standard, Issue 481, 20 November 1897, Page 4

The Breeding of Horses.

The Chief Inspector of Stock in New South Wales has recently been giving utterance to some very important remarks on the subject of the deterioration of horses in Australia, and there is no reason why breeders in New Zealand should not take these remarks to heart, seeing that they apply with equal force to this as to the sister colonies. Considerable indignation was caused recently in Australia by the action of the Indian Government in sending to the Argentine for its remounts, and although the Inspector of Stock in New South Wales thinks that the strictures passed on colonial horses by the Director-General of the Army Veterinary Department are somewhat exaggerated, he admits there is a good deal of truth in what he says. The conclusion he has come to is that though Australian horses are not what they ought to be, they are not much behind those of other countries. At the same time, there is no other country in the world better adapted for breeding horses than Australia is, and he gives it as his opinion that if proper attention were paid to the matter they would soon hear the last of Australian horses being affected with ringbone or troubled with " roaring." Racing, as it is now conducted, is one reason of the deterioration, and he says that if a horse were made to carry a decent weight, say not less than 9st lOlbs, if he were compelled to be at least 15 hands high, and if all two-year-old races were done away with, then it would be possible to obtain a stout, useful horse. One reason which a good many people give for upholding and supporting racing is that it improves the breed of horses, it will doubtless come rather as a.surprise to them to hear from Mr Bruce the Inspector in question, that racing is not needed to improve the breed of horses. He even goes so far as to say that the racehorse of to-day is not of much use, and he points out that horse racing is not required to get a draught horse or a suitable cavalry horse. These can be obtained without that assistance, in the same way as we can improve the breed of our cattle without any extraneous help. Racehorses, he goes on to say, are very deficient in bone, and for general usefulness they are frequently defective in other respects. W T hat he suggests is a tax on stallions, and a proper system of registration, by which means a lot of unsound horses would be done away with. Coming from such an authority as Mr Bruce, this expression of opinion carries with it very considerable weight, and, as we have already said, his remarks apply with equal force to New Zealand breeders, seeing that there is no reason whatever why as good a stamp of cavalry horse as could possibly be required should not be bred in this colony, and a good market found for him in India, where the required stamp of animal can always find a purchaser at a satisfactory price. At present there is far too much breeding of scrubbers in New. Zealand ; no attention is paid to the production of a regular stamp of animal, of good size, strength, bone, fire, and speed, capable of carrying a 15 stone man over stiff country. Sooner than do that breeders prefer to go in for something that can " ract>," the result being that for one decent galloper turned out there are at least 20 weeds, which are eventually found to be not worth their oats as racers and utterly useless as hacks. It is the " useful" horse that is wanted, and if our breeders would only realise the position this is the kind of horse they would go in for.—P.B. Herald.