HORSE-BREEDING IN AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 56

HORSE-BREEDING IN AUSTRALIA

(By Alex. Wilson.)

11l a recent article on the above subject there was a sentence -which I propose to adopt as a text, and shall incidentally refer to other features of the subject. The sentence was “We should pay more heed to our local racing affairs, which have a great deal to do with the breeding industry.” Undoubtedly the latter part of the sentence is true, and herein lies the foundation of the great truth that we have hardly any saddle horses worthy of the name in Australia, and consequently a very poor sample for export. Yes; racing has a great deal to do with it, especially in the eyes of most breeders of the present day, and while the subject is looked at through the race glasses of thoroughbred stud owners, there is no hope for* the Australian saddle horse or for the remounts to maintain our prestige abroad and assist the Empire. I have read the reports of the recent conference, and I can only find one resolution that has some grip of business in it, and I do not anticipate that even it would produce any appreciable result if put in force. It is: “That an annual tax be imposed on stallions for public service.” If the principle of giving the resultof this tax as premiums to approved sires on condition that their services should be available at cheap rates, a great part of the possible good effect would be lost, unless the breeding from cull mares is prohibited, as the unthrifty and negligent breeder would still get his mares served at a low figure, the only difference being that the average sire may be better. I may say right away that so far as the States of Victoria and New South Wales are concerned, I hold the opinion that the breeding of remounts or moderate hacks is out of the question, no matter what State assistance may be afforded. Grass is too valuable, and the result, under existing circumstances, too uncertain; in fact, it is only with cheap grass, low interest, and a certain demand that a fair class of animal can be produced at all. Hence my advice to the War Office to start business in the Northern Territory. I am satisfied that for twenty years past no breeder of hacks and light horses has made it pay, and I feel confident that Messrs Thos. Cook and V. J. Dowling will endorse that statement. The fact is that the majority of this dass of horse is bred because they are old crippled or outlaw mares on a station, therefore run a stallion with them and breed foals. Or a selector, boundary rider, or other bushman has a mare or two, and he is imbued with the same j idea, therefore he sends them to a horse. It is beyond dispute that the great bulk are brought into existence, not as the result of a hard, close business calculation, such as would be applied to cattle and sheep, but because there is a charm about a horse which in many Anglo-Saxon breasts becomes a passion. And furthermore, as now generally practised, breeding contains all the elements of Tattersall’s sweep, disguised, of course. I may be wrong, but I°rather suspect that were it not for the occasional prizes in the shape of racehorses and jumpers, even Turanville could not live on the production of Indian sorts. In my judgment, a good hack, such as still existed when I was a jackeroo, cannot be turned out at five years old for less than £3O, and even then one would not need to be too particular as to colour, marking or minor blemishes, to get them in numbers. Such horses as the Houses and the late William Pearson, of Kilmany Park, sent to market sold, the latter, I know, at any rate, at from 30 to 80 guineas for road purposes. Is there a market for such now? Not in Australia, at any rate. Hallways, telegraphs, telephones, bicycles,. and I suppose I must add motor cars, have reduced the demand for the journey hack, slashing buggy horse, and good sorts generally to a minimum. But the nation wants them, although the same finish and polish should not be necessary when they are to bo food for powder, and the cost must be kept down. It is pretty well a certainty that the mounted branch of the army must undergo a remarkable change in the immediate future. The heavy dragoon, 20st of a burden, and his horse, which is suited for the wheel of a coach instead of a rapid march over broken country, must disappear; in fact, all the heavily accoutred regiments will bo improved out of knowledge, and their places taken by mounted riflemen. Animals suitable for the horsing of such forces and smart gunners are the only types I should have in view to be raised in the Northern Territory, where they can be turned out by the tens of thousands. What class of breed would I adopt as the starting point for the rifleman’s nag? It may he assumed from some remarks made above that I do not esteem the thoroughbred in this connection. Not so. The thoroughbred is the

only available sire, but those I would select would be in most cases what existing breeders consider their failures—horses whose standard of “even time” would be 100 miles in twelve hours with 16sb up, as a oontrast to the first prize in the great lottery—a Cup winner who gets over two miles in 3 minutes 28 seconds with about Bst up. Such horses as Panio, his sons Wellington and Commotion, Smuggler, King Alfred, Glorious, Sunrise, and others would be eminently fitted to become the sires of what one might call the herd stallions, if mated with the right stamp of thoroughbred mare, carefully setting aside all expectations of a foal with any pretensions to racing; in fact, when an animal was incorporated in this stud it should be considered to have been for ever removed from the prospect of such fame and profit a.s may come to the sire or dam of successful racehorses. And in the future such foals as develolped racing qualities in a marked degree should be culled out just as the cow which turns grass into beef instead of milk is rejected out of a dairy herd, or a sheep cutting a beautiful fleece of very fine wool, 41b or 51b in weight, is thrown out of a well managed merino flock. There is a place for them, but it is somewhere else. One breeders culls may be another man’s studs.

The only other source of blood that I would entertain is the Arab, though it is possible that an occasional dash of really high-class Welsh ponies, if obtainable, might be tried with advantage. The sires, however, should never go outside the thoroughbred and Arab, or a mixture of them. With careful selection as to conformation and colour, there is no reason why in time a stamp should not be established which would breed as true to type as the Suffolk Punch does now.

And this leads me to the conclusion of my remarks—namely, that so far as gunners, transport and ambulance classes are concerned, the Suffolk must be the foundation. To my knowledge, which is limited, the only other breed worthy of consideration is the Percheron, and I have the idea he is too recently established as a breed to be depended on to throw to type. Furthermore, I have the impression they run much to grey, a colour which should not bo allowed in the stud I contemplate.