THE SIZE OF THE STALLION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 694, 25 June 1903, Page 17

THE SIZE OF THE STALLION.

These are the days of big things—big cities, big crops, big men, big horses and big prices. Everything is big in price, but when it comes to the horse supply it is very far from big, the which is amply proved by the present range of values. The thoughtful breeder cannot see where the supply is to be made much larger for some years, and the longer he thinks about it the more rooted will become the conviction that tnere are many years of prosperity before him if his operations are guided by the demands of the market. It will be some years yet before there are horses enough to supply the demand, providing that the demand should remain stationary. But it will not. The business of the country is increasing at an enormousj rate. Trade is expanding on all hands. Exports are very large. Population is growing larger day by day. By the time that the horses now growing up on farms shall have attained marketable age there will be need for them all and more, too. There may be enough; the»e will not bo too many, and let it be remembered that just as soon as prices begin to fall a little the export trade will be handy by to absorb such of the supply as suits i.s needs. Therefore in breeding let us order our operations aright in order that tail-enders may be few and high-priced colts and fillies many. The exigencies of the present situation are forcing many men to breed from mares they do not exactly like. They cannot get better, therefore they must go ahead with what they have. They mu/t grade up. In the minds of most men whd breed drafters the first desideratum io sis’, and the second more size, and the third still more size. After that they take whatever more comes with tbe size. ’s it necessary to say that this is all wrong? The stallion that has only his sizs to recommend him may be a most worthless brute, inceed a positive damage to all who use him. Again size ought to have a very different meaning to different men. This farmer-breeder has mares that are of entirely different type, stamp and weight to those of his neighbour, and yet size in the stallion may mean the same thing to them both. It is very long odds that in such a ease best results would be attained from the use of at least two and perhaps four horses. The first man has three or four mares, let us say, that weigh around 1,500 pounds each, and the second has as many that average 300 pounds less. .A much larger horse ought to be used with the 1,500 pound mares than with the 1,200-pounders, but the chances are that being neighbours the two owners will use the same big horse. If one is right the other must be. wrong and to use tfie, same stallion is merely for the latter to amerce himsolf a large sum of money. ' , What is size in a stallion ? Must we have the scales to find out if s home has sice enough? When is a stallion big enough P A draft stallion is large enough, when he would make a good draft gelding: himself in working flesh—not before. A carriage or coich stallion is big enough when he has size to do good work in the harness in which his get are to go. The saddle stallion is big enough when he is up to carrying 185 pounds, and the roadster is big enough when he can comfortably pull a light four-wheeled vehicle at speed. We do not need the scale to tell us anything about any one of these horses or their weights. v Beginning with the drafter the ton. horse, ,of course, is all the rage, A stallion of the Clydesdale Suffolk, Percheron, Shire or Belgian breed must weigh a ton or ho will not do. If he tips up the beam good and hard at 2,200 so much the better. Does anyone think that if.nine out of every ten ton-stallions at present in this country should be stripped down to reasonable working trim they would weigh anything like 2,000 pounds? They would not, and 1,650 to 1,700 pounds would catch more of them than would mark 1,900 on the scale beam. If a hone is actually only a 1,700-pbznder he cannot be expected to beget larger colts from mares that are not as bigl as himself. Nature is a great lover of a good average. When you see a horse that weighs 2,000 pounds set up on little spindle shanks you can make up your mind that such a one is not big enough. He is merely a mediumsized one fed to weigh a ton. On the other hand when you see a stallion which in the flesh he would work in to the bert advantage weighs 1,850 to 1,900 pounds, and is carried by proportionate bones, you may make up your mind with equal positiveness that you have found one that is big enough, for there is a foundation on which you may pile a very large quantity of flesh and yet have a pleasing whole. It is better still if you can get a stallion in working flesh that scales 1,900 pounds, other things being equal, but it must not be forgotten that it is only a very easy trick to pile 800, 350 or 400 pounds of meat on any mature horse that in working order weighs 1,650 to 1,700 pounds. The writer has known of horses landed in this country weighing 1,650, and not too poor at that, being made up into stallions that just touched the ton mark when ready for sale. Figure it for a moment. The cattle feeder aims to put 300 to 350 or 400 pounds of beef on an immature steer that weighs 1,000 to 1,200 pounds. It is just as easy,, if not easier, to make beef on a horse as on a bullock. In-a word, beef means size in a bullock; it does not necessarily in a horse. Discount your very fat stallion 800 to 400 pounds when figuring on h s size. No matter what he weighs you will have to do a lot of feeding to get his colts up to drafter weight when they are four or five years old, and if he will not make a market drafter himself in drafter flesh he will not do at all as a sire. Let him be, however, heavy enough for that purpose rather under the right scale of oonditian, and he will be big enough, * ' . > . ,

Now, to the stallion that in working flesh weighs 1 900 pounds, what mares may be bred ? It is rather hard to draw uny hard and fast line in this matter, but it may safely be fixed at 1,500. pounds or thereabouts. If a horse is very fat,

loaded down with beef, and weighs no more than 1,900 pounds he may safely be mated with maree of 1,200 or even less. But that sort of a atallion is not a real draft horse, and it is doubtful if he will ever get any of that kind unless he is bred to very large mares. It is folly to expect 1,200 or even 1,300 or 1,400 pound mares to produce real drafters. They cannot do anything of the sort. They will, however, produce mares that ought to grow large enough to breed real drafters if mated with the right stallions in their turnThe man, consequently, who has only mares of 1,200 to 1,400 pounds in weight must hasten more slowly than the one who has them that weigh 1500 or over. The latter may reasonably expect that some of his mares at least will bring forth draft horses of the right sort, but even he will have more uniform success in the following generation when he has his 1700 and 1750 pound mare to mate with his 1900 pound stallion as described. Then he may reasonably expect to reach the limit of profitable s ze-production. Too great divergence in type is always to be avoided in the breeding of horses. Some men ha-ie zucceeded in making very large stallions and very small mares do well together, but the evidence to tbe contrary is, as a rule, so overwhelming that the experiment need not be tried any longer.- 1 * * The Breeder’s Gazette.” ‘