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[Page 358]
Report - 5
Saddle-horses. - Horses of this description constitute more than half of the whole horse-stock of the Colony, and are about equally divided between the counties and the pastoral districts.
Thoroughbreds for racing purposes. - It is estimated that there are about 1,500 horses of this class of all ages in the Colony, and the opinion of those best qualified to judge is, that our thoroughbreds for racing purposes have of late years improved. This solitary exception to the general run of our horse-breeding is due to the enthusiasm for races. Racing is a popular pastime, and never during all the gold mania was the breeding of racers neglected. The stock has not been spoilt in any way by intermixture, nor has the care requisite to keep this style of horse in condition been pretermitted. It is, however, still a much disputed question whether racing-sires have really been of use in the production of light horses for general purposes, and whether the value of this particular breed is not mainly confined to the amusement of the racecourse. At present it is admitted that to breed wholly from Arab sires would give us a race of undersized horses, because the Colony is deficient in good upstanding mares, and it is necessary to go to the thoroughbred for size; but where the mares are satisfactory it is the opinion of many breeders that the Arab sire is more to be relied upon. This, however, is not a universal opinion, some breeders objecting to the Arab produce as being too heavy in the shoulder.
Well-bred Saddle-horses. - This description is intended to apply to horses that will carry a man comfortably from 50 to 60 miles a day for a week, and it is considered that there are not more than 8,000 such animals in the Colony. They are of course the produce of mares that have none of the draught alloy in their veins, and by sires that are thoroughbred, or nearly so. Although when the discovery of the gold-fields disarranged the ordinary course of station management, too many owners crossed their mares with draught horses, there were some who did not, and they have reaped the reward of their adherence to the rules of correct breeding, their stock having continued to fetch fair prices even when middling and inferior horses have been almost unsaleable at any figure. The average size, as well as the number of well-bred saddle-horses, has generally diminished, and an upstanding, good-shaped, well-bred horse, is now seldom seem[n] in our sale-yards. The fact is, that this class of animal is not only scarce but is in great demand in the bush as a stock-horse, and when well-bred and properly broken into his work is about the most valuable horse in the Colony. It is difficult to quote prices for this kind of stock, as a really first-class weight-carrying hackney is a comparative rarity in the Sydney market.
Middling Saddle-horses. - These fall under three descriptions:- First, well-made small hacks, under 14½ hands. Second, stout, straight-shouldered, cobby-made horses. Third, rather light leggy, poorly-coupled horses. The remarks made as to the falling off in the breed of saddle-horses do not apply so generally to those that are undersized, as many of these are of fair shape, and possess many of the best qualities of our old saddle-horses. These smaller horses have of course none of the draught-blood in them, and their superiority affords additional proof of the evil of the cross-breed. The middling-class of saddle-horses is distributed pretty generally throughout the Colony; their prices have lately ranged from £2 to £8, unbroken; and from £3 to £9, broken.
Inferior and very inferior Saddle-horses. - These are only too numerous - numbering probably not less than 110,000; they cannot be characterized as anything better than an ill-bred mongrel lot, and the greater part of them are only fit for boiling down; they scarcely pay for breaking-in, as even then they will only fetch at the yards from £1 to £3, while when unbroken they have been sold in numbers at from 2s. 6d. to £1.
Causes of deterioration. - The same reasons that have already been mentioned as causing the falling off in the quality of heavy and light-harness-horses, have also operated with respect to saddle-horses, but the result has been more injurious. For the light-harness-horses, though inferior, have been able to do a certain amount of work, and have been cheap. For vans, spring-carts, cabs, omnibuses, and coaches, they have been used up rapidly; though with but little endurance, and breaking down comparatively soon, their first cost is small, and they are quickly replaced. But with saddle-horses and hacks, the inferiority is not so tolerable; these must be of a certain shape and style, and have the indispensable drop of good blood to do the work at all in a bearable manner. Everyone, from the roughest stock-rider up to the fashionable equestrian, appreciates the ease, spirit, and endurance of a well-bred animal contrasted with the roughness, want of paces, and lack of spirit, to be found in the general run of horses; and complaints are frequent and not ill deserved.