THE HORSE IN AMERICA BY JOHN GILMER SPEED statistics are quite impossible to obtain, but it cannot be that more than two per cent. of the standard-bred trotters fulfil the intention of their breeders and trot fast, while more than fifty per cent. of those that develop any notable speed are not trotters at all, but pacers. So it is absurd to call this a type on account either of gait, action, speed, or conformation. In conformation they appear to come in all sizes and shapes, and to be as far from a fixed type as possible. Indeed, there is no use in blinking the fact that even the prizewinners among the standard-bred trotters are chiefly useful as parts of a gambling game, serving the relative purpose of the roulette wheel and the pack of cards. The pity of it is that in the efforts to create this fast-trotting type several distinct American types of great value have been lost. That we may see how this has happened, let us go quickly and briefly through the history of the horse in America. HE United States is the greatest horse- horse, on which we have plumed ourselves producing country in the world. At this time, therefore, when other agencies are coming into competition with horses for many purposes, and are being substituted for horses in many others, it is proper for us to consider what it is wise to do in order that there shall not be too serious losses in an industry as great as it is widespread and interesting. A few years ago the horses in the United States were valued at eleven hundred million dollars. Business depression, together with the competition and substitutions referred to, depreciated this stock more than one half. But there has been an appreciation within a few years, owing to business revival and ensuing prosperity, so that the value of the horses in the country had risen more than two hundred million dollars at the end of the last fiscal year, June, 1902, from what the value was at the low-water mark referred to. It is interesting to record that even during the time of the greatest depression really fine specimens of horseflesh were in demand at high prices, while good horses never commanded more money than at this time. Within the last few years the horse market has been stimulated by the army demands. Not only our own increased army had to be provided, but thousands were also bought for the use of the British in South Africa. Notwithstanding the importance of horse-breeding as an industry in this country, there is at this time no distinctly American horse type. The racing thoroughbred is English, the heavy draft-horse is French, the hackney is English, and the trotting horse, as bred at present for track and road service, is not a type at all. An animal type cannot be said to be established until it reproduces itself with reasonable certainty. This the standard-bred trotting The Spaniards were the first to bring horses to this continent, though the paleontologists tell us that the rocks abound with fossils which show that Equida were numerous all over America in the Eocene period. It is a singular fact, however, that there were no horses in America when the first Europeans came hither. It is not necessary to go so far back for our present purpose, nor is it worth while to consider more than casually the wild horses of the Western plains-horses which sprang from the castaways of the Spanish explorers and adventurers. The horses in America to-day that are worthy of study have none of this blood in them, but have been domesticated from the time of their importation, and have never reverted to a wild state. The horses brought to America in the colonial of improvement. I suspect that the horses that were common on the Atlantic seaboard a century and a half ago were very like the sturdy animals now to be seen in the province of Quebec, in Canada, a little way from the St. Lawrence River. Time has not exactly stood still in this part of the world, but nearly everything there seems to belong to an elder century. The horses, particularly, seem to belong to an older time. They are not beautiful in conformation or in action, but still in many regards they are admirable; for, harnessed in a calash, they get over the ground with ease to themselves and satisfaction to their in when the colonial gentlemen had reached that point of development where they had time and means to devote to other than the purely utilitarian pursuits which yielded immediate results. Meantime great progress had been made in improving the English horse. When heavily armored knights were supplanted by a lighter cavalry, gunpowder having been introduced, the horses in England were not fit for the new work demanded of them. They were heavy animals of mongrel stock and seemingly a poor foundation on which to make any improvement. Henry VIII issued a sweeping decree that the Duke of Newcastle. His impression on the English horse was probably neither great nor beneficial; but there were other introductions of Eastern blood during the time of Charles II, and the efforts to breed better horses was persistent and intelligent. By the time of William III the best horses in England, according to Blaine's "Rural Sports," were quite similar to the type now known as Cleveland Bays, though probably not so large. From this stock, by means of the Arab blood,1-the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb, and many others, -the thoroughbred racer was made, a type which has existed till now, and has served to quicken the blood of the best horses in two continents. From these improved English horses there were many importations into Virginia and New York for racing and for breeding. Having learned of the value of Eastern blood in improving the English horses, there were importations of Arabian stallions to this country long before we began keeping anything like trustworthy records. But what is known as the thoroughbred racer in America today has little, if any, of what I call the "basic blood" in his veins. He is purely English, and is said to have a cold strain unless the pedigree of both sire and dam trace back to the stud-book kept by the Messrs. Weatherby. There were great improvements, however, in which the "basic stock" figured. The first definite type evolved was in New England, and I doubt exceedingly whether, in the making of this type, which forty years later became known as the Morgan horse, the thoroughbred blood of England figured at all. It is much more likely that it was produced by a union of Arab blood with that of our "basic stock," which was good stock, as it represented that severe rule of animal life, the survival of the fittest. These Morgan horses were neat and symmetrical, with small heads, high crests, clean action, and a stamina which made our forefathers believe that there was nothing too great for their strength and their courage. They were not From a painting by G. Stubbs, engraved by J. Cone for the "American Turf Register" (1829) THE GODOLPHIN BARB 1 According to the reckoning of Major Roger D. Upton of the Ninth Royal Lancers, there were used in the formation of the English stud from the time of James I to the beginning of the nineteenth century Eastern horses to this extent: 101 Arab stallions, 7 Arab mares, 42 Barb stallions, 24 Barb mares, large, however, generally not being more than fifteen hands in height; but they were not small, 1 Egyptian stallion, 5 Persian stallions, 28 Turkish stallions, and 2 "foreign" stallions, or 210 in all. In the popular mind all of these were classed as Arabs. This is not right, as the real Arab is much purer in blood than the others, though the Barbs have virtues by no means to be despised. |