Oy RPK Ki > ray 1 RSS BZ Os oh L2eehy ndeet, 4-4, RR RS aoa se “S~< PEAY SERGE. a henley ”Y Y oe - a IRA. NY & J 18 £3 —<§ em ~ ee Ss x Y < x 3 r fas) ys 5 LT » ~ WAY ¢ t See ee S2 , ws Buld MOYS YSI]suq Ue UL AUOg puRleUS B pus ‘Wf Siq ‘Sujples peaq-uvojaowy snowy oy.—"jooul soutedyxy Meagan eat Saka aknd SN eae ahe Horse Book dddddddddddd A PRACTIGAL TREATISE ON THE AMERIGAN HORSE BREEDING INDUSTRY AS ALLIED TO THE FARM dddddddddddd By J. H. S. JOHNSTONE Assistant Editor of The Breeder’s Gazette” dddddddddddd Chicago Sanders Publishing Company 1908 f\ St cman Sse Ot ae ii -iBRARY of CONGHESS| se EA 2.4 Two Goples Heesived | DEC 6 ;997 | coe > i popyrienhi cniry i Pec Z51 907 GLASS a 1ACe WE Mooced G2£ a | COPY 8. ao Am I nN) COPYRIGHT 1907. SANDERS PUBLISHING CO. All rights reserved. PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE In the year 1885 Mr. J. H. Sanders, founder of The Breeder’s Gazette, brought out a little volume entitled ‘‘Horse Breeding,’’ which for a period of nearly twenty-five years has stood as the standard authority on the subject to which it was devoted. It passed through many editions in this country, besides being translated and republished in Germany. The ‘‘whirligig of time,’’ however, has now ren- dered it desirable that the old work be sup- planted by something more modern; hence the appearance of this volume at this time. Since the death of Mr. Sanders Sr. in 1899 the heavy end of the editorial work in connec- tion with the horse department of The Breed- er’s Gazette has been carried by Mr. James H. S. Johnstone, former editor of the Chicago ‘‘Horseman.’’ In his capacity as Assistant Editor of The Gazette during the past eight years, he has had exceptional opportunities for perfecting his already broad practical knowl- edge of the horse. It was believed, therefore, that no writer upon this topic in the United States at this date was better equipped to un- dertake this task. It will be noted that in the preparation of this volume no effort has been made to deal with the horse as relates to the race course. 3 4 PREFACE. The work is designed primarily to be of prac- tical value to those who have in view the pro- duction of the types of horses in general re- quest upon the farms and in the market places of the United States. Furthermore, it has not been deemed advisable to encroach to any ap- preciable extent upon the special province of the veterinary surgeon. It is submitted, there- fore, as an aid to those who are engaged in the breeding and handling of the every-day horse of commerce; and in that field it is believed that ‘“‘The Horse Book’’ will meet an actual need. The author desires us in this connection to express his special indebtednes to the present Managing Editor of The Breeder’s Gazette, Mr. Alvin H. Sanders, for valuable suggestions in the preparation and revision of the manuscript. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART T: Page CHAPTER I.—Origin of the Horse..... aapatav a Ravapeyerauevone t hareuaha Curse CrAP rie el. ETenediLy Nas OTC L Aicteoarers vane ios ehoralebaielavateeic cee aang 13 CHAPTER III.—The Stallion—Desirable Points chaWol IEREUR HSS POS 8 eB rea CHAPTER IV.—Embryology—Impregnation—Conception ........ 35 CHAPTER V.— Management of the Stallion..................... 48 CHAPTER VI.—Management of Brood Mares and Foals.......... 70 CHAPTER VII.—Fitting for Sale—Market Classes—Trade Terms.108 CHAPTER VIII.—Fitting for Show and Showing................ 131 PART II.—THE BREEDS. Vass SLOG ky cpe iste als sle)sitoiacheie ais stare aatetalerakscahatenens! cla teva wie sib te 149 DRAFT TYPES. THE FRENCH Group.—Percheron, Boulonnais, Nivernais, Bre- tonnais, Ardennais and Mulassiere............... 154-165 BPRS C LEMAT a) s ove hava te havel cuetialalloteljatatatel ete) sista euchaleict ele evs ces rete 166 THE BRITISH GROUP.—Clydesdale, Shire and Suffolk........ 170-183 THE LIGHT BREEDS.—Thoroughbred, Arabian, Standard-bred, EOE BUitoren OSLO Lime otattels evel shar aicwaneiiels topsvel simitniera wl oNeany ails: kets 186-198 THE COACH BREEDS.—Irench Coacher, German Coacher, Cleveland Bay and Yorkshire Coacher........... 197-212 Hackney e iatid: HACkney “PONY auc ialsitialals ae. a)c sheyene vs his elie THE SADDLE BREEDS.—Five-gaited Saddler, Three-gaited : Saddiers wiiumvena: Me Old, eODIER a ciclersic clstile asietsisre 220-229 Tur Pony BrReEDS.—Shetland, Welsh................... 230-233 UP OM PEL OLRSES shane) Cie ale 0; ales sire © cic) erale acese-cvehepel nets iarers tele ate 234 Three famous Stallions—McQueen, Holland Major and PTD taDbeiehs aieteveels ehwis/sveter cise lekeceve epelatesa Weyareuetenat toh vere 238 [eva Red ed LE HYGIENE—UNSOUNDNESS—DISEASE ........... A catia 242 APPENDIX. Stallion lien laws of all states and territories where such lepishahionty Has DECN) Enacted «a Wisi hia\ys b elenelo cre @ aratierarcte 272 List of stud books recognized by the United States Depart- AGN MOL AS TICUUEULE |. iers eels) a shelavevonalciele ici eaters aidedarone 298 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. - EIREPEIMNES | MINCE cic ic tescucseie cre) ciekete tekeheselcnetetch stetetiets Meteo reiel ots Frontispiece Restored fossil skeleton of Hohippus.:................ Harvey 8“ Asiatic “White “Assy 27s) sis ishateleleieis cus tate site cael eRane (olale teats te bes oletiete O'4, IPrjevalslsi’st EIOnse) di. cece een evaln eRe ataeed oc aieaee te iene rete 10/7 BUTCHI MSD LED hicicns xeacvetoisll helene Biateceelade rect scotteied snetonewetena tenant chavete rote Ta Skeleton), of; pulling) draft, DOTSC.iccrciarcecieia cine oeiniaie aia ate ekaiene PACs BrecdinisELOpples ies SSV ALIHM OILVISV ORIGIN OF THE HORSE. 9 four toes in front, the fourth disappearing, and three only behind. In Mesohippus there are but three toes, the fourth being represented by a splint. In Miohippus there are also three toes and a very rudimentary splint, the second and fourth toes disappearing, thus leaving this an- cestor of the horse to walk on his ‘third or middle toe. In Protohippus the second and fourth toes are smaller still. In Pliohippus these toes are represented by splints, which in a still more rudimentary form exist to this day. In Pliohippus we see the first real soliped or solid-footed animal in this descent, and the ani- mal was distinctly of a horselike type. Thus may we trace the evolution of the one-toed horse from his five-toed ancestor. Besides the splint bones we have in further evidence of this evolu- tion from a soft-footed ancestor the footskin which entirely covers the soft structures of the horse’s foot from the horny box which protects them—the hoof, which was evolved to withstand the resistance of the hardened ground. There are various other proofs of the descent as out- lined, but these need not be dealt with here. There are some other intermediate links, but the line followed gives the main steps in the evolution of the horse as arranged by Marsh. Pliohippus was prevalent in all the great con- tinents. How the horse was extinguished in America we do not know. It was, however, in Asia south of the ‘Altai Mountains in Mongolia, 10 THE HORSE BOOK. and directly in the line of the supposed migra- tion that what is considered to be the wild type of horse was discovered by Prjevalsky, a Rus- sian traveler. Since 1881 several specimens of this species have been brought into captivity and its habits studied in the region to which it is indigenous. This species attains a height of from 12 to 13 hands. Between Pliohippus and | the Prehistoric horse there is a gap in the line of descent differently filled by various authori- ties. It was at this period that the genus branched into the three species now represented by the horse, the ass and the zebra. Of the Prehistoric horse we read the record in his fossilized bones found in eaves, left there by the men of the Older Stone Age, the Newer Stone Age and the Bronze Age. Horses seem then to have been used only as human food and it cannot be determined when they were first made subservient to the will of man to carry him or to work. Some of the Prehistoric horses. partook largely of the character of the ass and it is probable that Prjevalsky’s horse corre- sponds quite closely to some of the later forms of that step in equine evolution or forms a sort of a connecting link between the Prehistoric and the Historie races. Scientifically the horse, the ass and the zebra form what is known as the genus Equus. The Nubian Wild Ass is the nearest the original type of ass and from it all our domesticated PRJEVALSKI’S HORSE a 2 z é : ‘ 5 7 cae haf VuaaZ TIXHOUNA me Bey 2 ORIGIN OF THE HORSE. 11 asses are descended. The Mountain Zebra oc- cupies the same position for that species. Spe- cific differences between the horse and the ass are many, but the chief perhaps are that the ass has but five lumbar vertebrae, the horse six; the ass has chestnuts on two legs, the horse on all four; the ass brays, the horse neighs. Position is accorded Prjevalsky’s horse as de- fined in part because it has only five lumbar vertebrae, yet its other characteristics place it among the true horses. Crossing is freely accomplished among mem- - bers of the three species of this genus. The re- sult of such crossing is termed a hybrid. The most common is between the horse and the ass and this mating appears to have been made at a very early date, though in which direction we do not know. Progeny of the male ass and mare is called a mule, that of a stallion and a female ass a hinny. Progeny begotten by the male zebra from mares is now comparatively common and is termed zebroid. In all cases these hybrids are absolutely sterile. Allega- tions to the contrary have been made, but proof without flaw or loophole is so far wanting. War and the chase having been, beyond that of food for man, the primal uses to which the horse was put, and as improvement would naturally follow domestication, we must look in Asia or North Africa for the first advances toward the strength to carry men and later in 12 THE HORSE BOOK. speed. The Arabian, now said to be of North African origin, is probably the oldest estab- lished type of improved horse, his ancient pre- eminence being due to the military prowess of the peoples erstwhile inhabiting a wide but ill- defined area in Kastern Asia. Westward in Kurope horses grew larger and when the Saracenic invasions brought the famous clouds of eastern warriors under the crescent of Islam into France and Spain, the strains in- terlocked and the foundation for the modern equine superstructure was mortised together. From Spain Cortez brought the first horses ever landed on American soil when he began his romantic conquest of Mexico, on March 24, 1519. Conditions proved ideal for their multiplication and to the mounts of the mere handful of Span- ish cavalry which followed the fortunes of the Great Conquistador may be traced the inception of horse breeding on this continent. CHAPTER II. HEREDITY AS A FORCE. Heredity is the biological force which tends to enable parents to transmit their physical and psychological characteristics to their offspring. In improved domestic animals this force has little strength of itself. As a factor in success- ful breeding it is not so powerful as environ- ment. Unless this force is properly directed and suitably environed its effects in improve- ment are negligible. The natural tendency of all improved live stock left to itself is toward degeneration, not improvement. Hence in con- sidering the amelioration of animals we must pay due heed to the breeder’s personal equation. One man succeeds and another fails, both using the same foundation stock. A very complex problem is faced by the breeder. There are no hard and fast rules by which success may be at- tained. Natural opposition, always trending downward, must be overcome. Superior indi- viduality and good pedigree are necessary to the production of high-class animals, but they are of comparatively small value unless they are surrounded by proper conditions and the forces of heredity are directed aright. The longer I live and the more I see of men and 13 14 THE HORSE BOOK. horses the less weight do I grant to heredity and the more to environment and the personal equation. Heredity has been supposed to fix type. It does with certain conditions and it does not without. Wild animals are of truly fixed type; improved domestic animals are not. The Nu- bian lion is the same today as he was 1,000 years ago; he will be the same tomorrow and 1,000 years hence, if the conditions under which he lives remain the same. There has been no admixture of alien strain in his blood. He is not a composite and therefore he is immune from variation, the law of which no one under- stands, the operation of which no one ean fore- see, which is sometimes in advance, generally in retrogression. All improved breeds are of recent origin and all are composites. The good, the bad and the indifferent are to be seen in them all. If we accept the types of the wild animals as fixed, then we must admit that the types of improved animals are not fixed. Compare any of our im- proved breeds with the wild goose or the buffalo for an illustration. Admitting that heredity is one of the fundamental principles with which the breeder has to deal, we must grant that any animal is an aggregation of the essential ele- ments of all his ancestors, the influence of these ancestors decreasing as they become more re- mote. Nevertheless the tendency to revert to HEREDITY AS A FORCE, 15 the characteristics of some ancestor is uncon- querable and this atavism, as it is called, must be reckoned with always as well as variation. These tendencies must of necessity be met with more frequently in improved breeds of recent and composite origin and varying environment than they are in wild animals which have bred without alien blood and without change of sur- roundings for an indefinite period of time. Hence improved animals bred and selected for many years with one fixed object in view must more strongly transmit their characteristics to their offspring than those which have resulted from hap-hazard matings. Natural selection is governed by the inexora- ble law of the survival of the fittest. Matings of improved stock are often ordered at random, without due regard to true fitness, and be it said for the great mass of breeders compara- tively seldom with a definite ideal in view. Even the greatest breeders have never collectively directed their efforts along exactly the same line. Therefore we have types and types within the same breed. An inexorable law, always without change, has ordered the selection of parents in the wild races. Crossed this way and that within itself, an improved breed pre- sents sometimes as many types as there are great breeders and the great majority of the animals within the breed can not be called typ- ical at all—they lack the touch of the master 16 THE HORSE BOOK. hand. There has been continuity of effort only here and there. Environment has been vastly different. Thus must we reach the inevitable conclusion that the personal equation and en- vironment, as directors of the forces of hered- ity, are the chief factors in domestic animal breeding, while the propagation of the wild ani- mals is governed by an inexorable law which knows no change. The cases are not similar. All this forms a condition, not a theory. There is nothing in it to discourage any one from undertaking the breeding of improved do- mestic animals. Its lesson simply is that when he undertakes that work the breeder must make up his mind to face a problem full of complex- ity in which the natural tendency is downward rather than upward. Too much:stress has hith- erto been laid on the force of heredity, too little on the personal equation and environment. The travesties on our improved breeds which one sees on every hand are proof enough of this contention. Size in draft horses and action in high-step- pers are soon lost whenever the environment which produced these characteristics is changed. The Percheron, the Clydesdale or the Shire al- lowed to breed indiscriminately on the range ceases after a time to be a draft horse and be- comes a range horse, because his range environ- ment is stronger than the draft inheritance be- queathed to him. On the other hand we may HEREDITY AS A FORCE. 17, take the instance of the range-bred polo pony as proving the converse of this proposition. Com- mon range mares are mated with Thoroughbred - stallions and the foals are suitably environed. In this way we breed the best polo ponies on earth. Allowed to run on the range with their mothers these foals, not subject to the environ- ment which makes polo ponies, develop into common rangers. Approaching the problem of what heredity will do for us, parents will transmit a measure of their joint individuality to their offspring. Thus if we mate a stallion and a mare both pro- nouncedly drooping in the rump, the foal will almost to a surety exhibit that faulty conforma- tion. Hence it follows that when either parent has some undesirable characteristic great care should be exercised to select the other very strong in that particular point. These undesir- able factors in conformation seem to be trans- mitted with greater force and certainty than those which we most desire. If we use stallions and mares of low grade we are merely inviting the production of doubly inferior progeny. Heredity is not altogether impartial in this mat- ter. The best stallion will only beget a certain proportion of his offspring good. The inferior stallion will beget progeny, a large majority of which will be bad—this of course presupposing that the mares will average with the horse. If 2 18 THE HORSE BOOK. the mares are inferior to the inferior stallion there can be no hope of salvation by his use. If, as has been insisted, the sire and dam had each a set share in contributing to the inheri- tance of the offspring, then breeding would be a business of rule of thumb—which it is not. We do not know how these respective shares are arranged. What we do know is that the joint individuality in varying proportions is trans- mitted to the offspring more or less definitely and this supplies the reason for the selection of high-class parents as the foundation for the further work of development by suitable envi- ronment. In this discussion I have not taken into consideration the transmission of equine speed, as that is an elusive spark, is not trans- mitted as conformation is and has no bearing on the breeding of animals other than the race horse, though subject in all ways to the influ- ence of environment. Admitting that a horse is a composite of all his ancestors, a long pedigree is desirable only insofar as it shows that these ancestors were good individuals and typical of the breed con- cerned. A pedigree showing a heterogeneous mass of individuality is of doubtful value. In an animal possessing such a pedigree the ten- dency will be to breed unevenly for the reason that his ancestors were not even. The force of heredity is weakened in such cases because of HEREDITY AS A FORCE. 19 the diversity of directions in which it has been employed. To invoke the aid of heredity then as an ameliorating agent we must select breeding stock with lines of good ancestors behind them, as well as good individuality in them. In such the especial type desired must be more firmly fixed than in those which have been promiscu- ously bred within the breed or crossed out of it altogether. The inheritance has been intensi- fied in the one, diversified in the other. Taking advantage of this intensification and subjecting its results to proper environment we may pro- ceed on our upward way. It is the intensified inheritance of the pure-bred which triumphs over the diversified inheritance of the scrub and thus enables us to grade up our stock. Simi- larly it is the diversified inheritance of the gerade which precludes his success as a Sire, even though he apparently possesses the character- istics of the pure-bred. I have conceived, as illustrating the relative values of heredity, the personal equation and environment the simile of a telephone system. The wire strung between two poles may repre- sent heredity. If it is struck by lightning it will eonduct the undirected force as it always has conducted it and always will—no one knows whither. Environ this same wire with tele- phone apparatus at each end, direct the elec- tricity in its proper volume and proportion and 20 THE HORSE BOOK. the result is a marvel of achievement. The con- clusion of the whole matter is that heredity of itself will do little for us if we do not direct and environ aright the results accruing from its limited force. The elements of success tem- poral or moral must proceed from within the man essaying to achieve it. The breeder who succeeds takes the forces and the elements he finds at his hand and directs them and sur- rounds them to the attainment of a fixed ideal which ean be correctly formed only by careful thought lighted by the lamp of experience and reached only by a conquering course over obsta- cles great and small. CHAPTER III. THE STALLION—DESIRABLE POINTS AND FAULTS. In selecting a stallion to breed from we must remeinber always that'it is the handwork of man from which we have to choose. Therefore if we desire to pick out one which may reason- ably be expected to transmit his conformation we must look for one which presents those char- acteristics which have been favored of all men ever since the work of improvement was begun. There is for this reason one quality which I count easily first in betokening promise of pre- potence, and that is a good outlook—a high- headed, bold, noble masculine presence. All the ancient writers refer to the crest of the stal- lion. The Bible clothes his neck with thunder and makes him sniff the battle from afar. The oldest sculptures show him as a stallion should be in this regard. I never knew a stallion with the head and neck of a mare to be a good breeder. The bold outlook is possessed by the winning show horses. It is possessed by their sires. Men have bred for it, striven for it, even, as history teaches, fought for it during thou- sands of years. The horse that shows it is like- ly to have it by right of inheritance—a reason- 21 22 THE HORSE BOOK. ably fixed characteristic. I mark it the most important of all when it is accompanied by soundness and desirable conformation in other points. A lot of stock phrases have been trotted out from time immemorial to govern the selection of a horse. Some of them need puncturing. One of the most glibly quoted is ‘‘no foot, no horse.’’? Experience of later day methods has suggested another axiom to me which should gain as wide a vogue—‘‘no top, no price.’’ A horse may be the soundest on earth and he will not bring a good price unless he has a good top to go with his soundness. Both top and bottom are required. Bear in mind this new proverb as well as the old one. No one should buy an unsound horse, but neither should he buy a sound one if he has nothing else to recommend him. We have also heard much about hereditary unsoundness. I have never seen.a foal unsound at birth, but I have seen hundreds ruined by faulty environment. What we must fight shy of primarily is formation so faulty as to predis- pose to unsoundness. A blemish which is the result of an accident pure and simple and aris- ing on a normal joint, for instance, will not be transmitted. Narrow round hocks, from their insufficient carrying capacity, are predisposed ~ to bone and bog spavins. Sickle hocks invite curbs. Short straight pasterns and cramped THE STALLION. 23 hoof-heads go with sidebones, and so on through a list which need not be farther detailed here. Faulty surroundings in youth are the main cause for most of the unsoundnesses we see in horses. It has been maintained that the stock term ‘‘quality’’ has never yet been properly defined. My definition of quality is ‘‘refinement of fibre.’’ Letting that go for what it is worth, the fact remains that we recognize quality in a gen- eral way by refinement of conformation and tex- ture of hair. Whether tthe hair dominates the quality or the quality unseen dominates the hair I am not prepared to say. Let us eall the rela- tion reciprocal. We have all heard a lot about the clean flat ivory-like bone of some horses and the meaty, coarse, spongy, round bone of others —hbeautiful quality in the former, no quality at all in the latter. To the first is joined a good foot, to the second a poor one, and there is a good reason for this, even if some of the terms and beliefs quoted have no foundation in fact. There is no such thing as flat bone, as the term is used in the horse. The canon bones are round. It is the tendon that gives the flat ap- pearance. The bone in the quality horse is not necessarily stronger than the bone in the other horse. The roundness of the leg is produced by the thickness of the skin and the presence of tissues about the tendon. The Colorado Experi- ment Station has found the bone of a common 24 THE HORSE BOOK. ranger far stronger than that of a well bred, high-quality native horse. Texture of the hoof is dominated absolutely by the character of the hair on the coronet. The hoof is secreted by papillae the same as the hair (also tubes), and in composition is a series of tubes glued together by matter very largely | the same as the dandruff exfoliated by the skin. If the hair is coarse the papillae secreting the hoof will be coarse also, the structure of the hoof being therefore comparable to the hair we see on the legs and coronet. The larger the tubes in the hoof, the larger is the space between them to be filled with the connecting matter. The more coarse, brittle and curly the hair about the coronet, the more objectionable will be the formation of the horny hoof. The finest hair known in the entire equine family is on the leg of the Thoroughbred. At speed the foot of the racer sustains an impact with the ground that would instantly wreck the foot of a draft horse. Quality, even if an intangible attribute, is in- grained in the horse, but it is not always recog, nized when it is seen. Many a rough looking seemingly qualityless colt in the field exhibits the most beautiful quality in the show ring. Much of it is often the result of proper environ- ment. Quality is a word to conjure with and one, be it said, about which a measureless amount of buncombe has been preached. Too THE STALLION. 25 often it has been hidden behind to cover up a degree of ultra refinement which is far more to be shunned than a tendency as much in the other direction. Every undersized runty little fine-boned stallion is bragged up for his quality, as though that was some sort of an excuse for him. Now bear this in mind: if a horse has real quality he has it all over him, not merely in his legs. Quality counts for much in a horse that is big enough, but watch out that it is real qual- ity and not weakness masquerading under that high-sounding title. Another stock saying, which has been handed down for more than a generation here to the everlasting detriment of the horse, is that his foot should be deeply concave. It is only neces- sary to consult old papers and catalogues to learn how much stress has been laid on this er- roneous teaching. The blacksmith has appar- ently taken advantage of this belief by invaria- bly thinning the sole and cutting away the frog and so assisting in making the foot concave. Mark this fact well: the foot that is deeply con- cave—and naturally it is rare—is a thing to be avoided. The blacksmith should never be al- lowed to put his knife on sole or frog except to trim away ragged portions. What we want is a strong, deep heel, a thick frog, a deep, stout wall and as thick a sole as possible. If the sole is concave it must be thin, for there is only so much space in the foot anyway, and we need 26 THE HORSE BOOK. as much thickness of sole as we can get. The low, weak heel and meager frog is that which we must avoid. The horny hoof is joined to ie inner struc- tures at the coronary band and by the horny and sensitive laminae, some lining the horny hoof, some rising from the footskin. These two sets of laminae are interlaced together and they are again interlocked so that in the ordinary foot there are something like 750,000 points of connection between the laminae, holding the hoof in its place. The junction at the coronet is a weak one. The interlocking of the laminae practically holds the horny box in its place. The whole column of the leg rests on the compara- tively small coffin bone in the center of the hoof. The coffin bone in turn rests upon the fatty frog which: overlies the horny frog and the sole. ~The junction betwen the sole and the wall is not a strong one. This supplies the reason why the sole which is thick and never looks con- cave is to be preferred, because of the greater strength of its connection with the wall— hence the blacksmith should never be allowed to use anything but the rasp in leveling the foot to take the shoe. The bars are merely an exten- sion of the wall, designed to keep the heels spread and should never be mutilated, in fact should never be touched with the knife. ‘‘Beoin at the ground’’ is another dictum which has been repeated parrotlike from year ALOISTH [VANJEN JO UNsn UvoTIeMLy Toy 010Ud HSHOH LAVUYd ONITINd AO NOLAIaANS THE STALLION. va to year. Don’t. Stand off rather and take a good look at the stallion. If he looks like what is wanted and has the right kind of an out- look to him, glance at his back and quarter, loin and flank. If he is short in his back, strong in his loin, full quartered, has plenty of space to take care of his dinner, and his rib is long and well sprung out from the backbone, then in- spect his feet and legs. Width in front and behind is essential, but the legs should not be stuck on one at each corner. A horse made that way always rolls in front and goes wide behind. The legs should be set well under the body and heavily muscled outside. This heavy muscling gives the proper sort of width. The quarters should be round, the tailhead well elevated, the lower thighs well filled, carrying the width of the upper quarters well down to the gaskins, into which it should round off nicely and then taper to the hock. The forearms should bulge prominently forward and outward and the muscle above and forward of the elbow should be heavy and the chest prominent and deep. The neck should spring well from a pair of sloping shoulders, curve abruptly to the crest and then still upward to the ears. The lower line of the neck should curve outward and then inward to the throttle which should be as fine as possible for beauty’s sake. A horse is a poorly constructed animal at the best. Such an enormous weight as the head 28 THE HORSE BOOK. borne on the end of such a long and weak bony structure as the neck is a poor piece of mechani- cal engineering, only partially corrected by the elastic ligament which stretches from the spines of the backbone at the withers to the poll. If the neck curves upward well and the bracing of the muscles on the underside is adequate it will be easier for the horse to keep his head where it should be. Short stubbed necks are never desirable. The ear should be reasonably long, not coarse and never drooping. The head should be wide between the eyes, straight in its forward outline and of moderate length. The muzzle is hardly ever too fine in any breed and the jaws should be of depth proportionate to the other parts. The more prominent the eye the better. Over all the head ‘should be lean and bony, and it should be joined to the column of the neck so that the horse may hold it away up and out with little effort. The forelegs act merely as weight carriers. The hind legs do the propelling. The knee should be broad when viewed from in front and deep when viewed from the side. The canon and the tendon should be strong and the groove between them as much accentuated as possible. The pastern should be of good length and oblique, sloping neatly into a smooth open coro- net which joins a corresponding foot without any roughness. The hocks should be broad from THE STALLION. 29 front to back and of strong structure. The set of those joints should be such that a plumb- line dropped from the posterior angle of the hip should strike the hock and traverse the en- tire length of the tendon. This brings the weight to bear downward in a perpendicular line and gives the most strength. Quality of the legs has already been discussed, as has the tex- ture and character of the hoof. Avoid horses that stand with their forelegs stretched out in front of them or tucked in below them. Action must necessarily be different in the different sorts of horse and as such will be dealt with specifically in considering the various breeds. Generally speaking in all horses the step at the walk should be straight forward, each foot being picked up cleanly and showing the shoe at each stride. At the trot the move- ment should be bold and free, the legs carried well together, especially behind. Very wide ac- tion behind is a fault. Even in fast trotters where it has been condoned it is now deprecated as‘all the fastest are line trotters and do not throw the hind legs outside the front. A horse that stands ‘‘nigger-heeled’’ or with his front toes out, will usually strike his knees. The one that toes in will go clear. Paddling or throwing the fore feet outward toward. the finish of the stroke is very objectionable as also is the out- ward or inward movement of the knee. The hocks should be kept close together, flexed 30 THE HORSE BOOK. sharply and brought forward promptly well be- neath the body. A wide-going duck-like motion is bad. Soundness of wind must be insisted on al- ways. Make a pass at a horse as though to punch him in the flank and if he grunts it is well to let some one else have him. When a horse can not keep that kind of a secret he will most likely tell his troubles loudly at the end of a smart run. Look well to his eyes, his teeth and his testicles—see that he has a full normal set of each. | | In choosing broodmares the same general qualifications must govern with the exception that instead of the bold masterful masculine ap- pearance of the stallion the mare should have a distinctly feminine turn to her, though her outlook should be lofty just the same. She can do with a bit more range than the horse, so long as she is strong-backed, deep in the flank, roomy all over and good in her bone. In grading up native stock with pure-bred sires it is best to avoid extremes. If the mares are small do not mate them with a great big lub- ber of a stallion. Nature abhors extremes. Rather choose a medium sized compactly built stallion. He will give better results. If one has none but small runty mares to begin with it will pay to hasten slowly and lay the first-cross foundation securely in a uniform lot of fillies to which a larger horse may be bred and size grad- THE STALLION. 31 ually worked to in that way. It is not often advisable to try to span the chasm between the 1,000-pound mare and the 2,000-pound stallion at one leap. As size is attained from 1,500 to 1,600 pounds and upward the ton stallion is all right, but with mares of 1,000 pounds or less a horse of not more than 1,650 pounds will do better work than a larger one. The same prin- ciple applies in all horse breeding—the more divergent the types of the parents the smaller are the chances of breeding good horses from them. In choosing either stallions or broodmares, outside of actual unsoundnesses, avoid long couplings, light ribs, weak loins, light flanks, narrowness of conformation, calf-knees, sickle hocks, straight pasterns and small, steep, flat, shelly or low-heeled or mulelike feet. Very light bone also should be left for some one else, also crooked top lines, low backs, drooping rumps, ewe and short straight necks, sour or ‘‘fiddle’’ heads, sow ears, dish faces and small piggy eyes. Sidebones, ringbones, spavins and thoroughpins are most common unsoundnesses. Each is easily detected. A splint does not matter much in a young horse. The legs should be smooth and clean from the knees and hocks down to the coronet and so to the hoof which should be of fine texture without ridges, cracks or breaks. If in running your hand down the leg you find a bump, look to it closely. 32 THE HORSE BOOK. In purchasing a stallion, as that transaction is usually carried through in this country, see to it that whatever promises or representations the seller makes are made before the bargain is struck and the consideration passes. Any- thing said after the consideration has passed is not binding on the vendor. If a guarantee of anything is to go with the horse get it in good set terms, the plainer and more definite the better. Always secure the pedigree certificate at the time of sale with a definite assurance that the horse bought is actually the one named in the certificate. ‘‘Mistakes’’ have been known to occur in this very particular. A guarantee of the kind holds the seller either to make the horse fit the certificate or the certificate fit the horse and leaves him in a bad place if he can do neither. - A guarantee that a horse will prove an aver- age foal-getter has come with the lapse of time to be generally construed to mean that he will beget 50 per cent of foals to mares covered. If he does this the first season he will be doing well enough. A stallion guarantee is usually a jug-handled sort of an affair, compelling the buyer to breed the horse only to regular bréed- ing mares, to keep a tally sheet showing proper return of mares, to return the horse in as good shape as when he was sold and to do yet other things all within a stated time. In return the guarantor agrees, in the event of the horse THE STALLION. 33 not proving up to specifications, to replace him with a stallion of equal value, and he—the guarantor—sets the value. There is not a great chance for the buyer in such a deal, but somehow he manages to worry along from year to year. Most reputable firms prefer to treat their customers liberally and keep them satis- fied on the ground, no doubt, that a pleased customer is the best advertisement, for no guarantor can be compelled at law to do much under that sort of a contract. The seller should put in writing all he prom- ises to do and sign his name to his promises. The law is peculiar in regard to commercial transactions ‘‘on inspection’’ and there is no special protection for the man who goes into a deal with his eyes open. He is supposed to watch out for himself. A guarantee of abso- lute soundness need never be expected. No sane man would give such an one. Legal com- plications must, however, always be unravelled by lawyers in the long run and therefore when a buyer goes afield to bring home a stallion he would better post himself at the fountain head freshly on the intricacies of the law. If he gets from the seller his bill of sale, a guar- antee of average potency, the pedigree cer- tificate and transfer and a definite statement that the horse bought is really the one named in the papers, he will be getting about all. that is coming to him as the business is usually 3 ’ 34 THE HORSE BOOK. done nowadays. If he is a competent judge he ean afford to go ahead on his own responsibility. If he is not competent to make a good choice it will pay him to invoke the aid of the seller, who must know more about the animal than one who has only known him for a few hours. Deal only with reputable men. It is seldom that such men will throw a buyer down when their aid is claimed. CHAPTER IV. EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. Transmission of life has always been one of the greatest mysteries with which investigators have had to deal. As the higher mammalian animals are all the result of evolution spread- ing over millions of years, so the development of the life-transmitting agents must have been brought about through evolution from mere cel- lular fission of protoplasmic bodies up to the present complicated process. It was not until 1677, as is commonly accepted, that the seminal animaleules were discovered and it was not until well into the nineteenth century that much was known of their history and growth. Actual physiological transmission of life, transmission of physical and mental inheritance and the de- velopment of the fetus in the womb, with all the concomitant maze of mystery existing in reversion, accidental sports and the transmis- sion of acquired characteristics, form one of the most intricate problems with which science has to deal. It is impossible to go into any ex- - tended discussion of this subject here. There- for the merest outline must suffice. In the mare the two ovaries are situated in 35 36 THE HORSE BOOK. the lumbar region and connected with the womb by the Fallopian tubes. In the ovaries the ova or eggs undergo many well defined changes be- fore maturity and are then liberated, usually one at a time, occasionally more. This is the germ-cell of the female. In the testes of the male the sperm-cells or spermatozoa have their origin in the semnifer- ous tubules. These life-giving agents undergo various changes from their inception to full development. At maturity viewed under the microscope they are threadlike bodies furnished with heads and not at all unlike the ‘‘wrig- glers’’ one may see any summer day in a barrel of rainwater and which produce mosquitoes. These spermatozoa, having been matured, are stored in the seminal vesicles and during copu- lation are deposited in the vagina of the female. In some instances the number of these sperm- cells appears to be countless, in others not so great, but in all there is what as yet seems to be almost unaccountable superabundance of them. With them is secreted a flux or lubricat- ing medium in which the spermatozoa float, but which in itself is not fertile. Periods of heat are in the mare generally though not always coincident with the ripening and liberation of the egg. This passes into the Fallopian tube and through that to the womb. The spermatozoa have the power of motion and when deposited in the vagina by the horse begin EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 37 to work forward. They enter the womb, usu- ally in large numbers, and some penetrate into the Fallopian tubes where, according to the best authorities, the first stage of impregnation takes place. The egg seems to have a strong attraction for the spermatozoa. Surrounding the egg is a soft envelope which is readily pierced by the comparatively hard head of the spermatozoon, probably by several. One alone, however, forces its way into the center of the egg, his tail is broken off and no more are al- lowed to enter. This forms what is termed the male pro-nucleus. In the egg at about the same time the female pro-nucleus is formed and those two moving together unite and complete the process of impregnation. In the egg there is a yolk which, after fertilization, is first de- veloped to greater proportions than when im- pregnation took place, supplies sustenance for the embryo and later is absorbed. When it is considered that there are no two things in animal life exactly alike, and when it is known that only one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of spermatozoa actually fertilizes the egg, it is easily recognized how vast and uncertain the problem of heredity really is. Development of the fetus in the womb of the mare has been more or less accurately worked out. Description of the changes noted, how- ever, belongs to the domain of the veterinarian rather than of the breeder. It is pertinent to 38 THE HORSE BOOK. observe, nevertheless, that there is no actual blood transmission directly from the dam to the fetus—there is no direct communication be- tween the maternal and fetal circulations. In- stead the blood vessels of the placental mem- branes (which we recognize as the afterbirth after foaling) lie contiguous ‘to the blood ves- sels of the dam and sustenance is afforded to the fetus by diffusion. Besides this there is in the amnion or water bag a large supply of fluid which is freely imbibed and absorbed by the foal. It is thus easy to see how a very slight disturbance of the juxta-position of the blood vessels of the dam and membranes, or of the organs secreting the water in the amnion, may cause nourishment to be shut off and a weak or dead foal be produced. The merest disarrangement of the contiguity of the blood vessels may. work harm to the young and in this way many a weakly ill-nourished anemic foal may be accounted for when the owner could see no reason why it should not have come all right. In order for a mare to conceive it is neces- sary for the sperm-cells to enter the cavity of the womb and the Fallopian tubes. As they are microscopic in size they are necessarily very delicate in structure. It is plain that if the neck of the womb is absolutely closed they can not enter. After impregnation has taken place and the fertilized egg has descended into the EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 39 womb, the mouth of the womb is closed by a plug of mucus. If from laceration or other accidental cause the mouth is unduly distended it will not be closed and the egg will pass out into the vagina and be lost. Mares suffering from any: affection of the genital organs, such as leucorrhea (whites), which sets up a dis- charge from the mucous surfaces, will rarely conceive. These discharges are acid and de- stroy the spermatozoa. Similarly any condi- tion such as a heavy cold, strangles or the like, which induces high temperature or fever, will operate to kill the sperm-cells. These, with the germ of contagious abortion, are the commonest causes of barrenness in mares. Any man reasonably intelligent can quickly obtain a working knowledge of the genital or- gans of the mare. Outwardly visible is the vulva. This is the entrance to the vagina which is a more or less cylindrical canal into which the human hand may readily be passed with the fingers placed so as to form a cone. A short distance within the vagina will be found a shallow depression on its floor and beyond this a protuberance coming from beneath. On no oceasion or pretext should this be touched. Tt is the meatus urinarius—the orifice through which the urine is voided from the bladder. It is fitted with a valve and is a tender and delicate structure. Mares have been killed by ignorant operators mistaking it for the neck of 40 THE HORSE BOOK. the womb and manipulating it. Leave it alone. Pushing the hand still gently inward and past the meatus the hard tough neck of the womb will be encountered—a_stick-like dependent body about two inches in diameter and circu- lar. This will be found with a hole in it in most cases. If it is closed a little exploration with the finger will discover a transverse inden- tation in it. Gentle pressure of the finger will effect an entrance and when one finger has been inserted the orifice may be rimmed out to per- mit the ingress of two fingers, when it is large enough. If it is necessary thus to open the neck of the womb it should always be done a short time before service, because it will quickly resume its contracted condition. It should be needless to say that when such explorations are made the nails should be carefully trimmed, the arm and hand plentifully smeared with vase- line. A hand on which there is any abrasion, even a bad agnail, should never be employed in such work. The benefit of ‘‘opening’”’ a mare is not, as is generally supposed, so much in providing free entrance for the spermatozoa, but in removing toughened coagulated acid mucous secretions collected in the mouth and neck of the womb. Impregnation of mares artificially, as it has been termed, by syringe or capsule, is admitted- ly a successful operation. As the spermatozoa must first get within the womb before they can EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 41 reach the egg, it is of obvious advantage posi- tively to plate them there. The operation con- sists merely in taking up the spermatic fluid in the syringe (so-called impregnator) or capsule and depositing it within the uterine cavity. Once there the spermatozoa may safely be trust= ed to meet the egg. Mares can easily be got with foal yet never see the horse. Two or three mares may be impregnated from the same service, as the amount of spermatic fluid ejacu- lated by the horse is abundant. In order that the operation may be deftly performed, it is necessary that the womb should be open. If on examination it is found to be closed, open it as described. After copulation the withdrawal of the horse will bring much of the spermatic fluid back into the depression in the floor of the vagina to which reference has already been made. If the nozzle of the syringe is inserted in the vagina at, this point a suffi- cient amount of the fluid may be drawn up into it. If it is desired to operate on the mare that has just been served, conduct the nozzle of the syringe with the hand into the neck of the womb, press the bulb, ejecting its contents into the womb, and the job is done. If it is desired to impregnate a second or a third mare from the one service of the horse, have her held handy by a sensible attendant. Blunderers are little use for this purpose. When service has been accomplished to the first mare by the horse 42 THE HORSE BOOK. have him taken away. Then taking up the fluid with the syringe quickly, deftly insert the nozzle in the vagina of the second mare, pass it for- ward into the womb and press the bulb as be- fore. The syringe used for this work is fitted with a rubber tube about 20 inches long between the nozzle and bulb. Care must be taken to sterilize the apparatus thoroughly between op- erations by cleansing in hot water. With the capsule, which is made of gelatine and readily dissolves on contact with the warm moist tissues, the operation is quite as simple, if not more so. Remove the cap from the cap- sule and taking the other part in the hand, in- sert it in the vagina, scooping up the fluid into it with the fore finger. When the capsule feels full push it on up into the womb and leave it there. When a second mare is to be impregnat- ed, fill the capsule as before, withdraw the hand holding the capsule, insert it in the vagina and push it into the womb as before. There is no occasion to be in any great rush. Be deft and make every move count. Any reasonably dex- terous man may become proficient at either op- eration with a little practice. The main thing is to keep the fertilizing fluid from any marked rise or fall in temperature, and to keep it from the light. The syringe shuts out the light; the fingers closed about the capsule perform the same service, when a second mare is impreg- nated. EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 43 Any man who stands stallions may measur- ably increase his returns from foals by using this process of impregnation. The service of a much favored stallion may be greatly extended by it. Some mares make a great fuss when they are to be bred and others are atrociously mean when in heat. All such may easily be dealt with by keeping the horse out of their sight and operating quietly upon them. I have earried a filled capsule forty feet and suc- cessfully impregnated a female burro from a service performed by a Shetland Pony stallion to a mare of his own kind. The little stallion refused the burro altogether and she in turn could not be coaxed to go near him. The ecap- sule and a little ingenuity overcame the difficul- ty and she foaled a fine healthy hinny. Whenever the operation is to be performed the mare should either be hoppled or her fore foot should be held up by an assistant. The hair of the tail should be braided or sacked down the length of the dock so that it does not interfere with the operation, and an assistant should stand ready to pull it out of the way if necessary. I have made a study of this matter of impregnation and the more I see and learn of it the more deeply impressed I am with the great possibilities, financial and otherwise, in- herent in it. I was the first to exploit the eap- sule method of impregnating mares—lI invented that method—and have had an extended ex- 44 THE HORSE BOOK. perience with it. I commend it to the atten- tion of all breeders and men who stand stallions and jacks. I count the syringe as good as the capsule in every respect save the danger of possible infection of clean mares from those that are diseased unless the syringe is kept in a thoroughly sterilized condition. The operation itself is an old one, but as at first it was con- fined exclusively to the human subject it is not — strange that it did not gain wide publicity until a comparatively recent date. So far as I know the mare is the only one of our domestic farm animals on which the operation of so-called arti- ficial impregnation has been performed. There are many fool notions concerned with the mating of stallion and mare. For instance some people think that the stallion ‘‘is to blame’’ if a mare has twins. The mare alone is responsible for the number of foals she pro- duces. If two eggs are matured about the same time and the mare is covered, the chances are that both will be fertilized. There are more spermatozoa ejaculated at one service of the horse that there ever will be eggs matured by a mare in her whole lifetime. The stallion can have nothing to do with the number of foals a mare may produce at a birth, except that he fer- tilizes as many eggs as her ovaries ripen. A mare is not more likely to have twins to a horse than she is to a jack, though some folks think she is. EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 45 Then again it has been believed by some, mar- velous though it may appear, that the spermatic fluid of the horse could be transported long dis- tances under almost any conditions and still re- tain its life-transmitting properties. In fact a shameless charlatan once went so far as to ad- vertise a container in which the fluid might be sent through the mails, thus taking advantage of a ridiculous credulity born of ignorance. Just how long the spermatozoa will live under the most favoring conditions is not yet determined, but it is no great length of time. Another idea which popularly prevails is that startling impressions received by a mare at the time of service may have an effect on the color and even conformation of the progeny. Not so long ago a man asked me how he might paint out the blaze face of his horse so that the mares might not see the white mark, and so have no ‘‘hadly marked foals.’’ On various occasions I have seen men. swiftly wheel their mares around after service so that they might gaze upon the stallion’s bald face and so insure foals similarly marked. Color at least may be re- moved from the list of those things which accrue from impressions received at the time of serv- ice; and it should not be forgotten, moreover, that impregnation can not take place at the mo- ment of copulation. Then there is the everlasting ‘‘double cover.’’ It will not down. Many men insist that the 46 THE HORSE BOOK. mare has a better chance to get with foal if she is bred twice within half an. hour or thereabouts. The fallacy of this contention is explained fully by the great number of sperm-cells given up by the horse. As there is a vast surplus of them in each service there is assuredly no sense in duplicating their number. In any case it is a serious tax to make a horse cover twice in thirty minutes and it is a money losing proposition as well. One service at a heat is enough. Another notion long in vogue is that the first impregnation influences subsequent offspring ir- respective of parentage. Thus it has been al- leged that if a young mare should be bred to a jack and produce a mule, all her later foals by stallions would have mule marks. Prof. Cossar EKwart’s experiments with the Burchell zebra— the most brilliantly colored of the equine race— and pony mares apparently prove that there is no basis in fact for this theory of telegony, as it is called, and that the first impregnation has nothing to do with those which follow later. Close inbreeding is a practice to be shunned in a general way. It is not to be denied that some famous breeders have extensively inbred their stock and so found a plain path to the pro- duction of a few outstanding animals, but in in- breeding as a rule there is concealed a bottom- less abyss of failure. The rare instances where incestuous mating has been practiced and suc- EMBRYOLOGY, IMPREGNATION, CONCEPTION. 47 cess followed are the exceptions which but prove the rule. Just what degree of relationship may be permitted can not be set down by any rule, but it may be accepted as accurate that consan- guinity at all close should be barred. CHAPTER V. MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION. Having seen that there is nothing super- natural or occult about the transmission of life, but instead that the development of the germ- cell and the sperm-cell is a normal physiogolical process, it becomes plain that in order to pro- duce young of normal vigor the parents should be in normally vigorous health. Possession of the highest condition of health implies the con- tinual breaking down of the bodily tissues, elim- ination of the waste and replacement by new tissues, prevention of undue accumulation of fat and thorough cleansing of the system by the eliminatory channels. This desired condition inheres in the proper degree only in the horse when he is worked and well fed. It follows that every stallion should be worked, and the same is true of every brood mare. I can see no rea- son why both should not take their turns regu- larly in the harness and do their reproductive work as well. There comes a time, of course, in the life of every stallion and mare when, on account of failing bodily vigor, only moderate labor, or none at all, should be required of them. In the sere and yellow stage of equine existence the system’s physiological processes are much 48 MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION. 49 slower than in’ youth or at maturity. The ideal condition is achieved when just enough work is given to keep all the bodily functions at their best. I count a full day’s work none too much for a stallion from his fifth at least to his twelfth year and often much longer. With the extension of my experience I have become more and more firmly rooted in the be- hef that the working of the stallion and the mare, in the draft breeds especially, is an abso- lute essential to a high degree of success in breeding. It follows then that the working of the parents has had its influence on breeds. If this is true the manner of working and the tem- perament of the people ordering the labor must also have exerted their influence on breeds— which brings us back once more to the personal equation and environment. It seems clear that this accounts in large de- gree for the prevailing popularity of the Perche- ron in the United States and explains why its offspring finds such favor with the American people. There are no great studs of idle mares in France. It is hard to buy mares there in show condition. It is common enough to see mature draft stallions imported from France with the collar marks upon them. I do not re- eall ever having seen similar marks on a stallion imported from the United Kingdom. The French horse is driven by men of quick nervous temperament, flashy and mercurial at times, 4 50 THE HORSE BOOK. perhaps, but in the main steadfast, enduring and the most thrifty in the list of nations. These are the people—the French small farmers—by whom the French stallions are bred from work- ing stock and of the French horses of draft blood the Percheron must be taken as the typi- cal example. The greatness of the British draft breeds is everywhere conceded, but it is doubtful if the maintenance of great studs in plethoric idle- ness has added anything to the sum total of their excellence. | Put the stallion to work. Break him like any other horse, preferably as a two-year-old, and make him do light, but not real, work at that age. At three make him do what other colts of his age are required to do. If an unbroken stallion of workable age is purchased, let the breaking be the first thing undertaken with him. It will not generally prove a hard job, for a stal- lion is seldom afraid. Gradually toughen him into doing his full day’s work as one of a team. It is preferable to hitch an entire horse with amare, but if it comes handier to work him with a gelding there is no reason why he should not be matched in that way. There is a popular im- pression that a gelding worked with a stallion will not thrive. There is no truth in any such assumption. As a rule a stallion is more bull- headed than a gelding or mare. Always make him behave. It was a great engineer who in- MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION. nl vented the whip. If the horse is inclined to nip at and bother his mate, tie a staff of the proper length according to the job on hand from the inner ring of his bit to the shank-ring of a halter on the head of the other horse in the pair, or to the upper ring on the hames. Use good stout harness and never forget that there is a stallion in the team. Do not let him yell and squeal and generally make a nuisance of him- self. Make him behave like a gentleman. In addition to the good health and vigor which accrue to the stallion kept in regular work in the harness there are other blessings which he wins through having to earn his daily bread. One, and I count it among the most im- portant, is the companionship of man, and an- other is a good place to sleep and eat. Thrice blessed is the stallion which works every day, lives in cleanliness and comfort among the other horses, sees human beings and often hears the human voice. Thrice cursed is the poor beast which is banished to some out of the way corner of the farmstead, closed up in some dirty old stall, banked deep, perhaps, with manure, forced to seek the light of day and the fresh air in a yard which, never cleansed, is in damp weather a compound essence of filth and other abomina- tions, and fed more or less occasionally when some one happens to remember about him. Free- ly worked, the legs of a stallion will seldom go wrong. Condemned to solitary confinement in 52 ' THE HORSE BOOK. a germ-infected tenement his legs seldom stay, right. Worked freely, intelligently fed, prop- erly groomed and stabled, a stallion will re- main a normal sort of beast. 100 THE HORSE BOOK. then he does not know what he is doing. On the other hand if he has confidence in the man who has hold of him, his master’s voice will reas- sure him. There is a whole lot too much fuss, as a rule, made about breaking young horses. If the breaking is made a gradual process it will come to a head much as a matter of course. If they - are allowed to run practically wild until three or four years old and then suddenly caught up and the effort made to force them to do something they know nothing about there will be trouble and there always is. It may be advanced that farmers have not time to fuss with co'ts as ad- vocated. That is a poor excuse. The farmer who has not time to fuss with that which puts dollars in his pockets would better be in other business. < _ I figure that it is best to break colts and ac- custom them to the harness at two years of age. First of all, on the farm, take a thick straight bit and buckle it in the mouth with two short straps to the square irons in the ends of the cheek pieces of the halter. Let them stand tied in the stall and they will mouth and champ on the bit and so toughen the cheeks, or parts of the lips which the bit contacts, in that process. Now get ready a leather surcingle with a loop strap on top and buckles stitched half-way down each side. Buckle the surcingle around the colt’s body and adjust a check rein moderately tight. MANAGEMENT OF BROOD MARES. 101 Or if desired a regular bitting harness may be used. This consists of a bridle and check-rein, a surcingle and crupper and two side lines, run- ning from the bit to buckles on each side of the circingle. The bit in a bitting harness usually is a thick snaffle with a line of little metal pen- dants called ‘‘keys’’ hanging to the joint in the middle of it. The object of these keys is by annoying the tongue to make the colt champ the bit and so toughen his cheeks. After the colt has been allowed to go awhile with his head checked up, attach the side lines and buckle them moderately tight. Turn him out thus rigged in- to the yard and let him go a few hours a day for a week. Then substitute real reins for the side- lines and drive him around until he knows how to guide this way and that, to stop at the word ‘‘whoa’’ and to step up when directed. Break the colt to stand absolutely still when being har- nessed. That is a first essential. A horse that is perpetually stepping around while being har- nessed is but half broken at best. Also, when the time comes make him understand that he ° must stand stock still while being hooked up to any kind of a rig and stand there until he gets the word to move on. Do not forget this. It means money. Horses of the roadster stamp, or any other stamp for that matter, are often in- dulged in lunging forward the moment they are checked up. This is all wrong. A gentleman’s horse is broken so that he stands until his owner 102 THE HORSE BOOK. adjusts his apron or robe, takes up his reins and gives the word to go on. The time to teach a horse these pleasant ways is when he is first broken. Likewise teach him to back pleasantly and always with a pull of the reins. Do not try to teach the colt too much, but insist that he stop as instantly as possible at the word ‘‘whoa,”’ back when told to do so and the pull on the reins shows what is wanted, and to get up promptly when the word is given. Heroic measures are sometimes necessary, but as a rule the exercise of gentleness will win out sooner. A horse is a stupid beast and infinite patience, coupled with determination, is absolutely necessary to do much with him. Some men think that they are making something by going into a small yard armed with a whip and making a colt do stunts. I have never been able to see where they gained anything, for the market for circus horses is limited and a colt needs only to be broken to harness properly to make him worth all the money he will ever bring. . After the colt has been driven around by the reins and has learned to guide to the right and left, to turn around, ‘‘get up’’ and ‘‘whoa,’’ hitch him into a long-shafted breaking cart sin- ele, or double with some steady-going horse, not necessarily an old one, but always reliable. It is a mistake to hook a colt up the first time with some old plug that can not get out of his own way. He will never step fast enough for the MANAGEMENT OF BROOD MARES. 103 young one and the latter will fret and worry. There are easier and shorter ways to break horses than this, but it pays to take time as de- - seribed for the reason that the process outlined if followed will develop a mouth not too hard and not too soft, and that is worth money either to sell or to keep. Remember that a horse is a ereature of habit. It takes repetition to drill things into his brain. His instinct is admirable. He will bring you home safely the darkest and stormiest night that ever blew and the next day bolt and wreck the rig because he chanced to meet a black pig when he was habituated to meeting white pigs in that particular spot. When he is young his brain is more plastic and sensitive to impression than when he grows older. Habits he contracts at two years old will be retained through life. When colts have been well broken as two- year-olds they may be turned out for the rest of the year. They will never forget their les- sons. There is no sense in trying to lay down set rules; these very general directions must serve. The man who breaks colts finds some new situation to deal with in every one he un- dertakes to educate. In all cases the bitting should be done as out- lined. See to it that the bit is always high enough up in the mouth. Keep it just so that it will not unduly press against the cheeks, but at the same time not so low that the horse will be 104 THE HORSE BOOK. everlastingly hitching at it with his tongue try- ing to keep it comfortable in his mouth. Go easy with them all at first, but go through with everything that is undertaken. Never under any circumstances try to make colts pull out of a place where they have Leen stuck. One of the surest ways to make him balky is to get a colt stuck and then lick him because he has not strength to pull out his load. More than once on the soft prairie soils of the West I have had the wagon wheels cut down in the sod in spring- time and, after throwing off the small load of hay I had on at the time, started up the team of three-year-olds I was driving onto dry ground, and then earried the hay forkful by forkful out of the slough and loaded it onto the wagon again. It was deplorably hard labor, to be sure, but it paid. -Rarey was a great handler of horses of some sorts and his tackle was a great invention. This tackle consists of two short straps fitted with D rings, a surcingle and a long rope. The straps are buckled around the front pasterns, the sur- cingle around the body. One end of the rope is spliced into the ring in the strap that goes around the pastern of the near fore leg. The free end of the rope is then passed through a ring on the underside of the surcingle and then down and through the ring in the strap around the pastern of the off fore foot. Then the rope end is brought up and passed through a ring’ MANAGEMENT OF BROOD MARES. 105 sewed about half way down the off side of the surcingle. The horse can walk all right, trot and even run when the rope is slack, but a steady pull on the rope will jerk his fore feet up against the floor of his chest and down he goes on his knees and nose. A rasping hard fall takes the tuck out of most horses, two or three will usual- ly do the business for the most incorrigible, but it is a dangerous game to play. I have mentioned the Rarey tackle only for the reason that its general use in colt-breaking has been advocated by one or two writers in high position, whose experience with it can not have been extensive. It should be used in colt- breaking only as a last resort. Horse-breaking, to be sure, is no job for a nursery governess, but there are only a very few colts—probably not one in 5,000—that ever need a fall in the Rarey tackle. Once upon a time I was employed by an im- porter of coaching stallions and one of his chief talking points was the facility with which the imported stallions of full age could be broken to harness. When some customer announced that he had to be shown the foreman and I took oc- easion to put the stallion in question through a course of sprouts with the Rarey tackle in a long shed deeply bedded with shavings, and then sallied forth with him. As soon as the horse felt the body band of the harness tighten around him he was in mortal terror of being thrown 106 THE HORSE BOOK. upon his head again and usually stepped off in the long-shafted cart like a little lamb. Finally the foreman and I broke the neck of a valuable horse one day with the tackle and the talking point vanished like magic. Incorrigibly vicious horses may need Rareyizing, but these are few and far between and no farmer need ever find use for the tackle if he knows his business even in an elementary way. On the contrary the Rarey tackle is a tool to be used only by the thoroughly experienced. It is by no means a necessary farm implement. Good harness is one of the best advertise- ments a farmer or breeder can have. It is econ- omy to buy good leather and then keep it in good condition. There is a bit of a trick in hitching up a horse just right, but it is hard to - state it didactically. In general the harness from the bridle to the crupper should fit ‘‘neither too free nor to bind’’—meaning neither too loose nor too tight—but how can that happy medium be taught through the me- dium of cold type? It is worth dollars, though, to have the harness fit just right. The horse will work more contentedly and move more free- ly. The main thing is to have the harness good, have it fit right and then keep the life in the leather. Harness oils and dressings are cheap and it does not take long to fix up a double set. Keep the metal housings bright and clean. A farmer’s business needs advertising just as MANAGEMENT OF BROOD MARES. 107 much as the merchant’s. Noone need think that the packers and other great mercantile houses go to tremendous expense for fine horses, har- ness and rigs for nothing. The financial pros- perity of any firm may usually be gauged by its horses and wagons as turned out in the street. So it is with the farmer. Show me the farmer who drives to: town a finely conditioned pair of horses, geared with good leather and hooked to a clean well cared for rig, and it is the one best bet that you are showing me a man whose credit is good at the bank and store. The banker, mostly a shrewd judge of men and man- ners, knows that the same qualities in human nature, which are reflected in such an outfit, make for success in business. On‘the other hand tatterdemalion harness and ramshackle, filthy rigs indicate qualities and character which bankers do not cotton to when it comes to lend- ing money over their counters. CHAPTER VII. FITTING FOR SALE.—MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES.—TRADE TERMS. To sell to the best advantage horses should be fat and well broken—the fatter and better broken they are, the better they will sell. Hence it pays to accustom all farm horses to as many of the terrifying sights and sounds of city life as may be met up with in the country—the lo- comotive, the trolley car, the automobile, thresh- ing machines, motorcycles and the like. I once knew a man who did a mighty good job on his young horses by taking them often to a spot on the road over which the railway crossed on a high bridge and fill. It so happened that a pas- senger express, a local passenger train and a through freight came along one after the other about six o’clock in the evening, and it was rather the exception, spring, summer and fall, not to find him thereabouts at that time. His horses learned to let the trains go by above them when they could see them and when they could not see them, and as each train always whistled just as it passed over the bridge, the education was pretty thorough. This man was continually showing the locomotive and the trolley to his colts under divers circumstances and he enjoyed a steady demand for them at good prices even during the dull times. 108 MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 109 ‘‘Hamily broken’? means a whole lot more now than it did a decade ago. Then a horse which would pass a traction engine and a sepa- rator all right was esteemed safe. Now that automobiles and trolley cars dot the landscape and the motorcyclist goes whizzing by, it is alto- gether a different story. A horse that is afraid of automobiles or trolley cars or locomotives is not worth a’ dollar for use anywhere near a large city and that is where the best prices are to be obtained. It is best to begin young with them. They learn more easily then. There should be no mistake about this, no maudlin sentiment about the wrongs the automaniacs are inflicting on the farmer. The auto has come to stay. It is an accomplished factor of modern civilization like the locomotive and the trolley ear. Just laws are needed to curb the ambition of the madmen who career along the country roads too fast, but the automobile must be reck- oned with first, last and all the time. I have driven over most of the country surrounding Chicago. I know whereof I speak, the while sympathizing deeply with the inhabitants of rural districts traversed by roads which invite the crazy autoist. Nowadays when a young horse will stand fearlessly with a locomotive in front of him, a trolley car passing behind him and an automobile stationary but panting along- side of him, he may be considered very fairly 110 THE HORSE BOOK. broken for a country horse, but he will still have much to learn. This is not the place to discuss the auto-on- the-rural-highway question. ‘he horse must accommodate himself to the auto with its blind- ing headlights, the trolley car and the locomo- tive or go out of business. The law says that the auto has as much right to use the public road as the pedestrian or the horse, and no more, and the owner of the horse might just as well make up his mind to that fact first as last. It is no small trick to break horses to autos and trolley ears, but it can be done and it must be done if the farmer is to get all that is coming to him for his time and investment, not to speak at all of his personal safety and that of his wife and bairns. It is an un-American position to take that because autos are common the wife and babies can no longer drive on the public road. That sort of spirit would never have wrested from Great Britain the independence of which we are so proud. There are horses now and there will be horses after we are all dead. Make them safe for the women folks to drive. It has to come. To offer a thin horse for sale is to invite for him a lower price than he should bring. The trade demands fat horses. The farmer can more easily afford to feed his grain to horses than to any other domestic animal. Some one has to put the animals in condition and if the farmer dIHS OL AGVAY SHALAVUYC AHAHSINIA MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 111 will not do it, the feeder must, and the price the farmer receives must be lower in consequence. Many a time I have seen grain pay the farmer a dollar or more a bushel when used in fatten- ing horses. The experiments made along this line by the Illinois Experiment Station are right in point here. I commend the bulletin describ- ing them to all farmers. This feeding process ig an easy one. Put the horses in stalls, tied by the head. Feed them all the grain and hay they will clean up and give them all the pure water they will drink. They must be brought to full feed gradually and the food must not be changed. Exercise is not necessary. Big draft- ers will gain as much as five or six or even seven pounds a day on all the corn they will eat. The feeders who make a business of fattening draft- ers for the market use corn mostly, with some- times a little bran, and they never change the feed from the time they start the horses until they land them in the market. This rule of no change applies absolutely. In the great markets horses are classed oc- cording to their ‘‘job.’’ Attempts have been made to differentiate sharply between the va- rious classes, but I shall make no effort to draw any strongly marked lines, for the reason that it is impossible to do so. One cannot mark didactically lines that exist only in the most shadowy form at best and are constantly chang- ing. Classes go by certain names all over the 112 THE HORSE BOOK. country, but the horse that is referred to in one part of the country. by one name may be very different from the horse which is referred to by identically the same term in another. If any one desires to post himself on this phase of the business he would best stand by the loading ehutes in any of the great wholesale markets and note the horses that are shipped out to the various parts of the country. He will find, for instance, that Boston wagon horses, New York wagon horses and Pittsburg wagon horses are three entirely different sorts, though they are all wagon horses. How then is any one to ex- plain didactically what a wagon horse is? Fol- lowing, however, is a sketch in outline of mar- ket requirements. Just at present horses of draft blood are classed as drafters, loggers, feeders, wagon horses, chunks and farm workers, and with the exception of the first named two it 1s not always easy to separate them. Expressers form a class by themselves. Then come southern chunks and riff-raff. Horses without any draft blood in them at all—at least visibly so—are classed as gentlemen’s roadsters or light harness horses, heavy harness horses, business or pleasure horses variously so-called, livery horses, south- ern drivers and other intermediate sorts of no special class or calibre, such as hearse horses, for which there is always more or less of a de- mand, and a few other kinds for which a spo- MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 13 radic inquiry develops periodically—spotted circus horses, for instance. Horses for the fire, patrol wagon and mounted police service come from the ranks of the expressers, being selected, the first two on account of strength and speed on the run, the latter for more or less excellence of saddle conformation, substance to carry weight and a bit of good looks as well. Cavalry and artillery horses are taken periodically by our own government and by foreign powers. The cavalry horse mostly purchased by Uncle Sam comes from the ranks of the business or pleasure horses and is mostly of trotting blood. No uniformity of type is insisted on. They come in all shapes, these troop horses. Officers’ chargers are preferably of the conformation of the Kentucky saddle horse. Artillery horses are light expressers, weighing around 1,250 pounds, and like the fire and patrol horses, able to run. Drafters run in the trade from 1,600 pounds upwards. The larger they are, the fatter and the more quality they possess, the better they sell. Loggers are inferior but big drafters. Wagon horses are a numerous delegation. They come in all sizes from 1,250 pounds to 1,450 pounds, and in all shapes from the classy one almost a coacher in conformation and used to draw the delivery wagon of a dry goods house, to the roughest sort of a team fit only to pull dirt out of an excavation. The Boston wagon 8 114 THE HORSE BOOK. horse weighs around 1,400 pounds, is preferably rather light in bone, of build almost typically Percheron and always very smooth. The east- ern wagon horse, taken mostly for New York trade, is coachlike in conformation and quality, smaller than the Boston article and handsome. The Pittsburg wagon horse is a ruggeder propo- sition altogether and in weight around 1,450 pounds. This shows how futile it would be to try to describe wagon horses as a general classi- fication. Chunks are short and thick and drafty in conformation, range in weight from 1,250 to 1,550 pounds and are variously sorted for va- rious localities. Itis not easy to divide them off from the wagon horses. Southern chunks are light, weighing around 1,100 pounds or there- abouts, with less draft blood and more warm blood about them than any of the foregoing -classes. Farm workers are anything and every- thing. Ifa horse in late winter and early spring will not class anywhere else, he goes as a farm worker or farm chunk. Feeders are thin horses of the drafter class. Exxpressers may briefly be described as over- grown, low-quality coachers. They must have a bit of draft blood about them to give them size, but it must not show in preponderance. They must be able to get out and trot quickly and nervily with a big load behind them. They range in weight from 1,250 to 1,500 pounds— high-headed, smoothly turned, good-acting THE ARMOUR CHAMPION DRAFT GELDINGS From photo taken during their tour of England, 1907 MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 115 horses with considerable style. Formerly bussers and cabbers, taken chiefly for export to Kngland and France, and tram horses were ac- counted distinct classes that tailed on after the expressers, but the demand for them has disap- peared and nowadays one rarely hears their names mentioned in the trade. Gentlemen’s roadsters have the type of the trotter—breedy, long-necked, elegant horses suiting the light buggy or speed wagon and able to go along at a smart rate of speed. In fact the ranks of the road horse are properly re- eruited from among the harness race horses, both trotters and pacers, and to sell well a road horse nowadays must be able to beat 2:30, prob- ably quite a good bit. Then these which cannot trot or pace fast tail on down in all grades to the cheapest sorts which are taken for the livery and southern trade. Of late, however, the South has been buying a better grade of driver, taking business and pleasure horses at $160 to $185, whereas the demand from south of Mason & Dixon’s line was formerly for cheap lots at $65 to $115. Heavy harness horses are divided into two sorts—the park horse and the carriage horse, the runabout horse being a sort of hanger-on to the skirts of both. The park horse runs in height from 14.3 hands to 15.234 hands, and the earriage horse from 15.3 hands upwards. At least that is the distinction drawn for these 116 THE HORSE BOOK. sorts at the great horse shows. The park horse and the carriage horse have the same conforma- tion, but the park horse must have as an ab- solute essential high, snappy action. The step of the carriage horse should be more commanding, as befits his greater size and the heavier vehicle which he pulls. Conformation of these two sorts is of the round-built order, round quar- ters, round barrel, fairly short legs, neat, long, well arched neck, clean cut at the throttle, neat head, sloping shoulders and clean bone, the more the better. Typically the correct action of the park horse in front may be described as that the foot should be raised and lowered as though, so to speak, following the rim of a rolling wheel, being brought forward and upward, reaching the ground again in a graceful curve. Many horses ~can jerk their knees up high and then slam their feet down again on the ground not far from the spot where they picked up, but that is not food action, no matter how high the knee may be hoisted. Similarly some horses can get their knees away up when going at a three-minute chp and not until then. That will not do, for the street traffic regulations do not permit the exhibition of so much speed. The heavy har- ness horse must go high when going slow. The hocks should be kept well together, flexed sharply, brought well upward and the foot thrown forward well under the body. The ac- MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. LF. tion of the larger horse dwells somewhat, per- missibly, and is therefore more deliberate, but it must be high all around. Runabout horses are used singly. A runa- bout pair is very much of a farce. This is a nondescript article in horseflesh, of varying size but never large, ranging perhaps up to 15.3 hands and from that down to 14.3, with a bit of speed, a bit of action, more or less of the confor- mation of the park horse, but not his action. In short, the runabout horse is about half way between the roadster and the heavy harness horse and generally he is docked, though not always. As the class of farm workers includes every- thing that is not of sufficient size or merit to go into the higher-priced lots, so the business and pleasure class may be said to be a very elastic one. A horse may be mighty useful and yet not class as a roadster, park, carriage or runabout horse. The more inferior lots of the trotter type fill the livery stables and the more chubby ones go into buggy work in the cities, the South taking many of each kind. A hearse horse is a light expresser which happens to be black in color and may weigh as much as 1,300 pounds. I want to say again that it is useless to attempt to explain by rule of thumb the divid- ing lines between the various market classes, more especially nowadays when the demand for horses exceeds the supply and buyers are will- 118 THE HORSE BOOK. ing to put up with makeshifts if they can not find just what they want. Cobs properly speaking do not stand over 14.2 or 14.3 hands at most, though horses standing 15.1 hands—sometimes even more—are often miscalled cobs in the trade. Cobs are the con- necting link between the ponies and the horses. They are large-bodied, pudgy, chunky beasts, not horse, not pony, but half way between, short of leg and properly with high action. Ponies run in all sizes from 14.2 hands down, the va- rious common sorts being described in the sub- sequent chapter devoted to them. Saddle horses include, as the market classifies them, the five-gaited or Kentucky horse, the three-gaited or walk-trot-and-canter horse and the hunter. Special reference to them will be found further along. By continuous effort the Stock Yards Com- pany has made Chicago the greatest point of concentration and distribution of horses in the West. Therefore Chicago substantially domi- nates values of horses for most of the country. Its market gets the best horses in the region tributary to it and all the largest and best buy- ers in the eastern and southern cities are contin- ually represented at the ringside in the Dexter Park Pavilion, commonly known as the ‘‘bull- pen.’’? A sharp man is he who ean hold his own in any horse market and to get to understand all of the trade terms is no mean trick of itself. MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 119 Here some of the Chicago trade terms are ex- plained. The shibboleth of the professional horse dealer, however, varies. Horses are mostly sold at auction in the great markets of the West. In Chicago and generally elsewhere they are sold under certain stated conditions, which are well understood. If a horse is sold ‘‘to be serviceably sound’’ he must have nothing wrong about him that will mate- rially impair his value as a worker at his busi- ness. In other words, he must be practically sound in wind, limb and eye and body, have no bad habits, must pull true and be well broken. A horse that does not fill this bill or any other form of guarantee may be rejected and thrown back on the hands of the seller at any time be- fore noon of the day following that on which the purchase was made. A horse may also be sold ‘‘to be serviceably sound’’ with some defect pointed out, which goes with him. It is only once in a whole that horses are sold as ‘‘sound,”’ and then only to ‘‘start something.’’ ‘‘Legs go’’ means that whatever is on his legs goes with the horse, but he must be right in his wind, pull true and he must not be lame. ‘‘To wind and work’’ predicates that the horse is sound in his wind and will work all right. ‘‘ Worker only’’ means that the horse will pull true and nothing more. ‘‘At the end of the halter’’ indi- eates that the purchaser has bought a horse, when his bid is the last one accepted by the 120 THE HORSE BOOK. auctioneer. There are quite constant modifica- tions of these conditions by the pointing out of imperfections. The most astounding practice about the horse business in a professional way is the ‘‘bush.’’ If a definition of this term should be inserted in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary it would probably read about like this: ‘‘To bush.—T'o force or cajole the seller of a horse to refund to the purchaser a portion of the price bid in the auction ring.’’ There are various reasons for this ‘‘bushing.’’ A buyer may find something on the horse which he did not ‘see in the ring. Then he may insist on a reduction of the price. and the vendor will consent to be ‘‘bushed’’ rather than run the risk of a rejection. Some- times the seller will submit to the process on the statement of the buyer that he has bought the horse too dear. ‘‘Bushing’’ is necessarily a sort of a private transaction and it would therefore be useless to go into further detail. Many a horse has, however, gone through the ring with the ‘‘bush’’ arranged beforehand, which is another way of saying that the horse was bought before he was auctioned off. In the vernacular of the bull-pen there are many terms and expressions which may be ex- plained. The most incomprehensible I ever heard was ‘‘bush and a gristle,’’? which indi- eated that the horse had an incipient sidebone and was sold subject to a reduction of the price MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 12a bid. ‘‘A hair or two off above the hoof’’ means that the horse has a wire-cut, which may be as big as the palm of your hand, but having been pointed out, goes with him. ‘‘A little bit of a speck in one eye’’ guarantees one good eye—no more, no less. ‘‘A little bluish in one eye’’ means the same thing, and so do ‘‘a little smoke’’ and ‘‘a little feather.’’ ‘‘ Which eye?”’ queries some one in the crowd. ‘‘ Don’t know,’’ replies the seller, and thereupon no guarantee goes with either eye. ‘‘A little rough behind’”’ indicates that the horse has a spavin or thor- oughpin or some other unsoundness about his hocks, and it all goes with him. ‘‘Makes just a little noise’’ is one way of saying that a horse is off in his wind or ‘‘windy.’’ ‘‘Jacks’’ are bone spavins. ‘‘Michigan pads’’ are long- shaped puffs on the outside of the hocks below where the thoroughpin shows. ‘‘A little round- ing on one hock’’ implies that the horse has a eurb and if some one believes that there is some- thing wrong with a horse which cannot be read- ily discovered he alleges that ‘‘there is a hole in ~ him somewhere.’’ ‘‘A little careless of one knee’’ tells that the horse is knee-sprung, ‘‘a little rough on the coronet’’ that he has a side- bone or ringbone. ‘‘Stands a little careless’’ indicates that the horse points a fore foot. A brand new one in the trade just now is ‘‘he smokes his pipe,’’ which indicates that a horse’s lip has been torn at some time and so hangs 122 THE HORSE BOOK. down. If a horse has a sloping rump he is ‘‘ooosey.’’ He is ‘‘chancy’’ if he gives prom- ise of developing into something high-class, but has been purchased for a moderate or low price. When a horse throws his fore feet outward at the finish of the forward step he is said to ‘‘wing,’’ ‘‘dish’’ or ‘‘paddle,’’ according to the choice of terms. They all mean the same thing. If he toes-out in front he is ‘‘nigger-heeled’”’; if he toes-in he is ‘‘pigeon-toed.’’ If he stands with the points of his hocks together and his hind toes out, he is ‘‘cow-hocked.’’ If the for- mation of the foreleg is the reverse of what it is in a knee-sprung horse, he is ‘‘calf-kneed’’ or ‘‘stands back at his knees,’’ as opposed to ‘‘over at his knees.’’ A horse that toes-out in front will almost invariably ‘‘box’’ or ‘‘knock’”’ or hit his knees or ‘‘brush’’ his ankles. If he strikes his hind ankles he ‘‘interferes’’; striking higher up behind is called ‘‘speedy-cutting,”’ but it is done by striking the opposing fore foot. If he strikes the shoe of a front foot with the toe of the hind he ‘‘forges”’ or ‘‘over-reaches.’’ If he is off in his wind he is ‘‘windy,’’ or ‘‘roars’’ or ‘‘whistles.’’ A ‘‘bull’’ is a horse that grunts when a pass is made at him. Inci- dentally it may be remarked that about 10 per cent of all the horses which reach the Chicago market are windy. If he is afflicted with chorea he is ‘‘stringy’’ or ‘‘crampy”’ or a ‘‘shiverer,”’ though he may be ‘‘stringy’’ on account of some MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 123 injury and not have chorea. Obviously if he has heaves he is ‘‘heavey.’’ If he keeps on swing- ing from side to side in the stall like an ele- _ phant he is a ‘‘weaver.’’ If a horse has been knocked about a bit in shipping he will likely show a ‘‘car-bruise,’’ but it must be soft and mellow and show.to be of recent origin. If a horse has never even seen a harness he is ‘‘a lit- tle green.’’ It is positively marvelous how diminutive all equine ailments are around the mart. Finally when the horse has passed through the plug, pelter and crowbait stages he becomes ‘‘a poor old skin,’’ and when he either can not go any more or dies he is carted off to the ‘‘refinery’’ and is there converted into a large variety of articles of commerce ranging from salt beef (for export) and cordova leather to buttons and glue. There are also many other terms of much more general significance and acceptation used by horsemen the world over. For instance, a ‘‘half-bred’’ is a horse begotten by a Thorough- bred stallion and may have on his dam’s side none of that blood at all or very much of it, but so long as he is not eligible to registration as Thoroughbred he is ‘‘half-bred.’’ A grade is begotten by a pure-bred horse from a mare of unknown breeding, but this does not apply to the get of the Thoroughbred or standard-bred. A eross-bred is by a pure-bred horse of one breed from a pure-bred mare of another breed. 124 THE HORSE BOOK. The get of a Thoroughbred stallion from a cold- blooded mare is, as stated, a half-bred. The get of a standard-bred stallion from a similar mare is non-standard or trotting-bred or pac- ing-bred, as the case may be. ‘‘Cold blood’’ is that which has not been vivified by an infusion of the race horse or his derivatives and ‘‘warm blood’’ is that which has. The part of the horse in front of the saddle is called his ‘‘forehand.’’ The bone and muscle of his tail form his ‘*dock,’’ and when a part of that structure is cut off he is ‘‘docked.’’ Where his dock joins his body is his ‘‘croup’’ or ‘‘tailhead.’’ His but- tocks are his quarters—never his hips. Be- tween his quarters and hocks are his ‘‘second thighs’’ or ‘‘gaskins.’’ His shanks are his ‘“eanons’’ or his ‘‘shins.’’ His nose and mouth are his ‘‘muzzle.’’ Finally his left side is his near side and his right side his off side. A horseman never speaks of the right or left side of a horse. Demand for draft geldings of great weight is a development of modern commercial condi- tions. The congestion of the streets of the great cities and the increase in the bulk and weight of the goods to be hauled preclude speed in transit in urban thoroughfares. Therefore came the call for horses of sufficient weight and strength to move very heavy loads. So great a factor has the big draft horse become in Ameri- can commerce during the last ten years that if MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 125 he should be suddenly extinguished the rail- roads would be, temporarily at least, forced out of business for lack of power to transport freight from warehouse or factory to the cars. Of still later years the desire of the great mer- eantile firms to advertise their business by putting good teams of drafters on the streets to make a fine show as well as to haul their heavy loads, and their rivalry to win in the show ring ever since the International Live Stock Exxposi- tion was established in Chicago in 1900, has created an insistent and never satisfied demand for these big horses and forced prices skyward to heights little dreamed of in the trade. Con- sistently year after year the heavy drafter holds his pride of place as the horse commanding the most ready sale at prices relatively higher than are brought by any other sort. A farmer can make a larger profit on his draft horses than on any other kind he can breed. Weights most favored by purchasers range from 1,800 lb. upward, the limit, so far as I know being, for the International show at least, 2,385 lb., which was the weight of Armour’s Big Jim in November, 1906.- I have heard of stallions alleged to weigh from 2,400 to 2,500 pounds, and I believe there are a few such in the country, but Big Jim is the largest horse I have ever seen on the scale. Weights of drafters are usually considered to begin at 1,600 pounds, and the greater the weight with 126 THE HORSE BOOK. quality and shapeliness the higher the price. It has been stated that better geldings have been shown at the International than there ever were stallions. As to this I need not express an opinion, but the fact remains that some mar- velous specimens have been exhibited and the keen rivalry of the great packing firms to obtain the very best always insures a top-notch ‘price for a top-notch animal. Add to this that a score or more of the largest eastern firms are always actively in the market for this best class and it is easily seen what an alluring prospect is spread out before the farmer-breeder by this sort of trade. To get the big money, however, it is necessary always to offer something the buyers want. The farmer who deliberately eaters to the needs of the poor teamster who ekes out a more or less scanty living by the labor of his equine slaves need never expect to get the prices which are secured by the breeder who eaters to the wants of firms worth millions. Remember this: No matter how high a breeder aims he will always get some misfits. If he aims to breed the very best drafters he will get always a certain proportion of chunks, wagon horses and nondescripts. If he sets out to breed any lower grade, he will get enough poor ones to put a serious crimp in his receipts. During the dull times which prevailed be- tween 1892 and 1900 most farmers sold off their best mares and went out of the business MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 127 of breeding horses. Thousands of these mares were exported and many more thousands were put to work in the cities. In this way when times began to get better and the demand. for horses to revive most farmers found themselves, a decade ago, without big mares from which to breed. Therefore when we started in again to raise drafters we had a mighty poor foundation on which to build. Build, however, in some shape we had to, and the man who had stuck to his draft-bred stock found his wealth greatly increased. As it was only in 1899 and 1900 that breeding was seriously entered upon again the supply of big drafters must of necessity be and remain short for many years to come. There is no more profitable line of live stock raising in which the farmer may engage. That we have done as well as we have is very greatly to our credit, but there is yet room for great improve- ment. From all of the old world breeds of draft horses now known here the high-priced ones may be bred. The point is, paying due atten- tion to quality which has heretofore been dis- cussed, to breed the largest stallions to the largest mares and then feed the resulting foals from birth to selling age. Weight without quality will always sell, but weight with quality is the combination that brings the big money. The conformation desired has already been described in Chapter II. Generally speaking 128 THE HORSE BOOK. stallions weighing 2,000 pounds or more should be used and the mares as large as they can be got. It is a great temptation to sell off good young mares when, for instance, a mortgage payment is coming due and a shipper offers a long price, but it will pay best in the long run to save religiously the best young mares, and use them for breeding stock. Crossing over from the French breeds to the British and from the British to the French or Belgian will produce commercial drafters that will sell to splendid advantage, but it is always best to stick to the one chosen breed, piling cross upon cross and so continually approaching a fixed ideal. The influence of proper environ- ment has already been so fully dealt with that it is only needful now to say that the drafter is a product of highly artificial conditions and must be highly fed or he will not grow large enough. Drafters which bring the highest prices are always offered for sale about as fat as they can be made. The buyers who bid the longest prices for drafters invariably want them fat and are willing to pay well for the adipose tissue. Con- sequently the farmer who lets his grain lie in his bins and offers his horses thin in flesh is merely throwing money away. An instance is in point. Matt Biers, the well known Illinois shipper, recently paid a farmer $265 for a thin four-year-old gelding, which sold at auction in MARKET CLASSES OF HORSES. 129 Chicago for $290. It was current comment at the time that if the gelding had been fat he would have sold for $400 or more. Had the farmer put the extra flesh on the horse he would have been paid probably $350, the shipper would have made a larger profit and the buyer would have been better pleased. According to these figures 40 or 50 bushels of grain fed to this horse would have paid a dollar a bushel and a net profit of $50 besides to the breeder. ~ The men who make a business of ‘‘ feeding out”’ drafters know the value of fat. If these profes- sionals can afford to pay from $200 to $250 or even more for thin horses, ship them home, fatten them, ship them back to market, pay com- missions and make a profit in the end, surely the farmer can do much better when he can save all the expenses incident to such transac- tions. Therefore the farmer will make money by seeing to it that his horses are fat when he offers them for sale and this is true not alone of drafters but of all other horses as well. Finally in order that farmers may get a cor- rect idea of the drafters that bring the big money and of the kind they should strive to produce there is no method of education so good as attendance at the International Live Stock Exposition and other shows at which drafters are exhibited in numbers, and thorough investi- gation of the everyday demands of the market at any one of the wholesale centers—preferably 9 130 THE HORSE BOOK. Chicago. By following closely the awards of the judges and by asking questions of represen- tative horsemen when he is puzzled, a farmer can acquire valuable information he will never obtain at home. Be not afraid to approach the judge after his work is done. Judges nowadays are generally perfectly willing to impart on re- quest such knowledge as they possess. Get out and see for yourself. Rub shoulders with the world. Money spent on making trips to great shows and markets need not be charged up to expenses, but with all legitimacy to capital ac- count and the investment will produce a thou- sand fold greater interest than the money would earn if never spent at all. CHAPTER VIII. FITTING FOR SHOW AND SHOWING. From time immemorial trial in the arena has been the main bulwark of the breeder’s busi- ness. The modern show ring is the legitimate successor of the Roman stadium. It was an easy transition from the trial of speed to the trial of individuality and this historic connec- tion is portrayed today in the names amphi- theater and coliseum. which we bestow on the buildings in which our horse shows are held. At its inception in those far off days the arena was a field of war; the modern show ring is no kindergarten. It is the same invincible spirit which made Rome mistress of the world and which has builded all the great empires the world has ever known that has given men honor in the show ring. Modern show yard ethics de- mand that the exhibitor be a sportsman; the show ring is no place for the pusillanimous or cowardly. Active competition in the arena must be engaged in by the breeder before he can learn to gauge properly the merits and demerits of his stock. Young animals may look at home to be worldbeaters and yet not come one-two-six when the judge hands out the ribbons. It is 131 132 THE HORSE BOOK. only by submitting them to the show ring test that the breeder may discover how they rank with the products of other establishments. ‘‘Who’s afraid?’’ should be his motto. He should court the trial of the show ring and cut and come again until he lands on top. There may be breeders who have ridden to fame along a road that did not lead across the tan-bark, but if there are history does not record their names. Gen. Sherman’s epigrammatic defini- tion of war has been accepted by the world at large as correct. The show ring is the seat of war, mimic it is true, but war nevertheless, and the showman’s campaign must be no less carefully planned ‘and vigorously prosecuted than the famous march to the sea. In North America the practice of exhibitors differs materially from that of the old world. -Commercialism dominates all modern American life; the business element is always easy of discovery. The United States and Canada are the only countries in the world in which many of the leading prizes are won by horses im- ported from beyond the seas and shown by exhibitors whose chief object in trying to win honors is to make money. This is not true, of course, of a few of the rich men who show horses as a pastime, but these few often work the hardest to win and it is on the basis an- nounced that show yard methods, ethics, pro- cedure and preparation must be discussed. It FITTING FOR SHOW. 133 is this commercial element which has made rivalry in the American arena the most bitter in the world and supplies the reason why it is so essential that preparation be complete before sending horses onto the tanbark. In the old countries show ring competition is more or less of a lovefeast compared to the bat- tles fought on American soil. Annually the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Ger- many are ransacked by the importers for the best horses that money will buy and to win with these horses is a matter of dollars and cents, not of sentiment. That our breeders have done as well as they have in the face of this free- for-all competition speaks volumes for their progressive enterprize in the face of discourage- ment. We are a free-for-all nation, however, and the breeder must win against such competi- tion if he is to gain the top rungs of the ladder. It has been done and it can be done again. There are anomalies in national as well as per- sonal affairs and the position of the American breeder is a notable one. If he wins he wins against long odds and when he wins his triumph is all the more glorious. True parallels can not be drawn between the show yards of Europe and America. Friendship ceases when the horses enter the arena. It is then the business of the exhibitor to win and even a small point overlooked may 134 THE HORSE BOOK. mean defeat. Thin horses can not win. Poorly shown horses meet defeat. Fierce rivalry com- mands that the judges consider naught but that which is presented before them. Therefore the first essential is to put the show horses onto the tanbark as fit as hands can make them and to that condition an overload of flesh is the prime essential. Flesh covers a multitude of faults. It would serve no good purpose to dis- euss the question of so overloading show horses; the fact remains that it must be done. Nor must the exhibitor think that all he has to do is to put his horses into the ring good and fit and the ribbons will come of themselves. Ethically they should; actually they will not. Of late years there has been a marked advance in the personnel and work of the judges, but there are practical politics in the show ring just as there are in everyday life. It is a highly specialized type of politics at that and as in all political strife no one can afford to overlook even a single trivial point. An exhibitor to get quite all that is coming to him must not only get up into the ‘‘push’’ but he must be of the ‘‘oush.’’ He ean only get there by showing his stuff with just that extra touch of finish that compels recognition and the while remaining content to persevere in his novitiate as a good sportsman should. There is nothing Utopian or altruistic about the American show ring. A novice at the game must fight for what he gets FITTING FOR SHOW. 135 and, remembering what Sherman said about war, fight accordingly. If he does not watch out he will find the cards stacked against him and dealt to him from the top, middle and bot- tom of the deck. At that, more than half the ery of fraud and favoritism in the show ring which has gone up from disappointed exhibitors has lacked justification in fact. The really neat jobs have slid through so beautifully that they have hardly ever been even suspected, certainly not detected until long after they were put through. All of which nails down the unalter- able fact that the exhibitor must watch out or the goblins will get him. Fitting horses for show is an easy enough process, albeit one that is fraught with much likelihood of trouble if it is not properly done. The hard part of it all is to pick out the winner in the rough. The better the judge the more surely will he select a thin colt to make a winner when fitted, but the best will go wrong half the time or more. A breeder who lets his young stock get down poor has all these chances to take. He would better keep them in condition and so know more about them. There is no reason why a breeder should not show his horses from foalhood to maturity. The cumulative in- fluence of such success is priceless. Foals and yearlings should be the main reliance of the breeder in the show ring, rather than his matured stallions. Therefore we begin with the 136 THE HORSE BOOK. foals. A group of them, uniform in character and brought out as they should be, forms the very best advertisement for any breeder and next comes a good bunch of yearlings. In these classes he does not meet the competition of the importers. He practically has the field to himself. He is overlooking a sure thing if he does not avail himself of the opportunity. As there is no age limit in the classes for foals youngsters intended for exhibition should come early and be submitted to the forcing process from the time they are born. Foals are more easily fitted than any older horses. They should have all they will eat of oatmeal and bran and after they are ten weeks old or thereabouts some oilmeal. It is impossible to give any direct in- structions as to quantity. The feeder must ar- range about that according to the condition of the foals. The mares should be fed a large ration of grain and have good grass. It never pays to stint the mares that are suckling foals intended for exhibition. A ration consisting of ground oats one part, ground corn one part and bran two parts by weight, and a double handful of oilmeal fed dry will prove the best. They should have as much of his as they will eat up clean twice a day; it promotes the flow of milk and the foals prosper accordingly. This is high feeding of course, but it must be done in order to get the foals where they should be. With this sort of milk from their dams and what FITTING FOR SHOW. 137 grain the foals will eat there need be no worry about their growth, but if it is intended to send _ them into the ring in the very highest possible condition cow’s milk may also be fed to them. Nothing puts flesh so nicely on a young animal as milk. The charge that cow’s milk makes foals have soft joints is apparently made good at times, but then it is the abuse of the milk not its use that is to blame—the milk of itself never yet did any harm; it is the mountain of flesh that can be built up by the use of the milk that influences the joints and makes them soft. I believe that just as hard joints can be built up on milk as on anything else. In fact it can be proved that this is true, but it is for the feeder to determine how much must be given and to see that it is not abused. Moreover there are always chances to take in fitting any kind of horses for show. I have known colts that were allowed to bury their noses in warm new milk and drink all they wanted three times a day and come out all right every way and I have known others that threatened to go wrong on a ration limited to two quarts twice a day. Begin any time it is desired to feed the milk after the colt has got so it is able to take all the milk his dam gives. Go easy at the start. Feed three times a day and never give the ’ youngster all he will drink. Perhaps two quarts three times a day warm from the cow will be about right, though it may be too much. It will 138 THE HORSE BOOK. always be enough. If the feeder does not under- stand his business thoroughly or if the inexperi- enced man is not willing to take a chance while learning the feeding of cow’s milk to foals the process would better be eliminated altogether. According to modern show ring ideals foals of the draft breeds look better docked. They must also be taught to lead nicely and stand them- selves up properly in the show ring. An un- mannerly foal is at a grave disadvantage. Edu- cate them to walk and trot freely to halter and to stand still when wanted. To this end wean the foals early. Then they will not worry for their mothers, but the worst thing possible—I have seen it done—is to begin the weaning process just before leaving for the shows, either taking the dam along and leaving the foal or vice versa.. That will never do, no matter how -well done to the foal has been nor yet how old he is. The mare will go wrong somehow and the foal will never look as he should either at home or at the show. Trim the feet of the foals so as to keep them level. Get them to look as nearly like little horses as possible—the more so the better. If they are to be shown with their sire at their head, trim the lot just alike. Coach-bred foals should not be fed milk—it will make them too gross—unless one happens to be very backward and then he may be made to catch up to the others by the added food. With this single exception their treatment ; FITTING FOR SHOW. 139 should be the same as that for any other foal intended for exhibition. Thorough education is even more essential in the case of:coach and -Hackney foals than with the drafters, but only insofar as with the mature animals of these sorts. Foals fed for showing as described will only need a let up in dropping off the milk when the show season has drawn to its close, which under the present system is in December and therefore in cold weather. After they are safely home the milk may be tapered off and stopped altogether and the straight grain ration persevered with, raw or cooked roots being added. Carrots, sugar beets or rutabagas should be fed in quantity preferably raw. The grain ration should be oats and bran. It is im- possible to say definitely how much the colts should have. They should be given a big yard to exercise in and they should have as much oats and bran as they will eat up clean and come hungry to the next meal. This with the roots and what bright hay they will pick over will keep them growing nicely and as they should grow. Formerly I believed that it was neces- sary to feed weanlings soft food all winter. I am now convinced—and the bulletins of the ex- periment stations will bear me out—that more may be done in promoting growth of the right sort by feeding grain dry and by giving roots for sueculence. Digestive troubles, moreover, 140 THE HORSE BOOK. are less likely to arise to be overcome in colts that are dry-fed and it has been most conclu- sively proved that cooking adds nothing to the nutritive quality of the grain. Carried along in this way weanlings will come to the rise of grass as yearlings about as growthy as they can be made, fat and hearty. It is always better to separate the colts from the filies during the winter. They should be ac- customed to the green herbage gradually and then they should have the run of pasture, the grain feeding being continued. They should have shedding to run into at will and as they grow older they will, of course, require more grain. In the heat of summer the youngsters should be taken up during the day and turned out at night and they should have steady educa- tion in moving according to show yard methods. The fillies will do well in almost any sort of a field. The colts, being of a more excitable nature, will be better in small lots of two or three acres and not more than two colts to- gether. As the time of showing approaches again, perhaps about a month before the first show is to be made, take them off the pasture altogether so they will stand shipping. Early roots are most welcome at this time. If the youngsters are brought up in this way they will be as fit as they should be by the time the car is in the siding and the order to march is given. After FITTING FOR SHOW. 141 the yearling shows have been made the process of wintering is much the same as before. The youngsters need about all the grain they will eat under any circumstances and the feeder can alone determine what their rations should be. Two-year-old colts brought to their second season this way should have box stalls and pad- docks attached, each colt a stall and a paddock to himself. JI have seen valuable colts run in bunches as two-year-olds, but it is a poor prac- tice. They wrestle and fight and the lability to accident and consequent blemish is great. Of course if it is desired to run the colts along on little or no grain perhaps they will get along nicely enough together in large lots, but I do not think that is the way to rear pure-bred colts. Keep the youngsters schooled in the ways of the arena. This is as good a place to say it as any other: It is impossible to explain didactically the art of feeding young horses for show purposes. It is an art and one that may be learned only by experience. It would be foolish to try to set down any positive rules for the feeding of young horses intended for the show ring. They will stand a lot of feeding and they must have it, but as every horse is different in some par- ticular from the next one only a very general foundation can be laid down. On this the feeder must build for himself, but he must build with 142 THE HORSE BOOK. the knowledge that he can kill one with that which will not be half enough for the next. With the colts thirty months old or there- abouts and the show season over they will be practically mature. They will grow some more, to be sure, but it will be little in comparison to what they have done in the days through which we have followed them. Exercising now be- comes a most important factor, though many people think a colt coming three years old will do very well if given a yard in which to run during cold weather. A show colt, and it does not matter how good he is, should now be broken and made to work as I have already described. Then comes his season as a three-year-old and more work. If the colt is moderately worked and in full round flesh at July 1, say 60 days before the shows open, these 60 days will be ample to put on the extra flesh he must have to win. It is unnecessary to have him right on razor edge when you first take him away from home. The same amount of grain and less work will put on all the needed flesh and his legs will stay right, while he will feel so much better than an idle colt that there will be no compari- son between them in the ring. Never forget the lessons that make for handlines in the show - ring at the halter. During the month that comes just before he goes away from home let him have these lessons daily. If he is suddenly, FITTING FOR SHOW. 143 for any cause, forced into absolute idleness, cut off the grain altogether. There is no reason why stallions should not be given their exercise in the harness and yet be sent into the ring ready to the minute. The crack geldings of Armour, Morris, Swift or Pabst got their work in the leather—not much it is true, but enough to make and keep them handy—and I have never seen stallions shown in better fet- tle. We need more strength and virility in our stallions. I know that the advocacy of such methods of fitting for show will sound strange to many of the old school in which I was brought up, but I can not close my eyes to the accom- plished facts presented to my view. When I have seen the Armour and other geldings sweep- ing around the arena at all gaits from the state- ly walk to the keen run for an hour at a time—a feat that none of the stallions shown could ac- complish—and each individual gelding in as high flesh as any of the entires fitted without work, I have learned that the best way to pre- pare horses for the arena is not in idleness but in the harness. I know that it would be practically impossible for the importers to fit all their stallions as suggested, but that does not lessen the force of my contention that it would be vastly better for the horses themselves and for the men who buy them if they would. I do not wish to be understood as saying that the great geldings are made ready for showing 144 THE HORSE BOOK. on full work, nor yet that all stallions could so be made ready, but some of them can be made ready on work enough to make it pay to work them and others on tasks so little lessened that the difference would be negligible. In any case it is so much easier for a man to sit upon a box and drive that the horses would always get work enough to preserve that health- ful vigor which is so essential to the propaga- tion of the race in its best estate. However it often happens that a thin horse is to be put in condition for the show ring and the owner will not consider putting him to work. The period of time which must intervene be- tween the day on which he is taken up and the day on which he will have to be sent into the ring will have of course a material bearing on the manner. of feeding, and there is something -also in the number of chances an owner is will- ing to take. Likewise there is much in the in- dividual. I have known horses take a whole year to get ready and then lose their show con- dition in a week. There are some hard wooden beasts that will never feed into show shape. On the other hand there are some horses that it is hard to keep out of show shape—in idleness. It is, however, safe to say that on any reason- ably big-framed horse from two years old up- ward 500 pounds may be put on in six months if he is so thin to start with that his ribs may be distinguished. When a horse is idle he may be FITTING FOR SHOW. 145 fed a great variety of food and suffer no ill con- sequences and the variation of the grain will coax him to eat with greater relish. I do not advoeate this kind of feeding. I will describe the methods in vogue some years ago by a firm whose fame is worldwide, whose prize-winning record placed it clearly in the forefront among its contemporaries and whose losses by death from colic and kindred troubles were enormous. In the morning about five the horses were given crushed oats and bran, fed dampened with cut hay—enough to fill a common stable bucket. At ten in the forenoon they got whole oats, bran and cut hay. At two in the afternoon they got the same feed as in the early morning and around six in the evening they got boiled barley, crushed oats, ground corn, oilmeal and cut hay, and usually some roots boiled with the barley. The feeder was a man of great experi- ence and highly competent in every way. I should judge that the horse got from 16 to 20 pounds of grain and bran each day and only very moderate exercise. Often as the time of showing approached this feeding was supple- mented by the traditional drink at nine o’clock at night. This consisted of the jelly made from perhaps a pint of oilmeal, a couple of pounds of oatmeal, half a pound of molasses and water or milk to make something more than half a bucketful. With all this the individual caretakers would oftentimes feed extra grain 10 146 THE HORSE BOOK. between meals. This is high feeding properly so called. Any one who wishes to take his © chances of colic, founder, inflammation of the bowels and the like with it may do so. The stomach and intestines of horses so fed are so soft that you can stick your fingers through them anywhere and not half try. Any one who wants to build a horse up for show in this way may do it. The prudent showman maps out his plan of campaign, studies out his best routes, hires his ear for the show season and ships out in time — so that he will arrive at his destination a couple of days before the show opens. It is best to rent a palace car for a stated number of weeks or months. If it is not desired to go to this expense—though it always pays—then a box car (or more) must be fitted with stalls made of strong lumber, just as they might be built in a barn. Three horses may often be put in one end of the car, but if mature stallions are being taken along two will be enough, which means that one partition must be built, and it is hardly needful to say that it should be built so that nothing short of an ax will knock it down. . Horses will only ride well in a box’ car either head to or tail to the motion. Arrangements having been made with the railway officials for the use of the same car during the entire season the lumber used may be knocked away and saved when the return journey is made and the FITTING FOR SHOW. 147 horses are once more safely on the home land- ing platform. In getting to and from landing chutes and unloading platforms at fair grounds the shipper will acquire a varied assortment of experience. Horses do not need much feed in transit—only about enough to keep them quiet.. A barrel should be taken along for water and filled peri- odically in transit. It pays to get horses off the ear as soon as possible after they stop rolling. When standing still they soon begin to fret. At junction, division and terminal points the yardmasters will be found to be human and therefore appreciative of common decency and civility and occasionally, in my experience, amenable to other influences. It pays to be a good fellow in the show business. Make entries in proper season and give full details. Never let the suspicion that you have a ‘“‘ringer’’ with you get abroad. Ask as few favors of the show management as pos- sible and as a general thing put up with inconvenience to the point of imposition rather than raise a row. It pays. It pays also to do whatever the management asks in the way of getting horses into the ring, parading and so forth. Give the people a show whenever you ean. As the advertising is all that any exhibitor gets directly for his labor, his stalls should be tastefully decorated, the placards showing forth in large plain letters whose horses are being 148 THE HORSE BOOK. shown, and civil replies should be returned to all visitors. There is another thing that pays: have a pleasant word for everyone. No one ever can tell by the looks of a man whether he is a prospective purchaser or not. I have seen thousand-dollar bills fished out of vests that were not worth three dimes. True sportsmanship demands that the exhibi- tor take victory or defeat philosophically. The man who is blatant in success and lugubrious in defeat bumps against trouble sooner or later. An exhibitor should act like a man, not like a spoiled child who does not want to play in any one else’s yard unless the game goes his way. The show yard is no child’s playground. There is only one way to learn its ropes, which is to get into the game and play it for all it is worth. Just how to play it each must learn for himself. No amount of precept will serve to portray its inner workings. But it may be said in conclu- . sion that a man must have the goods to win and he must play his cards aright. He may have the goods and he may not get all that is coming to him. However when he has the goods and stays awake he will generally find out where to go and what to do. PART IL. THE BREEDS. ‘What is a breed?’’ Many different replies are made to this question. We talk glibly about this breed and that breed; of breed character and breed type, but when it comes to putting an accepted but not conceived definition into cold type it is altogether a different matter. Darwin and other distinguished men of science have told us from time to time what a breed is as op- | posed to a species or variety or sub-variety, but I question very much if any definition yet given quite fills the bill. Webster gives among others these definitions of the word: ‘‘A race or progeny from the same parents or stock; as, a new breed of sheep.’’ ‘‘A cast, a race or kind of men or other animals which have an alliance by nativity or some distinctive qualities in com- mon,’’ and the phrase used as illustration is ‘*Greyhounds of the best breed.’’ The first may be let go for what it is worth. The second falls far short in that the animals in a breed need not necessarily have a common parent or even a common line of descent and the mere posses- sion of “‘some distinctive qualities in common’’ will not by any means make a breed. So far as our modern breeds are concerned they are all composite in origin and there der- 149 150 THE HORSE BOOK. ivation may therefore be passed up without farther consideration. In any case it is implied in the following which is presented as the cor- rect definition of the term under consideration: A breed is a group of animals possessing homologus character by inheritance so firmly fixed as to be transmitted with reasonable cer- tainty under suitable environment. Place fifty well bred Jersey cows in a row, fifty West Highland bulls, fifty Clydesdale horses and fifty Angus bulls. Now screen from view all of the Jersey cows and the Highland bulls but their heads; all of: the Clydesdale horses but their legs from the knees and hocks downward, and all of the Angus bulls but the hind quarters, and a correct idea of homologous character may be obtained. It is the sum of these homologues in each instance that goes to make up what we briefly refer to nowadays as breed type or character. In just so far as this test is met by the entire membership of a breed it may be counted on to reproduce with reason- able certainty the homologous character which it possesses. Vice versa in just so far as a breed will not meet this test it will fail. In following out this thought we may readily learn how in- definite have been the aims of many breeders— even to the inevitable conclusion that in some of our most celebrated breeds, taken in a mass, real homologous character is not present. It must be understood that reference is made THE BREEDS. 151 to the breed as a whole first of all, then to such selected representatives as we call show stock. When the latter do not present an adequate amount of homologous character, so much the worse. A breed must be judged in its entirety, not by a few fine specimens which may rise in sparkling fashion over the dead mediocrity of the great mass. The touch of the masterhand is in evidence always, but it not infrequently happens that the best horse in a ring does not . - really typify the breed to which he is alleged to belong. At the risk of being called tedious I desire to emphasize the fact that it is the sum of the homologous characters which constitutes breed type and the animal which embodies in itself the most of these characters in their highest estate is the animal which must be adjudged the best according to the standard of the breed involved. It is along these broad lines that the various breeds are deseribed in future chapters. Stud book iregistration and maintenance of breed purity must always go hand in hand. Errors of omission and commission will creep into stud books and in itself registration is worth little unless it certifies to a line of descent from ancestors of high class, but it may be accepted without question that in this modern age it would be impossible to maintain the purity of any breed without a well managed stud book. Popularly too much weight is ac- 152 THE HORSE BOOK. corded to the numbers following the name of a horse. The word ‘‘registered’’ is one to conjure with and it has been made a scapegoat to bear away into the wilderness of credulity a vast load of inferiority. Too many are willing to believe that because a horse is registered in some stud book he must be a good one. This easy credulity has led to the establishment of bogus books of record in which registration implies absolutely nothing, but that the certificate has been granted and the recording fee paid. Ignorance of the real value of record and of the names of the stud books in which registration really means something has caused many a man to pay his money for a grade in the belief that he was buying a pure- bred. In the appendix to this volume will be found a list of all the stud books recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture at the date of publication. It will be seen that the list is a long one and it has grown to its present proportions practically within the past thirty years. In this connection it is but just that fitting recognition be extended to the late J. H. San- ders, founder of THe Breeprer’s Gazettes, for the splendid part he played in promoting the establishment of many of the stud books now so widely known. I am within the mark in stating that we have never had a man so widely versed in horse lore as he was in his time. I THE BREEDS. 153 am also within the mark in stating that he was actively connected with the foundation of almost every stud book of standing in which the far- mers of America are interested today. By his unfailing perception and his indomitable energy he brought order out of chaos in a time when there were no trails blazed for him to follow. He was a practical breeder and a thorough- going encyclopedia in matters pertaining to the horse. Not only did he render an incaleulably great service in advocating and aiding the es- tablishment of the stud books in which the far- mers are most generally interested, but when Kentucky revolted against the close rule of the arbitrary Wallace, Mr. Sanders was selected to compile the new stud book, which he did in a manner reflecting his most intimate knowledge of the American harness race horse and its origin. I desire also to pay my personal tribute to his memory. No man in agricultural America has left behind him so great a monument. Go wherever a furrow is turned in American soil and there the fruit of his works is made mani- fest. Egypt’s pyramids will in time turn to dust, but the monument James Harvey Sanders builded will gather bulk and strength and beauty as time rolls on. In the gleam of the golden grain in bin and crib; in the show yard and in the stock yard are blazoned the praises which are his by right. Progressive always, ag- 154 THE HORSE BOOK. gressive when occasion required, a master of detail as well as a man of affairs, the world is vastly better for the touch of his vanished hand. THE DRAFT BREEDS. History contains no record of any large breed of horses having been developed on high ground. Omitting detail it was not until the horse in his westward migration reached the low-lying marshy lands of northern Kurope that he began to gather the bulk and strength which have made for the present-day drafter. It is also immaterial where the first real drafters were developed. That development was probably simultaneous athwart a consider- able stretch of country. Still we may accept that part of Belgium and Holland erstwhile de- nominated Flanders as the fountainhead from which flowed the stream which has given us the true draft horse. From the parent stock there obtained the various heavy breeds as we know them today have been evolved according to the desires of the various peoples which have de- veloped them. As there was no native American heavy horse he had to be imported and as the importing business has grown and ramified we may divide the draft breeds into three groups —the French, the British and the Belgian. THE FRENCH GROUP. In France the government recognizes two pure draft breeds—the Percheron and the Bou- L061 ‘MOUS SlIvg 4B WeHe} O10 NOITIVLIS AYRISSVINW V THE FRENCH GROUP. 15 lonnais. Other breeds recognized at the shows but not claimed to be pure are the Nivernais, the Bretonnais and the Ardennais, and there are also prizes offered for a nondescript lot called Mulassiere, which means ‘‘mule-bear- ing,’’ and the design is to encourage the produc- tion of loosely built mares well suited to mate with the asses of Poitou. The Mulassiere, how- ever, may be dismissed from consideration. On their first introduction to the United States the draft horses of France were all in- cluded within the common title of ‘‘Norman.’’ There was none but the Norman horse imported from France, but some twenty years later a dis- position to call them Percherons appeared on the part of those who believed the horses of La Perche were the most representative and most clearly entitled to be called the typical Gallic drafter. " ang Oia a “eat gta v, £d¥ SOY S822 r By U3 > > et ~) : : { PROMOS * ae ae, . % > SSR 7 (RING ; on Bx < yy € 6 y OX a) : BTS EO EATS RED Y OAV SEI? 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