The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-15
Shall Farmers Raise Trotting Horses.

The question is often asked by the
| farmers of the west, CIVIL it paw to
raise trotting horses ?" Our opinion
upon this question is, that usually il
will not In exceptional cases, it will.
The farmer who has only the mongreal
common mares of the country. cannot
afford to pay the prices demanded for
the services of first. class trottine stall
lion; and if he should decide to incur
this expense, in ninety-nine cases ont of
hundred he would be disappointed in
the result. Should he patronize anv
OF the cheap, quick-stepping, mongrel
little stations with which the country
abounds In the hope of raising trotter,
he is almost certain to be disappointed.
and the progeny will be comparatively
worthless. True, there is now and then
an exceptional case, when a horse of un,
known lineage has proven a valuable
trotter, but the chances for success in
this style of breeding are about equal
to those of drawing the capital prize in
the Royal Haven lottery" by invest
ing in tickets in the institution.
But If mares of unmistakable and de-
cided trotting action, showing points of
good breeding and strong individuality,
can be obtained, and stallion known
to be deeply bred in trotting strains,
and showing decided trotting action
himself, is within reach, then the
chances are that it will pay to attempt
to breed trotters. And if, in addition
to the foregoing, the mares are known
to possess a good share of the blood of
some of the well-established trottinQ
families, the Messengers, Bashaws,
Morgans, Clays, Pilots, or Mambrinos,
then the judicious selection of stallion
is pretty certain to produce satisfactory
results. 1t need not be expected that
every foal thus produced will prove a
world-beater, because onlv the fast.
est among the fast are the winners but
good trotters and road horses will usu-
ally be the result, and you are in the
legitimate succession for a winner. But
it will not do for the farmer or his bows
to spend much time or money in train
ing the fOals thus produced. It will be
found more profitable to sell these we'll
bred youngsters at fair, remunerative
rates, and leave the training to the pro-
fessionals who have the requisite skill
to prepare them for the track. It has
been remarked that "the American trot-
ter is the creation of the American
trainer. 1t requires skill, Judgment,
and perseverance to develop the high
est rate of speed in the trotting horse.
Training trotting horses has become a
profession, and we would not recon-
mend farmers to spend their time in
competition with those who make this
their sole business.
Under the circumstances above de-
scribed, with we'll bred mares and agood
stallion, and selling off the foals when
young, the farmer can scarcely engage
in more profitable business than in
breeding trotting horses. But the
great mass of farmers, owning only the
mongrel, clumsy mares of the country,
will find more certain profit in breed
ing largehorses, patronizing the Mormon
or Clydesdale stations, or large and we'll
formed thoroughbred if within reach,
producing good draft and coach horses
that always find ready sale at remu-
nerative prices.-LiUe Stock Journal.