The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-09-24
Shall We Encourage Walking Horses?

1t is hardly possible to take up iour-
nal during the summer and autumn
/ without seeing either items or extended
accounts of what horses have accom-
| plished in trOtting or running. We
scarcely ever see acc Ounts OF their en-
| durance in hauling loads at a given
| pace, or the number of miles they have
accomplished in a given number of
hours at a walking gait and yet this
practically is of far more Importance
than their endurance at speed.
Agricultural fair managers, who
might not inaptly be called " agricul-
tural horse-trot managers" advertise
widely the large amounts devoted as
premiums for trOtting and running, but
not word as 30 horses exhibiting the
greatest endurance and speed at a walk
ing gait. Why not? "Oh, It viii not
draw the crowd" Very we'll if agri-
cultural fairs are simply intended to
draw that class of humanity whose end
and aim in life is trotting an running
horses, and betting thereon, we'll and
good.
There is, however, now and then an
individual who, while he admires this
noble animal at speed, very well knows
that this eternal pandering to mere
speed is not only vitiatirg the taste of
the public, but also is tending to breed
out other valuable traits that can Ill be
spared.
A good walking horse should make,
at that gait, an average of four miles an
hour. How many can do 1t? Very few.
Why SOP The walking gait has ceased
to be cultivated.
By the careful training of ambitious
and active horses they may be made to
walk five miles an hour as easily as the
ordinary horse now walks three. There
is no reason why an averagepa of four
miles an hour should not be kept up
with ordinary loads throughout the day.
In the days travel this would make a
gain of ten miles and the trained horse
would have accomplished forty miles as
against the thirty miles for the untrain-
ed one, and this just as easily to the
horse of spirit as to the one with the !
slower gait. If the horse have not the |
mechanical structure for this gait, of |
course he cannot do it. Having it, it |
may be brought out just as easily as |
trotting or running gait; and if pre- |
miums were given for this purpose at |
our agricultural fairs, it would be found |
that individual horses would be able to |
make, not only five miles an hour, but |
some of them six. The naturally fast |
walker, when trained, will even do a |
given amount of work, at the increased |
pace, easier than at tho slow pace. This /
we know from experience.
The energy displayed among all clas- |
ses of breeders has been directed con-
stantly to reduce and degrade the walk
ing gait, and as a consequence we find, |
each year, fewer and fewer fast-walking /
horses. This spirit has pervaded our
fair rings until now it is difficult to find
a premium offered for the fastest
walking horse. In looking over the
premium lists already received by us
for 1874, embracing nearly all the /
western states, We find only two pre- |
miums sffered for walking horses, one i
by the Kansas City (Mo.) Industrial /
and the other by the North
eastern Iowa Agricultural society. We
are glad to be able to chronicle these
Two, and hope that the number may be
yearly increased until the fast-walking
horse shall at least be regarded on a
par with other road and working horses.
A great error has been made in ignoring
this most valuable of all the gaits of
the horse. Certainly reform is needed
in this directiOn.-W Western Rural