Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-07-21
Success in Horse Breeding.

The following remarks are extracted from
a paper by Hank Comstock, which appears
in Wallaces Monthly for June
Many breeders have plans to start with,
but either forget them at the critical moment.
or change them so often that their selections
point to no clearly defined method. This is
nearly always the experience of the novice.
He is educated only by experience, and gains
his knowledge only by the mistakes he finds
he has made at the start. Hence we may
find many places with few choice animals,
and large number of ordinary ones that it
would be desirable to dispose of, could pur-
chaser be found, but which are generally
held because the owner dislikes to face the
necessary sacrifice.
The first loss is generally the best in such
cases, and that fact is coming to be more gen.
orally understood with the present depression
in the selling value Of even choice animals.
Where lack of means dictates selections it
would not appear so strange that animals
wanting in some Of the essential qualities for
breeding should be CHANGED, in the hope that
the deficiency may be counterbalanced by
other superior features and overcome in prop
er cross but with ample means at command,
many young breeders make their purchases
at random, and completely squauder their ad-
vantages. Sooner or later most Of them better
their condition by either selling out entirely,
or wedding out their stock and repurchasing.
The writer has noticed, in an extended OBJ
servation Of some years past, that frequently
the poorest beginners have atterward become
breeders Of excellent judgment Experience
is an expensive but very effcctual teacher,
provided the recipient OF the lesson is capa-
pie of learning. But there is now and then
a clear busiLess mind that takes up this sub
ject Of breeding, and makes a study of it
before vonturing to put its deductions in
practice. Such men determine what they
want before they buy at all, and then keep
their aims clearly in mind while selecting.
They 60 straight by their chart from the first,
and usually accomplish something to show
for it. They do not all follow the same
path, nor do they all aim to accomplish pre-
cisely the same object but, having thou ght
far enough to create an ideal which they
hope to initiate, it generally possesses sufii.
cient merit to be ofvalue when approximated
and hence they succeed as breeders.
1t is frequently asserted that there is no
de6nable way Of breeding that will bring sue.
cess, and that the whole system is one of
chance, great results coming when least eI.
pected, and disappointment following the
most logically conceived plans. There is a
greater measure Of truth in this claim than
even the most ardent enthusiast on the sub
jeet can set aside, it the object sought be
profit in the investment, aud no other aim
in view in the breeding problem than the one
bare question OF trotting speed aud bottom.
The most successful breeders in the coun-
try produce too many blanks to their number
OF prizes to keep the balance sheet right, un-
less the blanks possess value independent
OF the questions Of speed and with the
blanks in the ratio in which they appear on
many stud farms, it is a question whether
their disposal is not matter of far greater
moment in financial sense than that Of the
prizes. Ii is the common experience Of
breeding on any considerable scale, that after
few years trial it is found desirable to re-
ducc the mares in numbers to the few for
which direct nick has been found, and dis
pose OF tho others, no matter with what care
and judgment they were originally selected.
This has been the experience at Thorndale,
Stony Ford, and other noted establishments,
and must continue to be so. Therefore every
point which tends to produce foal saable
for other purposes than speed, that can be
oompassed without sacrificing the chances OF
that most valuable element, should receive
due business consideration in selecting breed.
ing animals, in order that the produce that
fails to come up to the speed standard may
yet bring the breeder out without loss.