Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-01-12
Ignorance In Horse Breeding.

The fast horses of tho country seem to
be rather the result of accident or good
fortune than Of design. In other business,
men invest one or five thousand dollars
with the reasonable certainty that they will
receive their money back again, together
with a profitable rate of interest. This is
what is called doing a safe business; and
it is this certainty Of return that renders
the business Legitimate. BY as much as the
result is uncertain, accidental, the business
loses in dignity, ceases to be attractive to u
wel.constructcd intellect, and becomes u
species Of gambling.
Now, breeding Of fast horses has been a
business up to within few years, and even
now, in the majority Of cases, is a pursuit,
VIGOROUSLY tainted with this fatal element Of
uncertainty. The history of almost every
breeder is history Of extravagaut hopes
aud bitter disappointments. His whole ca
reer has been one Of struggle, delusive sue
cesses, and total failures. If now and then
he has made hit" as the saying is, il &C.
casionally he has produced fast colt, the
very success served only, in the way Of con.
trast to make his failures all the more notice.
able. The great trotting.horses Of the
country have not been toaled, in the pro-
portion that one might reasonably expect,
in the great stables Of the country: They
have come, rather, before the public from
obscure sources. ln many cases, as with
Dutchman aud Flora Temple aud Ripton,
no one eau tell up to this day any thing Of
the sire or the dam. The fact that three
such horses, and scores of others Of almost
equal merit, have no known plreutage, re-
vCaIs how rude aud unsuccessful the breed.
ing efforts of the country have been. Who
can conceive Of three winners Of the Derby
with no known pedigree? Who can imagine
horse arising in England, who should win
all the principal prizes, and remain king OF
the English turf for six or ten years, and
no Engshman be able TO tell the stable in
which he was born, the dam that foaIed
him. or the horse which was his sire Such a
thing would be impossible: for there the
principles of breeding are understood; the
result that shall come from the union OF two
strains Of blood can be predicted ; and sue
cesscs are in the line of sequence, aud not Of
accident.
But here we have had few, it any, Impair
tial and intelligent studeuts Of the problem.
The most intricate and delicate of all endcav.
ors to propagate great excelenccs by the
harmonious union Of desirable qualities, pos
sessed in part by the sire and in part by
the dam, has been, for the most part, under
taken by men too ignorant or prejudiccd to
grasp comprehensively the rudimentnl prin.
ciples Of success. Hence it is that breeding
in America has been an innocent kind of
gambling; that is, a vcHture in which good
luck, rather than an understanding Of and
attention to the business, was relied on for
success. Hence many Of our fastest horscs
arc sent to us annually from the barn-yards
of unknown, and, 30 far as principles Of
breeding 60, ignorant farmers. We find
thent-as Dutchman was found, in tan
dem.team, drawing bricks or behind drov.
er's wagon, as Flora Temple was discovered
without name or fame. They come un-
heralded by any expectation, the result Of
no plan, no knowledge, no wisely.iuvestcd
capital. This seems an indisputablo pro-
position, therelore,-that one OF the causes
of the financial failures which have attended
attempts at breeding is to be in the gross
| ignorance of the breeders themselves in the
principles of opagation.-GOlden Rule