The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-24
The Horse We Want.

DIFFERENT interests have different
views Of the horse we want. The
breeder or admirer of tr0tting stock
looks to speed; it makes no difference
to him whether the horse is well
shaped or i'll shaped, light or heavy,
and not very much if he is sound OF
unsound, if he can trot. The breeder
or user of roadsters wants q horse fol
the road-one that has good, steady
gait, good bottom, and is tough. The
man who has use only for a fami,
ly horse is always looking for perfec.
ton in that direction, and the teamstel
demands a heavy horse, without dis.
ease or blemish. Occasionally the
farmer comes forward and puts in his
claim, but usually it differs from the
idea of his neighb0r as to what farm
horse should be. Some want light
horse, and others q heavy one, and
still others q medium. But the aver.
age farmer does not seem to care much
what he has, if it is a horse, and the
result is that no effort is made BY
breeders to supply this very important
branch Of industry with the right kind
of an animal.
That heavy horse is best for the
farm, or rather would be the best fol
it, if it had some of the merits which
are not characteristic of heavy horses,
no one will dispute. A heavy horse
will do heavier work than q light
horse, and there is no room to dispute
the assertion. But this is not all that
goes to make up the balance of profit
and loss when the horse question on
the farm is considered. A farmer may
be able to haul q larger load of hay OF
grain with pair of large horses than
he can with q pair of small ones, but il
1t takes him more than twice as long to
do it than it would with smaller
and more active pair, he has not made
very much in profit. In other words,
activity is very prominent element
entering into this question. Especially
is this true when the farmer can keep
but one pair of horses, and is therefore
compelled to use them on the road;
when necessity or pleasure requires
him to 60 on the road; and while a
separate horse for driving may be de-
sirable, if there is much driving to be
done, under any circumstances it il
very poor policy to keep one simply
because the other horses are too lazy
or naturally too slow for the purpose;
and particularly so when this very de-
feet makes them improbable as work
horses.
Now we do not mean to advocate the
use of light horses by any means, but
we mean to advocate the breeding Of
heavier horses with a view to activity
-qtiick motion. A horse Ut all iieces-
sary weight for farm purposes can be
bred without getting horse that is Is
slow as an elephant. We want rapid
walkers for the farm. In no other
place In the world do we need this kind
of horse more. There is actual loss
to the farmer in the slow walking gait
of his horses. II it requires him two
days to do one days blowing, simply
because his team is slow, he Is adding
SO per cent. to the cost of all work
which has to be done by the use of his
team. The truth is that the farm horse
in perfection has been overlooked in
the desire to breed animals with fancy
NA1A osIO0A 1CSAVOS 0AAu ~ 10 V11AO UAA0t SOu1C
attention was given to this matter. We
once knew q mare that would walk AZ
fast a. thousands of farm horses would
trot, and although her owner valued
this merit so highly that q thousand
dollars could not have bought her, nc
one of his neighbors ever seemed to
think that the matter of fast walking
was Of enough importance to lead them
to endeavor to raise or, secure fast
walkers. We know of course that it il
not very difficult to breed just such q
horse as we want. Breeding has come
to too great perfection to permit us to
doubt this. 1t is no longer question,
whether we can produce certain results
in breeding, but. the question is, DO We
want to produce them? and that ques.
ton is answered in the negative when
applied to fast walking, every time q
heavy horse is produced. As breeders
perhaps farmers have heen slower in
the breeding of horses-sucb horses a.
they need-than in the breeding of any
other stock, and in this age of progress
it is time to 60 to work at that as We
60 to work at breeding other domestic
animals. Western Raral.