Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-06-21
Mountain Air for Horses.

The winning of the Kentucky dehby
and Clark stakes at louisville by noun
tain horse is an event which will set the
far east aud the far west to studying a
new problem in horse Bleeding. II has
long been settled in the minds of the
horsemen in this intermountain region,
but it will be new thing to the Blue
Grass and California valley horse raisers.
The climate of California is not more
favorable to the rapid growth of colts than
that Of Montana. If the winters are
not quite SO severe, the summers are far
more prostrating. Then the food in
Montana--the grass, hay and grdn--is
far superior to that Of the ~ prnia
valleys. With these copdifs the
sea level the Montana horses WI oehsve
the advantage. But Spokane Was bred
and raised several thousand feet above
the sea, He has lived all his life in a
light atmosphere, The consequence is
that his lungs are half as big again ms
they would have been had he been raised
in Kentucky or in any Of the coast val
leys of California.
So when taken from home to Ken
lucky and put in race with valley-bred
colts the same difference was realized
that would be were two engines. each.
say, Of forty horse power, put to an ex-
treme test, with one driven byea fos
horse power boiler and the other by a
sixty-horse power boiler. When men
from valley go upa mountain they are
quickly exhausted. When men from
the mountain go down to the seashore
for several days they feel as though they
had about them a buoyancy which pre-
vented their feet from getting down to
the ground In one case men cannot
get the needed oxygen in the other they
have such n surplus that it amounts to,
half intoxication. We believe that one
thousand mountain miners have been
arrested in San Francisco for too much
hilarity, solely because with their ex
banded lungs filed with the dense air of
the sea level they, without comprehend
ing anything except they felt an indies
cribable joyousness, were impelled by
an irrepressiblo impulse n paint the
town crimson.
That is the way Spokane felt at Lotiis-
vile, and that is why be easily took
from Proctor Knott all chance for his
friend- to make excuses for him by
lowering the record two seconds. IL
does not prove that he is by nature
better horse than Proctor Knott The
chances arc that with the same treat
ment the Kentucky horse may beat the
mountain horse before the season is over.
after the lungs Of the latter shall have
become adjusted to the Kentucky level
But Just ~ u mountain Indian can out
run valley Indian, mountain horse
when first taken to the valley is most
dangerous competitor for valley raised
horse. The one matter Of the difference
in the lung power of the horses is the
chief difference, but, at the same tine
the difference of food must likewise
considered. There is no country Il
raises superior grass aud hay to Mo
tana no country where through Il
long summer the reed keeps more muir
tious, the climate more bracing, or whe
animals are troubled less by insects
and, while the winters are cold, il is
not cold that reduces vitality. The
east and ives. will have to look out in
the future for mountain colts. --,Sah
Luke Tribune.