Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-09-20


dice of such sires as Lambert and other
sons of Ethan Allen that have been get
ting trotters from Indifferent mares while
the mares of racing quality have been
producing Indifferent foals by Fashion
ably bred sires from abroad. 1t is true
that the freshly-imported young Wilkeses
and McGregors may change all this; but
when, eleven years ago, the treasurer of
the National association paid $4,000 for
the young stallion, Dean Sage, brother
in blood to the great Dictator and the
mighty Dexter, and brought him to YER
mont, he would have been rash, indeed,
who then predicted that today Dean Sage
would have but one , 80 trotter, and
that very weak specimen from Happy
Medium dam brought here with him.
And now it is not strange If many
thoughtful Vermont breeders gravely
doubt if the enthusiastic efforts of our
neighbors to "improve our stock" by in
Producing at our expense sires of their
breeding. have not been to us a Grecan
gift; and who believe that if, instead of
being turned to these interlopers. our
choice native mares had been left to such
native sres as Lambert, Holabird's
Ethan Allen. belongs Ethan Allen,
American Ethan, Earthquake and their
sons, the world of horses would have
been the better for it.
There is another consideration that
cannot be too often urged. Our associa-
ton is one of ROAD as well as of trot-
ting horse breeders, and road stands
first. No doubt the vast majority of
Vermont breeders arc ambitious to pro-
duce first-class gentlemen's driving hors-
es, with little or no thought of candidates
for the track and this must be so, as the
road market is greater than the track
market by ten thousand to one. Now of
this mighty market Vermont has for
many years been favorite. 1t is equally
so to-day, save that the customers de-
plore the growing scarcity of what they
call the old-fashioned Vermont horses
the compact, trappy, handsome, tireless,
docile Morgan of the north. They COM
plain that we are supplanting this an
imal
"With lathy horse, all legs and length,
With blood for bone, all speed, no strength "
and what do we reply? Why, that we
are hoping to breed race-horses for the
track. Therefore we offer premiums to
only those matched horses that are l55
hands high and over, lest pair of typi-
cal Morgans should get one; therefore
we accept the bowstrng known as the
"Standard,' offered us by Sultan Wal
lace, and proceed to strangle ourselves
with it, though how we came to be within
his jurisdiction passes all comprehension.
We act like the young advocate who lost
good case because his more experienced
adversary sat and grinned at him during
his argument. We are grinned out OF
court. You have the best mare in your
neighborhood, handsome, substantial
resolute. with plenty of speed for road
purposes, never weary, never unwilling,
good for all uses, and so docile and intel
ligent as to seem one of the family. You
want another like her, and you breed
her. say, to Mr.. Brainerd's Allen, one of
the purest-bred and most typical Nor
gans alive, and able to trot close to 2O
whenever given proper opportunity
GU get horse colt, just your ideal, and
you fancy you will keep him entire and
produce more of that kind of horses.
But along comes Mr.. Standardized with
his grin. Is your mare standard? No.
(Grin.) Is Allen standard? | believe
not. (Grin.) Well, who do you suppose
will be silly enough to breed to horse
in these times that is not standard on
either side: (PrOtracted grin.) And
you are grinned out of court. Yet if
you had bred standard mare not worth
a cent to standard horse not worth a
straw, and produced a colt that you
would not keep and could not give away,
your grinning friends objections to keep
ing him entire would all have been re-
moved. All of which illustrates the diff
ference between relying on individual
merit in those characteristics in which
you want merit, and being governed by
a set of arbitrary rules made by others
for their own benefit, in which no quail
ity except speed mot even soundness) is
taken into account as meritorious. We
have in Vermont the best type of road
horses in the world. The foundation of
that type is Morgan blood. The introduc-
ton of Hambletonian crosses is not con-
servative of that type, but destructive of
it. 1t has the same effect in destroying the
typical character that would follow the
introduction of Cotswold bucks among a
flock of pure Merinos. If sheep were
found to be produced by the Cotswold-
Merino cross that were excellent for
mutton, there would be reason in its use
by mutton producers. But wool-grow-
ers would be excusable for wishing to
preserve the Merino type and keep it