The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-13
MOUNTAIN AIR FOR HORSES.
A Reason for Spokane's Speed-Effects
of Montana's Atmosphere.

vi A1OuJd1d Atmosphere.
From the Salt Lake Tribune
The winning of the Kentucky derby and
Clark stakes at Louisville by a mountain
horse is tan event which will set the far east
and the far west to studying a new prob lem
in horse breeding. 1t has long been settled
in the minds of horsemen in this intermoun-
tain 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 Frustrating. Then
the food In Montana-the grass, hay and
grains far superior to that of the Cali
fornia valleys With these conditions on
the sea level the Montana horses would
have the advantage But Spokane was
bred and raised several thousand feet above
the sea. He has lived all his life in light
atmosphere. The consequence is that his
lungs are half as big again as thew would
have been had he been raised in kentucky
or in any of the valleys of California
So when taken from home to Kentucky
and put in a race with valley-bred colts the
same difference was realized that would be
were two engines, each, say, of forty-aorse
power, put to an extreme test, with one
driven by a forty-horse power boiler and
the other by a sixty-horse power boiler.
When men from valley go up mountain
they are quickly exhausted. When mon
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
surplus that it amounts TO half intoxica-
tion. We believe that 1000 mountain
miners have been arrested in San Francisco
for too much hilarity, solely because, with
their expanded lungs filled with the dense
air of the sea level, they, without comprs-
hending anything except they felt an indie
scribable joyousness were impelled by an
irrepresSible impulse to paint the town
crimson.
That is the way Spokane felt at Louis
vile, ana that is why he easily took from
Proctor Knott all chance for his friends to
make excuses for him by lowering the
record two seconds. 1t does not prove that
he is by nature better horse than Proctor
Knott The chances are that with the same
treatment 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 as mountain Indian can outrun
valley Indian, a mountain horse when
first taken to the valley is a 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 time, the differ ence of food
must likewise be considered. There is no
country that raises superior grass and hay
to Montana; no country where through the
long summer the reed keeps more nutriti-
Gus, the climate more bracing, or where
animals are troubled less by insects; and,
while the winters are cold, it is not cold
that reduces vitality. The east and west
will have to look out in the future for
mountain colts