Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-09-25

lence- With all this, / believe there
are yet greater things in the future of
the American trotting horse. 1t can
be truly said that we have only just
begun to ''breed" him. Important
lessons have been learned in the recent
past, and no other domestic animal in
the world is receiving SO much lntelli-
gence and scientific skill in his produc-
ton and development for the one pur-
pose for which he is reared.
l yield to no one i'll admiration of
what has been accomplished, or in eX-
pectation of what will yet be done.
Shall we farmers, then, breed trotting
horses? We know the high figures at
which they are frequently sold.
Let us follow the experience of a
farmer who has one, two or half a
dozen good mares. He is intelligent
enough to know the superior value of a
''standard-bred' horse-one who can
rest his claim for excellence of blood
upon the performances of his ancestors.
The services of such horse are OBJ
tained, it matters little at what price,
within reasonable limits, for We all
know that it costs as much to raise a
poor colt as a good one and we must
use good sires anyhow. The farmer 5
trotters, and a horse paper is subscribed
for. They are nearly all ably edited
and give to any reader much valuable
information. The boys are soon "up''
Oh the Hambletonians and Mambrinoes,
the Clays and the Wilkeses, and they
live in great expectations of the COM
ing foals. AT length the looked-ror
day arrives, and the colt has a spot in
lrC fnrahaaH anh xxyhifa foot nj l..
the most promising thing ever seen. In
following his dam, he now and then
shows q natural trotting action" and
the only unfortunate thing about him
is the fact that we must wait SO long TO
see him 60. As the months go 10y we
pet him, and we bit him, and we han
die him, and at length the happy time
has come. and We buy a new sulky,
and he goes just splendIdly. We are
careful 10 jog him very gently We are
sure it is in him, and we can afford to
wait. We think he would work better
with a different bit; SO we try a half
dozen or more of dent patterns and
immense claims, and We are rather
doubtful which is the best. We fancy
his action would be better with toe
weights; so We get sets of different
rather improved Then We find that
he once cut himself little at his best
gait, and We get boots for him, and as
we thought others were required, we
obtained other devices, until we had
HIM pretty well covered from his hoofs
to his body. We had much trouble in
getting him properly shod, but at last
we found a man in a neighboring viii
lage, who had worked near a race track,
and he did the work to suit US, with
the heels of the hind shoes extending
well back behind the foot.
His speed developed finely. We had no
place where We could time him, but we
were PERFECTLY sure he was well up in
the forties. AT length some one in our
neighborhood somehow, in a swap, got
an old wreck of three-mInute roader,
and proposed to give our colt a trial.
We were glad enough TO show him our
quality, but somehow our colt wasn't
in the humor that day. We never saw
him break so. We resolved to show
him at the county fair. How we
groomed himi His coat shone like
satin. We had built for him when two
years old, a roomy box stall, which we
kept well Uttered. Now, it was our
delight to throw that door open for the
admiring gaze of our neighbors and
visitors. 1t was 4 proud day when we
drove upon the track at the county fair.
but somehow, our son of standard
sire wasn't in humor again
Well, other colts were coming on and
must be trained; so we decided to sell
our splendid horse, now six years old.
We fixed the price at $1,000. We
knew that other horses, not nearly his
equal, had sold for much larger sums,
but We had decided to IiX upon a mod
elate price. People didn't come to buy
him as we expected, and at length We
decided to take $3.50. But no one offered
il. We were little short OF money,
and one day a dealer said he would
take him at $50, as the nominal price
TO be told to inquirers, but the actual
cost was 500. We learned that WAS
the usual way such horses We're sold
A slight calculation showed US that he
had cost over SJOO-withOut taking t e
time spent in handling him into account.
The other colts came on finely. We
sold one go $50 cash-nominal price,
5000 ut others didn't turn out so
well, anI .ialf of them went at $50,
and found their way to the city street
cars.
All this time the farm did very poorly.
1t took so much time 10 handle the
colts that the corn fields were always
weedy, and the fences and buildings
could not be kept IN repair. Our ex-
penses were so heavy that We We're
compelled To borrow money, which III
time embellished our farm with "A mort
gage, and finally the mortgage took the
farm Subsequent investigation showed
us that our experience was but one
case in many hundreds of similar char
acter.
There is an important moral side to
this question which left its mark upon
the boys, but the pecuniary result Is
the subject under consideration.
But some of my hearers are saying
that very fast horses are raised, and
they sell for big prices. Yes, L know
of such. a friend of mine has raised
a magnificent mare. She has trott-d in
twenty-eight. When she was three his
foreman exercised her every day. The
next year a skilIful driver was EN-
ployed, who was 10 do other work when
not employed with the mare, but some
how she took nearly all his time as she
also did the following year, until she
was sent to a professional trainer. She
has been trained every year since, and
has cost nearly 5000. She is now
ten years old, and not yet sold. Another
friend of mine has a splendidly bred
mare, that has trotted a quarter in
thirty-four seconds. But l am sorry
for my friend. He has a real white
elephant upon his hands, that has great
value. but is using itself up in expenses
with shocking rapidity. Such horses
are sold with difficulty, while the risk
of injury is very great.
Sincere as is my admiration for the
American trotting horse, my opinion is
equally sincere that he has been but
little short of a curse to the average