Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-07-31

notice and without proper consideration
for the rights of the small breeders.
Many mares by standard horses had been
bred by men in the belief that their pro-
geny, male or female, would be standard,
but before these mares foaled the rule
went into effect barring from the stand
ard the male progeny of all but standard
mares. The revision was proper one,
but at least a years notice should have
been given before putting it in effect.
At the initial meeting of the directors
of the American Trotting Register associ-
alton an important change in the stand
ard was rather hastily made. This was
the admission of PAGERS to the trotting
standard on pacing records of 2:25 or
better, or on the production of , 20 trot-
ting speed. This change was widely and
thoroughly discussed in 1856 and 1887,
and after very mature consideration
the National association of Trotting-
Horse Breeders refused to admit pacing
horses to the trotting standard. The
argument that it was time enough to
admit PAGERS to the trotting stud-booll
when they demonstrated their ability
either to trot or beget trotters had
weight. This journal has no quarrel
with the pacing horse, but until PAGERS
trot or produce trotters the place to rec
ord their genealogy is in the pacing reg
lister. The original object of the standard
was declared to be "to establish a breed
of trotters on more intelligent basis"
1t is now declared to be "to establish
breed of trotters and pacers'-in other
words, to take it literally, double gated
breed. Many experienced breeders are
striving to breed trotters uniformly, and
Others are breeding for PAGERS, but we do
not think that any man who is seeking to
establish "a breed of trotters and PAGERS"
is proceeding upon an entirely "intell-
gent basis"
The pacing horse has his proper place.
and the industry of breeding and racing
pacing horses is great and growing
one. The aim of the pacing horse-b breed
er is to breed PAGERS. not trotters; and
the trotting-horse breeder is striving to
breed trotters, not PAGERS. Neither
breed can be benefited by perpetual inter-
mixing with the other. No student of
breeding more thoroughly appreciates
the present interchangcability of the
pacing and the trotting gaits than the
writer. None more readily appreciates
the fact that trotters now frequently
come from pacing blood, and that PAGERS
come from ancestors that as far as known
were trottng and trotting-bred. But
must it always be so? Must we be for
ever inviting uncertainty of gait, or
shall we strive to form breed of uni
form gait? We haye not the slightest
doubt that man could in lifetime by
careful selection found breed of chest
nut horses, or of black horses, or of bay
horses, as he might prefer. In the first
years of his experiment he would occas-
ionally produce horses of colors other
than that sought; but by eschewing these
in his breeding operations and breeding
only from those of the selected color. in
a series of generations that color-nheri-
lance would become so Intensified. so in
herently a quality of the blood. that hor-
SEES of any color other than the one bred
for would become az rare as white crows.
This is true in philosophy and true in
fact and unless breed of horses of a
certain gait, whether 1t be the trottlng
or the pacing gait that the breeder seeks,
can in the course of years be established
on the same basis we have studied the
known principles of heredity in vain. 4
uniform breed of trotters will never be
established by mixing blood that trots
with blood that PAGES, nor will there ever
be uniform breed of PAGERS while the
PAGER is crossed with the trotter. Uni
form types are only established through
years of careful selection and breeding
a constant and viglant procedure with
specific aim.
The admission of PAGERS will compli-
cate matters in the registration office, for
it will bring into our only partially form
ed breed which the Trotting Register
records innumerable new and obscure
lines of blood; and we fail to see where
either the trotting or the pacing breed is
to be benefited. 1t will not make PAGERS
more valuable or more sought, for the
people who make the market prices are
those who look below mere standard
brand, and Judge blood for what it really
has done at the gait they seek to repro
duce.
That there was much pressure brought
upon the directors to make this, as it
seems to us, ill-advised change, and that
these gentlemen acted from the best of
motives, and most conscientiouslv, we
feel assured. Pressure will be made in
time to adopt other changes that NAV
have disturbing effect on the breeding
business, but we trust that the directors
will proceed slowly and only make chan
ges after there is an unquestionable pub