Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-04-21
The Breeding Of Carriage Horses.

In its ably-conducted department of
amateur Sport" Harper's Weekly print
ed,last week an excellent article on Gamer
ican carriage horses which possesses local
interest because of its illusions to Vermont
horses, and which is very suggestive at a
time when well-Organized effort is being
made to arouse new interest in breeding
good horses in Vermont. The point of the
article is that there has been great change
and improvement within a few years in
the style and character of carriage horses
which are demanded and that the average
farmer and small breeder can raise such
horses successfully, and make money on
them, whereas he is almost sure to fail If
he catches the fast horse fever, and gets
the idea that he can breed for speed.
Twenty years ago, the writer says,
long, leggy, tall, narFow-chested animal,
with head and neck set on perpendicularly,
and kept so by tight rein, was about the
American idea of carriage horse. Today it
Isl can animal of good height, deep-chest-
ed, rising in the wthers, slanting in the
shoulders, with substance we'll placed, a
deep and well-proportioned body, fat in
the legs, and sound, open, tough feet. Add
to this fine and finely set on head and
neck, high well-rounded knee and hook
action, with speed and endurance, and we
get, perhaps, a somewhat ideal description"
On the general subject of breeding the
writer says:
"The difficulty in breeding lies to a great
extent with the average American farmers
mare, which, as a rule, is coarse, long
backed, clumsy barrelled, and round-legged
animal. These defects it is almost impos-
sible for any amount of blood on the part
of the stallion entirely to overcome. An
other difficulty is the ordinary breeders
intense desire to breed a phenomenal
'trotter' and make his fortune thereby. He
reads and dreams of Mand S. and Sunol,
and breeds his mares year after to the
trottng stallion with the best record
in his vicinity, often paying highly for
| the service. He gets, as a rule, three
conered, leggy, light-waisted 'runt' that
| will not trot, and that is of no earthly use
| for the track, the market, OF the farm.
While the same mare, if properly bred to a
| fine coaching stallion, hackney, or thor
| oughbred, would produce at least some
thing readily marketable. and very often
horses which would yield him large re-
turn. But no; he will hear of nothing but
'trotting stock, and will refuse to take his
mares to a stallion having the quality, shape
and action necessary to counterbalance the
coarseness of the dam, and TO produce a
saleable horse. do not mean to disparage
trotters when properly bred, for nothing is
more beautiful than the movements of a
purely bred trotting-horse when speeded,
Il, & NJ
brino King. But what l do wish to dis
parage and condemn, is the hopeless striv-
ing of the small breeder and farmer to
produce wonder in competition with the
best breeding establishments for trotters,
when by crossing his mare differently, he
| would be almost certain to obtain horse
fit for the market, and, with a good mare,
one on which he would realize large pro-
fit"
The places to look for carriage horses of
the best modern type are named in the
following order, which is encouraging to
home breeders: "Maine (for small horses),
northern New York, Canada, Missouri,
Kentucky and Virginia, Iowa and Illinois,
Michigan and Wisconsin, Dakota Mon
tana, the territories, etc. These are about
all the localities from which the majority
of animals are shipped to New York and
Chicago markets" After expressing
personal preference for Maine horses, the
writer says of our Vermont product:
"The Vermont animals are very much
of the same class as those from Maine.
Breeding, however is not so universal or
so systematically carried on, and good ones
are harder to find. The predominance
there some years ago of the Morgan type
has tended TO give more weight, without,
perhaps, quite the compensating amount
of style and action. But they have all the
toughness and endurance of the Maine
horse, though, unfortunately, as l have
said, it is next to impossible to produce
many of them
The conclusion reached is very hopeful
for the horse-breeding industry:
at cannot but be seen that there are
immense possibilities open to us in the way
of breeding and of market for our horses.
Not only is the demand in our own coun-
try very great, and ever increasing, for har-
ness horses of a high grade, but European
buyers are constantly shipping abroad the
best we have, and would send more if they
could find them. There is no reason why
the American breeders should not in time
almost control the markets of the world, if
they would breed with some system, and
with proper idea of what stamp of horse
it is necessary for them to produce. d.
Let us hope that this will be appreciated
more and more every year, and that the
high-class carriage-horse, bred up to the
accepted standard, instead of being as at
the present moment the exception rather
than the rule, will be found in continually
increasing numbers throughout our farms
: and breeding establishments, TO the profit
and pleasure of his breeder and owner"