The herald., 1894-01-07
saERn FOR The COACH.

l. ne CiCbe ODbefV6T VI oickNub IOau
equipages and their occupants, on the
drives about this city and Pasadena.
will be astonished at the inferiority OF
the horses to the costly carriages in use
by the most of our winter visitors.
Many OF these ship their carriages here
by rail but wait till their arrival here
before purchasing horses to pull them,
as the freight each way on a pair of
horses nearly equals the cost OF an
ordinary team. The horses which they
buy here are good enough for light
harness use and quite speedy, but
they lack the size and ability to pull
weight. With two men in buggy that
weighs 345 to 450 pounds, they are all
right, but when you come to put four
ladies averaging 125 lbs. each, with
driver of 1870 lbs. in addition, into ba-
rouche or a surrey that weighs from
1850 to 140O lbs., they are unequal 20
the task.
George Lsihy, we'll known in this city.
keeps one of the largest livery estab-
lishme nts in Chicago and, in conver-
sation with the writer OF this article, one
day last September, spoke about the
difference in carriage horses and other
equine quadrupeds. "You can take $1,000
in your pocket and 60 out to Hawthorne
to buy a racehorse, with more certainty
ofgettinga winner, than you can go to
salesysrd in this city or New York and
buy pair OF good carriage horses for
the same amount Of money"
"To what cause do you attribute
this? Is it to decline in the char
acter, the excellence of our horses 2"
asked the writer.
mot exactly, but to decline in the
supply Of the proper character, the cor
rect type Of horses. The Hambletonian
family of horses has, in the past twenty
years, achieved such marvellous work
in race track trotters that our breeders
eeem to have overlooked all other con-
eiderations. Only one man in hum
dre6 can afford 10 keep race ttsseet.eer
and only one in thousand turf gal
loper; and such has been the anxiety to
breed trotters for the auction ring that
genuine merit for other uses has been
entirely forgotten, You go to England
and you find men who breed coachers for
q business. just 30 in Australia, Ger
many and France, but here it's 2:30
class trotter or nothing. You keep your
eye on the gun and you will see coach
horses advancing right along and trot-
ting horses declining in the same ratio"
The writer was very much impressed
with these utterances, because he knew
that the speaker was a man of wide ex-
perience. About two months later he
picked up New York paper and read
where Los Angeles stallion with race
record of 2 :24ls had sold for $3.50. The
same horse, in 1888, even if able to trot
no better than 2:30. would have brought
at least $4,000, for he was superbly bred.
In another portion of the same
paper, was an account of the sale of
dozen horses belonging to one of the
coaching clubs of New York. at which
nine head were offered and none of them
brought less than $3.50 and from that to
s475. And yet these horses had obvi-
Ouely Uoon bOlQ iOA tHc icdcOn buht bAcJ
had been more or less impaired by one
or more seasons of fast work, and their
owners did not think them worth win
tering over until the next coaching
season.
, Il pays to breed for the coach that is,
it pays il you commence right. There
is scarcely any business in these lat
ter days in which you can put in ten
years, retrieving the blunderssof the
previous five and still come out ahead
in the long run. The rich lady who
goes out for. an airing with her daughter
or her invited guests, does not care to
own horses in the 2:30 list. Eight
miles per hour is generally rapid enough
for hsr, but she wants horses OF docility
and not afraid CT the living avoirdu-
pois in the vehicle. Men are breeding
this very type of horses in New Eng
land Tor sale in New York. Boston and
the other populous seaboard cities. II
they can make it pay, feeding horses
seven months in the year with hay and
grain worth twice what they are here,
certainly California ought to be able to
breed large and shapely carriage horses
at profit.
-
THERE seems to be degree of mystery
about tho uav that the TTnitad Statpa