Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-09-14

out whip? | put my questions In
concrete form, because horses now liv-
ing and known to me have done just
these drives mentioned. They were
Morgans. All could trot under three
minutes, and two have records under
2 40.
| put these questions purely for inform
alton and because wish to know
whether the Hackney is intended and
expected to elevate to greater usefulness
the driving stock of the country at large;
or whether he is expected to produce
fancy horses, of whom real service is not
asked or expected beyond the intermlt-
tent and brief use in coach, cart or city
carriages.
| should be very glad to see this point
discussed by you with the fairness have
come to expect in The Rider and Driver.
remain very truly,
(Slgned,)
PHILIP. B. STEWART.
Two of the aforementioned horses
are stations with one or more of their
get in the 80 list.
PREFERS THE MORGAN TO THE HACKNEY.
To the Editor Of The Rider and Dricer =
have read with interest the letter you
send me written by Mr.. Stewart, and,
having very pronounced views on the
subject, accept your invitation to state
them in the Rider and Driver.
am one who was most favorably in
cined toward the Hackney horse before
the fever had fairly oyertaken many
people. This came from the fact that
among the first of the breed ever saw
to examine them carefully were two of
the best that ever came to this country
Mr.. Cassatt's gallant little horse, Little
Wonder, and Mr. Perkins Bonfire, then
but colt
When the American Hackney Horse
society was organized ! became a mem
Der and have remained such long after
my Hackney enthusiasm has all ebbed
away, because of the high character of
the gentlemen in that organization.
One Hackney stallion has cured me.
[ want no more. He was about the laz-
lest brute | ever had in my stable.
Twice used INN, three miles each time
That was enough. Yet, with his head
strapped to his breast by side reins, as
Hackneys are always shown, and man
to keep him running with a long rein,
he could show himself to "beat the
band.
Stree he left me, | have asked other
men who had had the breed what their
experience had been, and theirs is the
same as mine. One, whose name |
would not care to mention, but
it is a name that would carry weight
with any opinion he expressed on this
subject, told me he had experienced the
same condition that | did. lie spent
months in England studying the breed,
brought out, | believe, the best Hackney
blood ever imported and he told me that
ninety per cent of all the Hacllneys in
the world were absolutely worthless
brutes. He said that the only good ones
in the world were of Yorkshire origin,
mostly one or two happy hicks of cross
ing, of which the best is the Fireway-
Denmark-St. Giles combination. The
rest, he assures me- are modified cart
horses, and loads of such blood is in the
"inspected brood mare part of the Stud
Book, perpetuating itself. 1t is only in
Yorkshire, where thoroughbred blood is
extensively used, that the beasts have
any "go" to them.
Correspondence and personal inter-
course with other well-posted Britons
confirm this gentleman's statements and
my own small experience.
OF Morgan horses my opportunities
for observation have been better through
owning and using them tor years.
answer Mr.. Stewards questions with
confidence. | believe there is no useful
or ornamental purpose to be served by
the Introduction of Hackney blood that
cannot be much more certainly and per-
fectly attained by cultyatlng the blood
of the old Morgans. Some people think
the Morgan horse tradition, that no
more of pure breed are to be had. This is
an egregious error. Mr.. Battell's book
contains record of many who trace to the
fountain head through every known line
of breeding, and their location for gennr-
ations makes 1t probable that the I'M
known lines all lead to the same source.
| know Morgan horses that have as many
as twenty or thirty direct lines of descent
from Justin Morgan and own one that
runs to Woodbury. Morgan fifteen times,
six times through llale's Green Mount
ain Morgan. This horse is a dark chest
nut, almost black, with big white blaze
in his face, 10 hands high and weighs
about 100 pounds.
Such horses will breed to true type,
and the type is handsomer than the
Hackney type. They are pure-bred
horses for nearly century; the Hack
ney is a mongrel, the best blood in the
English Hackney Stud Book being that
of the old inbred Morgan horse Shepard
f. Knapp.
The Hackney is a sluggard. The Nor
ran naVar moods VbiO haautif,l