Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-12-06
TROTTERS VS.. HACKNEYS.

FROM Tue NEW YIN lluiCS'l
The continued and even increasing
popularity of the horse show proves
nothing whatever about the fate of the
noble animal to which It is Ostensibly
dedicated, because, as everybody knows,
the horse is only the preteXt for social
function on the part of majority OF the
attendants and of a display of the most
vulgar and snobbish curiosity on the
part of the majority. 1t is really a
sickening sight to see mob with their
backs to the ring where the horse show
ing is going on staring at rows of people
who are affecting to look over their
heads unconscious of the stare, or who
are engaged in conversation with each
other in apparent oblivion both of the
people who are mObbing them and of
the exhibition in the ring.
1t is difficult to say whether the people
who constitute the spectators or the
people who make themselves the specta-
Gle appear to the less advantage in this
annual explosion of bad manners. But
it is at least plain that. except to a few
horsey persons who disregard both
parties, the horses have very little to do
with the show. If it be true, AS we are
frequently assured, that the horse is an
absolescent animal, and that genera
ton hence it will be hard 10 find one out
of a museum, it is plain that his progress
toward extinction will not be arrested
by horse shows. Indeed it may be
maintained that the horse shows exert "A
positively injurious influence upon the
breed of horses, and that "A horse which
is good to take prizes in one is good for
nothing else Breeders of uscfu horses
abstain. in increasing numbers, from
competing with animals the ideal of the
breeders of which is to produce Il horse
that can trOt in three minutes without
leaving his tracks. But yesterday there
occurred an incident in the awards
which is calculated to give cause and
pain to the producers of that absurd
work of the hackney, and correspond
ingly to uplft the spirits of the lovers
of horses and to induce them to pay
more attention to the horse show.
The incident in question was nothing
less than the award of the prize for the
hest high stopper to trotting-bre
horse exhibited by a patriotic Philadel-
phian. There can be no question that
this animal is at disadvantage in the
81 ho ;nI In ho Il
nevertheless beaten on their own ground,
and that on the road his superiority
would be even more distinctly marked
that he would beat his rivals out of
sight in mile and kill them in a day
Moreover, to anybody whose taste has
not been sophisticated and vitiated, the
swinging action of the American road
ster is a far more beautiful thing to see
than the mere marking time which is
the ideal attainment of the trOtting
hackney. For combined speed and
stoutness, and also for beauty of cOnfor-
nation and movement, for every quality,
indeed, that goes to the making of per
feet roadster, the Morgan horses of Yer.
mont have never been surpassed. In
the mistaken endeavOr to give them
more size the breed has to some extent
deteriorated, but there are still examples
to be found of the interrupted type
Now that Judge of high steppers has
beer found who has the courage tC
prefer the action of a trOtting-bred
American horse to that of an imported
hackney, it is to be hoped. and also tC
be expected, that the breeders and pos
SCISSORS of these animals will so far re
cover from their disgust as to allow
them to be exhibited at the New YORK
Horse Show.