The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-25
TALK ABOUT THE HORSE.
DR.. johnson Explains the Difference Ee-
tween Thoroughbred and Standard.

Yesterday a crowd gathered around
! DR.. Johnson of the signal service TO
hear him talk about the crops. DR..
Johnson explained the condition of the
corn to their entire satisfaction and
then the conversation drifted into the
horse world. Some talked about STAN
dard bred and others about thorough
bred horses and finally one man asked
what was the difference. All the horse
experts looked at one another and
when a silence as still as the grave
prevailed DR.. Johnson, who had spoken
but very little about horses, and that
modestly, said:
Originally thoroughbred meant pure
bred; but now it has a special meaning
pure bred runner-and it came about
in this way. The English derby, every
where known as The Derby" or st.
Leger, is a running race. There prob
ably would be no objection if every
body should wish 70 start a carriage
horse or even a dray horse, but he
would be sadly beaten by the horses of
pure running descent thorough
breds-and would win only laughter
and ridicUle. Since therefore, only hor
ses Of pure running pedigree stood any
show Of winning the prize, only such
We're entered This left out that large
part bred class, in England, known as
hunters, and a there was a desire on
y
ordinary saddle horse, there was in
stituted another class of races at which
prizes were given to be run for by hunt
erS not thoroughbred and other horses
of inferior blood. 1t was frequent
condition that the horses entered must
have hunted certain number or times
during the season with such and Such
packs of hounds. AS the prizes in
creased in value it became an object TO
introduce thoroughbreds Chat is pro-
fesSional runnerS) and to this end
unknown thoroughbredS would be sent
out with the hounds the requisite mum
Der of times TO qualify for these races
and would of course win easily. This
state of things would have defeated
the very object for which the races
were maintained, so it was judged adj
visable to determine a certain purity
of blood beyond which a horse should
not be allowed to start in these races
for hunters. 1t was finally determined
pure blood sh oul De deemed thorough
bred ana not permitted to compete in
the class for hunters. In that way 1t
became customary 10 say that any
horse having eight generations OF pure
descent is thoroughbred.
In England the name age and line
age of every English thoroughbred is
kept in book known as the stud book
By tracing back their lineage by means
thoroughbred is descended originally
from oriental (Aradian) stock, or else
that he proves back so far into the
mists of antiquity that the memory OF
man goeth not to the contrary. That
is the thoroughbred. Sir Archy prOba-
bly, occupies the same place on the AM
erican turf that the Godolphin Arabian
does in the English stud book.
Now for the standard bred horse the
trotter: The American trotting aSso-
citation has formulated a set of rules
as to what is a standard trottlng horse.
There are nine of them and they, all
combined, amount to about this, that
the animal under consideration must
trot in $50 or better and that both an
cestors must have records of 2:3O or bet
ter Or If the gate he a pace the time
must be 2:25 or better. Then the de-
scendents of two standard trotting an
imals are themselves standard no mat
ter whether they are able 10 trot IN
2:30 or not. These standard bred hors-
es are recorded in the book of the AM
erican Trotting Register association.
The supervision of pedigrees-reJect-
ing the false ones keeping a systematic
record of the true ones-was begun and
for years carried on by Mr.. John H.
Wallace A sincere attempt was made
to keep an honest record and TO weed
out all frauds. The result was publish
ed to the world regularly in WallaceS
Monthly and Wallace'S Year Book.
When the National association or
Trotting Horse Breeders was organiZ-
ed Mr.. Wallace turned over the work
to it, and by it and by subsequent SIM
liar organiza tons the work has been
kept up TO the present time. But for
Mr.. Wallace's efforts nothing authentic
would now be known concerning many
early horses now famous for the per-
formances of both themselves and their
descendants. His history therefore is
very valuable. for he rejected the false
and preserved the true without fear or
favor.
All horses are numbered in the order
IN which they ara recorded. Number
one is Abdallah. the son Of Mambri-
no and AmaZonia (who are son and
daughter of old imported Messenger,
thoroughbred brought from England
to this country where he died about
1865 at the age of IS years) Abdallah
/, is probably the greatest horse re-
corded in the American Register. but
so tickle is fortune that his son Ham,
bletonian 10, now occupies for the troJ-
ting horse a position similar TO that
occupied hv Sir Archy the ticc olphin Of
America, for the th.rcughbreds.
so to return to your original ques-
ton: A thoroughbred is a run1lng
horse and a standard bred horse is q
trotting horse"