Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-02-01

HORSE BREEDING IN AMERICA.
LESSONS OF THE NEW YORK HORSE
SHOW.

of the New York hUIse show last fall by
Mr. Caspar w. Whitney, the accomplish
ed sporting editor of Harper's Weekly,
are of value as showing the tendency
toward improvement of road horses now
manifest in this country:
Nine years ago the ASSOCIATION held
Is first horse show with 1917 exhibitors
and 623 entries, while this year there are
nearly $50 exhibitors and over 1900 en-
tries. We are IA progressive nation, and the
horsemen have kept abreast of the times.
The Improvement in our stock has by no
means been superficial one. We have
gone abroad, it is true, in many in
stances, for our stock. but we have not
neglected the home breeder. Last year
the most gratifying success of the show
was evidenced in classes which had the
home-bred horse. Our trotter has al
ways been ideal. and our breeders have
been rapidly making the saddle horse
equally so. The heavy importations of
hackneys have done much in the last
three or four years in the betterng and
developing the standard OF the general
carriage horse. The excellent entries in
the half-bred classes last year seem to
presage great future for this English
utility horse crossed with the native.
/ Probably in no class has the home-bred
animal shown to better advantage than
in the hunter. In almost every one of
the last few shows the winning animal
in the great majority of the hunter class
es has been native of America.
Roadsters have not. until the last two
or three years, received the encourage
ment they deserve. Indeed they do not
| yet receive merited attention. The road
ster is a distinctly American institution,
and one that ought to have great
amount of encouragement. Hitherto,
however, the roadster has been almost
entirely absorbed by the trotter, and is
not yet sufficiently ASSOCIATED from this
latter type. The Improvement of the
last three or four years gives cause for
congratulation and hope for the future.
We cannot be expected to reach perfection
in all these classes IN IA few years it
takes time to breed IL distinctive form.
TO one who remembers the form of
our turnOuts and the character of horses
driven and ridden fifteen or twenty
years ago, the results of our develop
ment as seen in Madison Square garden
/ in so short time seem Incredible 1t is
even shorter period in which our car
riage-horses have attained the perfection
of to-day. Ten years ago we had hardly
begun to turn out our equlpages IN any
thing like good form. 1t was only in '7G
that the Coaching Club held its first
meet, and the open-eyed establishment
with which the pioneer tours were re-
ceiyed by the crowds will be long re-
membered. 1t is not putting it too
strongly to say that the quality of our
carriage-horses has been raised almost
directly by the influence and example of
the Coaching Club, and that the hunting
set has largely Influenced the improved
! type of the saddle animal now seen in
this neighborhood. Anglomania has
| likewise been the means of marring its
looks by docking the taIl.
Nor has this remarkable improvement
| in form and horseflesh been confined to
| New York city; and herein do we find
the national significance of the associa-
ton. 1t is unquestionably true that all
eyes are turned to New York for correct
form in this as in other matters. On the
Atlantic coast few years ago, outside
of New York, there was to be found
hardly four-in-hand, and certainly no
particular attention was given to the
| form of turning out
Good horsefesh has always been "A pro-
duct of the New England States, and
good utility animals have never been
wanting there. In fact, it is the home
of the Morgan horse, which in the writ
er's opinion has no superior. Boston
iansiand Philadelphlans and others who
came to the New York horse show car
red away the desire of emulation. and
so successfully have they attained their
aims that in Boston and Philadelphia
to-day5 are tours and tandenls and car
riage-horses generally as good as the
best, while one can hardly drive in any
direction of the country without meeting
turnouts vastly superior to those of IL
fewiyears past. Fifteen years ago one
might travel far in the United States and
only at great intervals meet an equipage
turEed out in good form. To-day one
hardly meets any other sort.
In Chicago, and very generally
throughout the West, much Improvement
is noticeable. 1t would astOnsh the
average Fastener to drive about Chi
cago.of an autumn afternoon. There is,
of course, not the same general recognl-
ton of the niceties. But good form is
observed by a large percentage, and the
horsehesh Is very good. Two or three