Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-01-31
BREED FOR BEAUTY OF FORM.

A reader from Michigan desires to
know whether in my opinion mare by
Erebus, dam by Mambrino Patchen'
second dam by Night Hawk, is well
bred. Certainly we'll bred, combining
strains that have produced great cam
paigners. But Gazette readers who de-
sire to produce speed, marketable speed
with the greatest certainty should select
speed. producing mares or their daughters
and breed them to stations of proved
merit. Leave costly experiments until
times are more prosperous
By this method you will reduce the
chances against you in the lottery OF
speed production. Well-bred mares, that
is trotting-bred mares, that are not
strong in maternal speed lines should,
for certainty of profit, be bred to large
handsome, bold-gaited trotter with
view to the production of salable car
rage animal. Marketable speed may
result, but if the stallion is not a come
by-Chance carriage animal OF merit Is
reasonable certainty. The weak point
in the production of carriage stock from
trotters is the miscellaneous inheritance
of every size and formation conceivable
by stallion that fills the bill himself.
The only common inheritance sought by
the great mass of trottlng-horse breeders
has been speed. Thus a phenomenal
speed progenitor, like the sprawling-
gated pony George Wilkes, will invade
every family with "A tendency away from
the lines of beauty and carriage confor-
nation. True his blood is borne by many
grand individuals, but they are not by
virtue of his blood what they are. Other
strains have overpOwered his influence,
but it will crop out again when least
desired.
What pity George Wilkes could not
have been individually what Mambrino
King is The trotting family might to-
day be almost an ideal one in point of
elegance. beauty and style. The crusade
against horses would not have been so
successful if such large proportion of
plain. 1t is hard to discourage the
driver of a handsome horse; a mean
locker is distinct blow at the industry.
He discourages his driver and deters
powerful competition which must be met
with the beauty that wins friends and
keeps them.
Common people cannot afford to breed
ungainly individuals in the hope of get
ting a world-beater. The man whose
wealth permits him to indulge in the
luxury of breeding with view solely to
getting the two-minute horse needs no
advice and is not likely to accept any.
lie may, as in the past, do the breed in
calculable harm. The only hope is In
getting as many as possible to avoid fol-
loving his example If good looks, size
and carriage-quality were Incompatible
with speed.production there might be a
better excuse for the patronage of in
divduals lacking these qualifications.
But great as the goose gated pony
George Wilkes was as IA speed prOgenitOr,
his superb kinsman AleXander's Abdal-
lah gave evidence of being his equal in
this respect had his life been spared. 1t
seems to me plain that had events been
reversed and George Wilkes succumbed
to adverse fate early m life, while Abdal-
lah had been spared to give us more like
Belmont, the trotting-horse breeders of
today would be stronger with the people.
~ NJ. 7. Grattan in Breeders Gazette.