The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-19

along with him. That wonderful half
bred hunter of grandfGther's would not
live a hot ten minutes with the Mea-
doWbr00k or the Richmond Hunts.
His symmetry. perfect fencing, and, in
fact all the points for which he was
then priced, would be valutless If rid
den close to hounds after northern
fox Or northern drag.
Northern is specified advisodIy.
There the speed is greater than in the
south; in fact. what is desired is a
horse close up to stake form, but with
the capacity to clear fences. He must
be able to cover four miles in ten min
utes at a push, with one hundred and
seventy pounds on his back, across nat
ural country. Most runs in the north
are practically steeplechase, a fast
ride across country, with little or no
knowledge as to where one is liable to
go, but it will be fast, and over wire.
snake fences, rail and water, plough,
fallow and grass. Here is required a
thoroughbred horse Of good action, for
that is what carries the weight when
strength, the courage which only the
thoroughbred has to perfection, and the
stamina to do things" at the last.
There was at one time many prejudices
against the use of the thoroughbred
cross country. 1t was argued that their
clins We're too thin, and made them
afraid of thorn fences; that they lost
| their speed in soft going deep groundD;
| that having been accustomed both from
infancy and by heredity to the Jockeys
! hand, they leaned on their bits and
! were unpleasant and hard to ride; but
| for half a century it has been clearly
! beyond argument that it is only with
! cast-offs from a racing stable that
! these disqualiications appear, and that
| the young thoroughbred. Of the right
stock, must have many points counter
| balancing those of the horse with infe-
rior breeding. The peculiar firmness Of
bone and snew, perceptible even in the
young foal, is tremendously in favor Of
| this aype of horse for sustained bursts
| Of high speed, and such authorities as
| Whyte Melville, Dick Christian and
! others have uniformly endorsed the die
| tum that the thoroughbred is the natu-
| raj hunter where speed is looked for
/ and that is what is desired il the north
| of this country, and in England.
| For the south it is slightly different
matter Not that the horse for that
! section must be in any wise an inferior
animal, far, very far from it. But the
southern hound is different; the very
fox is different, and will climb a tree
when cornered; and. owing to The
! cramped condition Of the open country
the multitude of patches Of scrub and
brush, alternated by soft ground, main
ly owing to the absence of cultivated
tracks, the fox has thousand earths
channels and c0vert9, Of which he may
surely be relied to take the greatest
possible advantage. Consequently the
horse that is needed is a clever horse,
! one with plenty of speed, but who can
j leap standing or running, who can ne
gotiate "pig-pen." a double, sunken
lane with rails, and bank and hedge, a
! fallen tree, etc, which the northern and
the English hunter would hesitate at
ais the Irish jumped, used to topping"
the stone walls at home, hesitates until
! he learns that he must not drop his legs
at the "bullfinch' or on the square
topped hawthorne.
! The hunter bred to make money
should not be thoroughbred along the
| lines which have proved successful in
producing stock which shall win the
/ richest turf prizes as a two or three
| year-old where the weights and dis
! tances have been apportioned with a
| view to speed only. but this is not an
| insuperablc obstacle. Ralph N. Ellis,
M. r. H. Meadow brook, has evolved
! good stock from Barratt the thorough
I bred who used to beat the great Tro-
| uuois at his work in the old days, but
who would not race. One of the most
promising horses Of the day is that
magnificent tWo~year-old hunter of
/ Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., JOuac King,
who cleared five feet this summer, with
! man on his back, in magnificent style
and along these lines it would be pos
sibe to find many d good thoroughbred
horse, with just the makeup for pro-
! ducing hunters If mated to q mare of
| size and Of a good rOomy breedy quail
! ty.
1t has been lately said by many that
Self Protection, the good half-bred
horse Of II s. Page, who won the
Champion Steeplechase at Morris Park
this fall gives the fiat denial to tho"-
oughbred claims, but this is not so, for
it is extremely doubtful that Self Pro
lection is a half-Dred, His dam line is
a trif1e obscure, and he looks too true