The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-25
LIORSE SHOW
HABIT GROWING.
Cireuit Begins In April Showers and
Keeps Up Till Snow
fan, low

York. Only a few owners go through the
entire round OF shows on either the Western
or Eastern circuit, with the number about
equally balanced between amateur and
professional exhibitors. George Pepper OF
Toronto, who makes a feature OF high
jumpers, probably goes to more shows
each season than any other eXhlDitor'
The great amateur exhibitors are A. u.
and r. {. Vanderbilt, William H. and j. H..
Moore and r. d. Jordan. Mr.. and MRS.
John Gerken and Rowland Jones OF Louis
vile head the list of next most important
amateur exhibitors, with twenty or thirty
punched together in the group just below
them. Jordan Of Boston, j. H. Moore
OF Chicago and the three New Workers VINO
make MP the highest class bunch have
more stability than most exhibitors, which
IN their cases stands for n combination OF
rood horsemarship and vast wealth. But
ordinarily it is Ia be expected that the
faces Of exhibitors should change with
the tides. lust as rev men are always crop
ping up on the turf ard in trotting. The
gross number of exhibitors, though, is
increasing every season.
High steprers and winning saddle horses,
no matter how willing OF spirit and glisten-
ing of coat, must bow at the end to Father
Time. The hackney stallion Fashion made
the bravest fight ever known against DID
age in the show ring. Brought out the
second year Of the New York Show, the
jaunty nag made a triumphal appearance
IN halter classes for seventeen or eighteen
years, winning blue ribbons under all sorts
Of conditions and finally gaining enough
medals to form a collar of honor that shone
IN the electric light on the grand Parade like
a knights helmet. Fashion, besides indi-
vidual triumps, won in classes with his get.
and before the end, he and the third gener-
ation were winners at the same show.
When retired Fashion was PAST the voting
age and on the farm of the owner, Prescott
Lawrence, the old horse lived on clover at
Newport until mustered out by death.
Mambrino King. the ~trotting stallion, won
nearly as many ribbons and had as long
end varied a career at the shows. There
are many more instances of a ripe and
hopored old age in the show ring, but some
recollections that are not so pleasing.
There is no rule against showing horses
that are really upsound, provided they can
put up a fashy appearance in a class and
DO not reveal lameness while before the
Judges. Some old heroes Of the gig have
Deen kept COuuleu up ueI"tcu ehONe 40
carefully as teething children, and when
In the stall preparing for the ring, the
grooms sweated over them with linaments
and lotions perhaps with a cocaine syringe
until the place about had the NELL Of an
apothecary shop. But the nags didn't
mind, They had good care between whites
and in return could be relied on for thirty
minutes OF dashing action when called on,
II the calls were not made too often. When
the final collapse came it was TO the
dumpsl" for the game old cattle, and that's
not nice to think about,
When horses get old the exhibitor has
10 take a back seat perforce, as he can't
expect to find winners in the market every
day. If he is a millionaire who knows
enough to buy for a type II Is easier to get
fresh stock and so keep in the winning fash
ion. Yet one exhibitor at the last New
York show made ninety entries OF new
horses to win but six blue ribbons. Men
Of less fortune must scrape around for the
horse they want, and as this brings them
into opposition with the dellers, who are
on the same quest the year through, it is
apparent that the job is no cinch. The
siowest way is TO itdown and wait for the
home bred stock to develop, yet it is the
most satisfactory. A. j. Cassatt years
ago won with hackney fours and pairs bred
a. CheSterbrook from the imported Little
Worder. E. D.. Jordan and Prescott Law
renee have done the same, and Thomas W..
Lawson has promised a reappearance in
the showing with some Glorious homebreds,
but the list will ALWAYS be a short one. 1t
would be easier to give a list of millionaires
who have started bravelv and afterward
given up, minus much cash and plus some
equine rrnts their friends wouldn't take as
a gift. Yet the delight Of driving a home
bred to a blue ribbon in a good class even
at a minor open air show is well worth
striving for, and to win the gaud under
these conditions at New York or Chicago
Is a triumph Of amateur snort as great in
its way as to win the Derby or Oaks with
one of your own breeding or to drive a
trotter or PAGER from the home farm to a
worlds record.
The April shows of New York, Brooklyn
and Bosom are under cover and on tan.
bark, miniature ~reDroductions IN a social
way Of the great Garden show, but Phila-
delphia's annua show in May is always
on the turf and in the oren, the first OF the
merry round of summer shows out of doors.
In the South there are earlier open air
shows, but the Northern season for them
begins on Decoration Day at Wissahickon
Heights. Candidly snceaking,. while the
horses may not go as fast as at New York.
or move with as lofty. action, the bright
eyes and bonny faces Of the girls at Wissa-
hickon, wAh all their spring finery, Is aid
to make the most attractive elnnln
gallery" Of the horse show circuit.
Aside from the fifty to sixty shows OF
the season in the United States and Canada,
there is talk Of a show in London during
the spring Of 1907, say in May. to be CON
Quoted on the American plan and to which
the leading exhibitors here will send entries.
Henry F.. Euren, secretary OF the English
Hackney Horse Society, and James T.;
Hyde, assistant secretary Of the National
Horse Show Of New York, have the project
in hand. A similar idea has been exploited
before by c. De Garmo Blair, a breezy
Western promoter of horse shows and horse
deals, but this venture seems better es-
tablished.
1T is not my habit to talk about matters
before they come of, " is James T. Hyde's
declaration, but / feel that negotiations
are so far advanced that we will begin an
international horse show at London In 1907.
Mr.. Euren and myself have received the
promise Of support from many influential
persons"
There are no amateur exhibitors who
will say that they are to make entries or
attend the show, but the dealers who bring
over American horses in the fall and come
hack with English haokneys and ponies in
the spring are o~utspoken in favor Of the
international exhibition. Others are not 20
%eanguine.
1T is a lovely idea, and we would open the
eyes of the EnP lishmen," said Morris How