The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-11-04
MORE RACING BLOOD
IN SADDLE HORSES,
New Rule Admits Progeny of Ale
Thoroughbred Mares to the Sads
die Horse Stud Book.

With the fate of the thoroughbred
horse hanging in the balance in the
United States on account of the conn-
try wide crusade against race track
gambling, action has Just been taken
by the American Saddle Horse Breed
ers' Association which may open a
new field for the use of thoroughbred
mares. After April of next year any
stallion or mare by a registered sad
dle-bred sire out of a thoroughbred
dam can be registered as g standard
saddle horse in the American Saddle
Horse Register. No provision is made
for inspection of the animal, but the
door is thrown wide open to the pro-
auce of all mares of the racing breed,
| regardless of conformation, action or
temperament of either the mare or
ner offspring.
To horsemen who have followed the
building up of the breed commonly
known as Kentucky'saddle horses and
the policy of the American Saddle
Horse Breeders Association in the
past this new rule will occasion sur
prise amounting to wonderment.
Requirements for registration up
to the present time have been certain
relationship to certain foundation
sires noted for the superior riding
qualities and the beauty of their Off
spring. Among them were Canadian
PAGERS. Morgan trotters, bush bred
running horses of part thoroughbred
blood and horses of totally unknown
breeding. 1t may be fairly said that
blood was not considered in selecting
the foundation stock, individual ex-
cellence of offspring alone governing.
Trotting blood was used and admitted
by wholesale, until to-day the regis
tered saddle horse without one or
more close crosses to the standard
bred trotter is rather the exception
than the rule.
Thoroughbred blood has played an
important part in the formation OF
the breed, as It has in the formation
of the breed Of trotters, but the sad
die horse breeder who nowadays re-
verts to fresh infusions of thorough
bred blood is just about as scarce as
the trotting horse breeder who goes
back to the runner. The best speci-
mems. of the trotting horse and the
saddle horse show plainly their thor
oughbred ancestry, yet neither has
anything to gain and each has much
to lose by a fresh infusion of the
blood Of the race horse. Unless mel
like Charles L. Railey, Shelby t. Har-
bison and w. A. McGibbon are much
mistaken the modern thoroughbred
possesses no desirable characteristic
which has not already been engrafted
on the saddle-bred horse of Kentucky.
The latter has almost the incompara-
BILE quality of the thoroughbred, with
greater beauty of form and carriage,
far superior action for saddle pur-
poses, and a calm, docile disposition
which could only be injured by indis-
criminate crossing with the hothead-
ed, fretful racer that for 200 years
has been bred and trained to do but
one thing-to run.
Whether breeders of saddle horses
will take advantage of the new rule
to introduce fresh crosses of racing
blood into their studs remain to be
seen, but it will be surprising if any
very general movement in this direc-
ton is made. If the object of the
Kentucky breeders is to eradicate the
tendency to rack and singlefoot.
which has been so carefully cultivated
in the saddlebred horse ever since
the type was established, the new
rule may serve its purpose, but as a
means of improving the breed in any
other respect it's wisdom will be very
generally questioned.