The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-05-29

anHudi meeting or the American
Breeders Association, in Washington,
p. C., II. X. Devereux, prominent
breeder, treated of the peculiar value
Of the American trotting horse and
the means for protecting and advanc-
Ing his condition. He said in part as
follows: "The evolution of the Amer
lean trotting horse is an interesting
study and his history is as full of
romance as it is of grave mistakes
and foolish ideas. In paper as brief
as this one must of necessity be it is
not practical to go into detail as to
the origin and earlier history of our
American trotter, but we may start
with the supposition that like the i'm
mortal Topsey, he was just born
There seems to have been in these
United States from our earliest his
tory two distinct types of horse
lovers, those who lent their interest
to the thoroughbred horse, the rum
ner, and those who were more fond of
the trotter, or road horse. During
our early history throughout the
seemed to be most in favor and our
English ancestors of those colonies
imported the English thoroughbred,
keeping his blood pure, while mary
of their descendants have followed
along the line of racing and breeding
the thoroughbred.
"The hardy New Highlander and the
people of the more Northern colonies,
including Canada, while importing
thoroughbred horses from England,
did not keep the strain pure, but
crossing on native and other stock
developed harness horse that in
time through use in harness for
strength and road horse qualities, be-
gan to be used for speed. In Rhode
Island from its earliest history there
was breed of horses known as the
Narragansett PAGER. The origin of
this horse is clouded in mystery, but
in use under saddle and in harness
the many stories of his wonderful
speed and endurance are too we'll
authenticated to be denied. Undoubt-
edly this family had some influence in
establishing the gait of our very
earliest trotters and PAGERS, and were
probably the direct ancestors of what
were known many years ago as the
| dun PAGERS of Ohio and Indiana. The
Hiatogs, as probably the Cadmus and
most pacing families, likely contained
some of this blood. Another source
drawn on for the development of the
trotter was from certain Canadian
families, and these horses were
product of the cross of the English
thoroughbred on native and other
imported stock
The Morgan Family Stock.
"The Morgan family of horses trace
their origin to Justin Morgan, who in
turn was product of this line of
breeding, as was also the Pilot fam
lily and others. In 1888 an English
horse called Messenger was brought
to New York, and descended from him
we acquired the Hambletonian and
Mambrino families, and these with
the Clay, the Champion, and the Ba-
shaw strain may be said to be the
main lines of blood in our trotters,
with frequent out-crosses to thor
oughbred and unknown blood. The
development of our trotter, just as
the development of the English thor
oughbred, came from speed contests.
Other countries have had their trot-
ting families, notably the Orloff, of
Russia, but all have drawn largely
on this country for the betterment
of their native blood. While breed
ing the runner and racing him in this
country has .been confined to COM
paratively small number of breeders
and few tracks, breeding and racing
the trctter is practiced by thousands
in every State of the Union.
The versatility of the trotter made
him at once a horse of practical use,
and as contests of speed on road and
track increased the interest, his value
increased Many men after acquiring
means took up breeding the trotter as
hobby, and, while pedigree was
studied faithfully, and speed devel-
oped, it was at the expense of indi-
vidual quality. So great was the de-
mand for pedigree in given lines of
known speed that our breeders lost
sight absolutely of all other require
ments needed in a horse, and prior
to the depression in values and par
ticular slump in horse affairs in 1898,
the country was overstocked with
horses, many well bred, but valueless
as individuals. Then came a readiust-
ment. The development of the horse
show educated men as to a proper
type, and the severe lesson given our
breeding interests in 1898 has not
a. Al