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THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE. Major Foxhall Daingcrficld Addresses Kentuckians Interestingly on the Subject. Maj. Foxhnll A. Daingerfield, manager f James R. Kecnes Castleton Stud and member of the Kentucky State Racing Commission, who Is regarded as one of the worlds authorities on the racing horse, addressed a meeting of the horse breeders of Kentucky at the State University not long ago on the subject "The Thoroughbred Horse: His Origin and His Uses." A portion of Major Daingerfields address was as follows: "My highest ambition in life has been to develop to its highest type and greatest utility every domestic animal. The game cock, fox hound, pointer, scltcr, shorthorn, saddle horse, trotter, etc., and even men have at certain periods of my life interested me, but my environments in recent years have enforced the crystallization of my thought and energies upon the thoroughbred horse. "The breeds used in the establishment of the English thoroughbred were the Arab, the Barb- and the Turk, and horses of these breeds were from time to time imported to England and crossed on the speediest and best of the native English mares, and their progeny by pure eastern sires of one or the other of the breeds named to the fifth generation gave the right to registration as an English thoroughbred. Of the importations to England from time to time of these eastern horses, all did not prove of equal merit as progenitors of speed and endurance or stamina, as it is termed in horse-ology and the descendents In tail male from Dar-leys Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk came to be considered the elect lines the English thoroughbred. "Later the pre-eminence of certain race horses and sires descended through these and kindred channels brought three horses into such prominence as to constitute their descendants the equine aristocracy of England. These horses were Eclipse, Herod and Matchem. And in England and America and, indeed, in almost all countries where the "thoroughbred is known, keeping these lines in due proportion in the pedigrees of their blood stock Is regarded a measure of safety. "The terra thoroughbred, when applied to horses, has become synonymous In ordinary usage with a horse entitled to registry, or registered, in the English General Stud Book. This by reason of the establishment in England from eastern lnfusious of the breed so denominated. "The American Stud Book, compiled by the late S. D. Bruce the first volume of which was published In 1S73, only eight years after the close of the Mar between the states, in which. Virginia till then the premier state, since colonial times, in the production of race horses was completely devastated by contending armies contains the names of horses satisfactorily proven to Bruce to be thoroughbred, but not in all cases by evidence recognized by Wcatherby as sufficient, yet which have proven their patrician ancestry and purity of blood by their deeds and produce. "From early colonial days racing was popular and English thoroughbreds of merit were imported from the mother country. Diomed, by Florlzel, out of Juno, by Spectator, foaled in 1777, won the first Epsom Derby in 17S0, and was imported to Virginia and died the property of Colonel Hoomes of that state. From him descended in tail male Sir Archy, Timolcon, Boston, Lexington and all Kentuckians know the rest. "Glencoc, by Sultan, out of Trampoline, by Tramp, foaled in 1S31, won the Two Thousand Guineas in 1S34 and was imported by James Jackson of Florence, Ala., In 1S36. All the world owes him tribute. His name should be written in capitals and spoken by horsemen witli uncovered heads. "Leamington, imported by R. W. Cameron of Staten Island, N. Y., and Australian Milliugton brought over by A. Keenc Richards, of Georgetown, Ky., In the year 1S3S. have left their impress upon onr blood stock. Of the many more recent importations some have done good, many harm. Wo have hope, from some now active and great cause, to regret the removal from our shores of a recent Importation and more recent exportation which gave more promise as a progenitor from his first than did our remote ancestor of the same name for his. "My studies and experience teach tHat in establishing a type close inbreeding Is essential. Bates and Booth in the establishment of their unrivaled short horse found it so. The familes of horses that have survived have started from closely Inbred foundations. How can we expect a male to be more impressive upon his first offspring than his electively bred mates if he has no great concentration of the specific blood element desired than the mate has of some less desirable element which may control ? "Yet, while close inbreeding is the only road to the achievement of a perfect and established type to the highest results possibly obtainable. It is the most dangerous In the hands of the uninformed or inexperienced, for the reason that perfect soundness Individual and hereditary soundness must be found in animals or kindred blood to be mated. A tendency to a specific weakness may bo increased by mating kindred animals having a hereditary tendency to such weakness as certainly as specific strength may be intensified and made a characteristic of the progeny of such close union which will be transmitted to their descendants. This is true of temperamental as well as physical characteristics. "My reading and observation give me such, faith, in heredity that I firmly believe if men and women of purely Puritan stock and kindred blood should intermarry and their children, in each succeeding generation. Iiavo an additional purely Puritan infusion, that the fifth generation would be burning witches, chasing Roger Williams into the wilderness and consigning to eternal hell infants not a span long. "While the premier position in the equine world belongs to the thoroughbred, it is not solely that he Is the hero of the sjiort of kings, but that he Is the highest development of a type that is essential in imparting desirable qualities to all of the utility breeds. The thoroughbred of highest type is necessarily the one that must to the greatest extent impart his desirable qualities to utility breeds. To enable the thoroughbred breeder to procure or produce the best, conditions must exist which justify the expenditure of the vast sums necessary to procure produce the acme of perfection of Its kind or the nearest approximation possible thereto. "The huuter, the charger, the saddle horse, hackney, cob, French coach demi-sang, the trotter, pacer and even the better class of horses for general agricultural purposes owe much of their value, their courage, beauty and endurance to thoroughbred infusions, and ail would deteriorate without frequent new infusions from this pure source. "Millions, aye, hundreds of millions of money are lost and thousands of laborers left unemployed by ignorant and prejudiced legislation in this land against an industry fostered by governmental appropriations and oflicial recognition in most civilized and sane countries. "I never knew a horse to bet. though some gambol on the green. If a man has the betting instinct he can find an outlet in his automobile, in the jumping frog of Calaveras. In two marbles rolled down a plank, or I speak only from hearsay as to this in the relation of little bits of pasteboard with pictures on them In a stuffy room full of tobacco smoke, when he would have no worse temptation and more fresh air in an afternoons outing at a race course. "Hysteria is curable and the king will come to his own again in this land of the free, and then those who can will buy the best, and the general improvement of all classes of horses will be revivified. "A few remarks on the method of raising thoroughbreds, which will be found almost equally applicable to the reading of all other kinds of horses, and I am done. Abundant food, kind and gentle handling, fresh air and ample range are essentials. The oats you dont feed" your colt, which is to race at two years old, cost more than what you do feed him. "The mare should bo well nourished during pregnancy, and mare and foal should have abundant food and ample range with constant access to fresh water and a trough with salt accessible. Stables should be roomy and so well ventilated as to keep the animals as nearly in the outdoor temperature as possible, in order that they do not chill Avhen turned out for exercise, which they should have all day in winter and day and night in summer, except when exceedingly hot at midday. "The stables I have found best for colts from weanling to yearling form are built In a square with a court within, the outer walls close to the roof, inside boards only the height of the heads of the animals, and slatted above and open to the apex of the roof, likewise slatted above the wainscoting which separates the boxes, which should be fourteen by fourteen feet each, or larger If convenient. "Stallions should have eight or ten miles of exercise on the road daily under saddle and large paddocks in which to graze after such exercise. Their boxes should be twenty feet square and well ventilated. The fences of their paddocks should be doubled four and a half to five feet apart to avoid their coming in direct contact with each other or witli other animals. A fence seven feet high of three-inch plank and one stout scantling nailed flat to the top of the fence posts Is best. The horse is bv nature a gregarious animal and should be allowed to see his kind on every part of the farm. With these precautions, a soft-voiced, gentle, qulet-nianncred groom, no stallion will ever become a savage, and manv a savage In training will become as affectionate as a ladys hackney,"
