view raw text
THE UTILITY OF THE THOROUGHBRED. If any horse on earth can justly be called useful servant of man, it is surely the thoroughbred. Let us look for just a minute at some the things that he can do. In war he has never had an equal, unless it the Arab. Military men from the Crusaders of the Middle Ages to our own Western Indian lighters .have gloried in his superiority. . Ninety per cent of the finest hunters in Europe i and America todav are either thoroughbred or carry a high percentage of thoroughbred blood. Manv of our best olo pontes have a great deal of thoroughbred breeding. It is a fact known all horsemen that the fastest, handiest, gamest anil best polo pony is a miniature thoroughbred. In Europe almost all saddle horses and hacks are thoroughbreds and increasing numbers of them are being ridden In the United States. While their natural work Is under saddle, man thoroughbreds are excellent harness horses. lhe-rarelv possess much action, but they have compensating merits. I personally know a registered inare that has won county races, gives excellent service in regular saddle work, has gone ten miles in forty minutes drawing two persons in a runabout, and has performed farm work, including plowing, on a New Jersey farm. Her owner says she has oulv one fault and that is a tendency jump her pasture fence. This fact, added to her spirit, docilitv and activity, makes me think that she might make a hunter with training. It is- needless to speak of the racing record the thoroughbred. The only thing that ever approached him in track work is the great American trotter, and that is. nothing more or less than thoroughbred taught to trot instead of gallop. Those who claim that the thoroughbred is degenerate point to the list of crippled and shattered colt favorites retired or shot at the close of each campaign. Tliev tell us to look at the trotter, establishing new records in his old age. Did these same people ever know a "colt trotter to reach old age? Did Freedom do any great thing on the track after getting the first standard record ever given a yearling? And what about Hamburg Belle? Any colt is ruined if forced to do the work of a matured horse. Tbe equine roll of honor holds many thoroughbred names. Bohemian Glass, and Pagan. Loes Sand, and The White Knight. Octagon, and Henry of Navarre are these examples of a dying breed. Through hundreds of past years the noble thoroughbred has been the king of the horse world. Those who reallv know him have no fear that he wnl be dethroned. -M". F. Bayliss In Rider and Driver. ., a ;l of I f be i d y , II to 0 11 0 e " : I lt !S " - s to o T l ,f - n a a J- d h s- :e U ie r g ie 1- k T IV l- e 11 r.
