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GENESEE VALLEY BREEDING COMPETITION. More than 5,000 persons attended the Livingston county fair at Avon, X. Y., last Friday when the breeding classes for thoroughbred and half-bred horses were judged by Henry V. Colt of Geneseo, G. I. Stryker of Derby and C. J. Fitzgerald of New York, and it is safe to say that no competitions of their kind ever held in the Empire state attracted a higher representation or caused a greater amount of interest. The Livingston county fair, like the Genessee Valley Breeders Association, is a child of that most enterprising of horsewomen, Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth, who has for many years labored to make the valley the home of the heavy weight hunter and, despite the lowering skies of Friday many hundreds of the most representative fanners and horse breeders of the- region surrounding Avon, Mount Morris and Gejieseo were in attendance for the breeding competition. The classes were for stallions of the breeding bureau of the Jockey Club scattered through the valley, weanling foals by them out of various types of mares, and yearlings, two-year-olds and three-year-olds of the same breeding. Throughout the United States, the Genesee country has long been recognized as the home of good horses of the hunter and saddle type, and the region is generally spoken of as the "Ireland of America." If this designation has been fitting hitherto, the showing made on Friday by the thirteen classes which the experts were called upon to classify would make the reputation of the valley doubly secure, as some of the competitions, notably those of the yearlings and foals, were of superlative merit. The opinion was unanimous that nothing hitherto done in the United States has so thoroughly established the claim of the thoroughbred sire to improve the home product of the country. The young things shown were sons or daughters of Hippodrome, by Commando; Wonder Roy, by Watercress; Merry Task, by Octagon; Otis, by Sain, and Shotgun, by Artillery. All of these horses, except Hippodrome, which is now in the stud in Kentucky, were shown in the stallion class, in addition to the imported horses. Square Meal, by Simon Square; Estimator, by King Hanover, and Arabo, by Nomad. The last-named three have only come into the valley recently and the first of their progeny will be due in 1917, when Mrs. Wadsworth, X. C. Shiverick and other members of the Rreeders Association hope to have a still larger representation. Square Deal was adjudged the best of the sires, while a weanling by Wonder Roy won the premier award in the baby class. The best yearling, a daughter of Hippodrome, owned by the Ashantee Stud, would "win in any show ring. The growth of breeding in the valley was illustrated by the fact that only three three-year-olds were shown as against a score of foals and fifteen yearlings. Mrs. Wadsworth, head of both the Livingston County fair and the breeders association, was everywhere on the grounds and was gratified by the showing of the breeding classes. She looks for bigger things next year and in five years confidently expects to see a score of competitors in every class. She sold during the last summer five horses which have won many awards in all parts of the country, among them Wathen, by High Order, winner at Piping Rock; Carina, by Shotgun, at Myopia; Rockbar, by Rocket, at various fairs in Virginia, and Jubilant, by Tupelo, owned by Edward White of Cleveland, which is a phenftmenal green hunter. Captain Shiverick of troop M., first cavalry, recently returned from the border, and who is associated with Mrs. Wadsworth and others in breeders associations, says it is the universal opinion that troop M. is the best horsed body of cavalry in Texas. The bulk of the horses arc from the Genesee Valley country.
