view raw text
BEST TYPE OF KENTUCKY HORSES HORSESEssential Essential to the Successful SuccessfulProsecution Prosecution of the War Why is Kentucky the horse state writes John IS McMahon in the latest issue of the Country Gentleman Because Nature made it one great pas ¬ ture lot Luscious blue grass grows spontaneously on the rolling slopes and uplands underlaid with lime ¬ stone and phosphate rock Because too of an equable climate Also because the limewater imparts strength to the bony structure But you mustnt believe that an English breeder told me The horses must get rain water to drink The real secret of Kentuckys equine preeminence is the hard soil under the turf Hard ground spreads the hoofs and makes the horse Its the one thing England lacks lacksOf Of course there are a multitude of t other otner theories theories and me axiom that refers to the men behind the horses horsesThere There is usually a horse issue of more or less size in the Blue Grass State Just now there is a burning issue that throws every question except the war in the shade According to some folk it strikes at the existence of the breeding industry Ihratons the prosperity of Kentucky and imperils th military interests of the nation nationIn In a word an army of reformers is deploying against the horse They claim to have good inten ¬ tions tmvard the animal Thats the trouble reply the others The reformers would make the horse a men animal They would have the well bred friend of man revert comparatively to the state of the ICohippus or whatever puny creature was used in the street cleaning department of the cave men menIn In the Midden revival of the war of movement vfii motor trucks mules and airplanes cannot cope with all situations there is u call for cavalry cavalryKENTUCKYS KENTUCKYS RECENT REFORMERS REFORMERSThe The rocent Kentucky reformers were not making much headway in the antiracing crusade when arly this summer a powerful recruit entered their ranks This was no less a figure than Gen W B Haldeman a meml r of the State Racing Commis ¬ sion and part owner of the Louisville Courier Journal He announced that while he was personally fond of racing he believed that in deference to pub ¬ lic opinion it would lie wise to discontinue racing for the period of the war The horsemen of the state would nullify the good effect of their 300000 con ¬ tribution to the lUd Cross said the general if they insisted on their legal right to hold race meetings this fall Apparently General Haldeman stands alone in his attitude among the members of the rac ¬ ing commission They an racing in France Gormany and in the oat declares Chairman J N Caniden of the racing commission and I see m reason why racing in Kentucky should be discontinued discontinuedGermany Germany bad 10S days of racing last year it is stated and will have about the same numlicr this year At track meetings held last spring near Berlin over 400000 in prizes were given There must be a reason why the sorepressed efficient Him permits and patronizes these speed contests Likewise hi the case of Austria France and Spain SpainSaid Said John E Madden breeder of Lexington and New York England France Russia and Italy will look to us to replenish their breeding farms after the war Racing is necessary to breeding and if stopped now in America the whole world will suffer Our War Department has established stations at Fort Sill Oklahoma and Fort Keogh Montana where sunn 1500 mares are to IM mated with thoroughbred THE ARGUMENT FOR BACING These stations will serve as nurseries where the seed will be kept alive but I think that every farmer in the land should be a breeder of cavalry remounts for Incle Sam Army officials tell me that they will need the remount for fifty years Encouragement to the farmer is a fundamental in this connection Give him i profit and note the rwr response to the call for a better type of lisht horse If we dont make it wortli while now it will take twenty years to reestablish the light horse i tli farms of America Let the Federal authorities supply the stallions along with an in ¬ creased price for the rough product and the farmer will do the rest Racing tests as always should be the medium of development for the sires siresMajor Major August Belmout who has contributed thir ¬ teen thoroughbred stallions to the Government breed ¬ ing service said Kentucky is doing a great injury to a great in ¬ stitution in even talking about curtailing these tests It is no time for such talk with the Govern ¬ ment of the United States scouring the country for suitable stallions horses which have won a right to reproduce themselves by their courage and stamina in racing tests in order that we may have an abundant supply of proper war horse material materialCol Col John S Fair who is head of the War Departments remount office at Washington is quoted as an ardent champion of racing He sug ¬ gested race track events in which army officers and men should be contestants The scarcity of lisht horses for cavalry use was discovered only when this country entered the war according to Colonel Fair who continued The only light horse families that have been produced systematically in the United States for a specific purpose are the thoroughbred and the stand tnllired trotters and these have been develop for racing purposes It is fortunate for this coun ¬ try that this should have been done as these ani ¬ mals furnish an admirable foundation upon which to build our war horse structure Both have been brought to their high state of perfection through lireeding and racing tests and in the process of volution through which they have passed the weak have fallen by the wayside waysideENGLAND ENGLAND IS WAKING UP Of the foreign nations now at war England was the only country that had not a wellgrounded plan for cavalry remount production Her troopers were horsed largely from the race course and the hunting field Today she has her own breeding studs under the control of an expert The sires which are expected to keep up the high standard of excellence mu t prove their right to reproduce them ¬ selves They are tested for sMwd courage sound nefs and bottom Early in the war when Russia made her great offensive and penetrated East Prussia the announce ¬ ment was made that Germany deplored the loss of 0 MM choice mares from one of its most famous breeding studs more than any other misfortune con ¬ nected with the campaign Such a number of the proper type of mare would be invaluable to us to ¬ day To Germany whose horse wastage is greater than that of any other country they would bo priceless There seems to be an idea in some portions of the United States continued Colonel Fair that mares cannot be worked prior to motherhood and for some time after the foals have been born Visi ¬ tors to France and England find colts following their dams about the fields as the matrons help till the soil or garner the harvest Moderate work is beneficial for mother and offspring Another matter on which the farmer should be enlightened is that breeding operations may be carried into the au ¬ tumn when most of the years work has been con ¬ cluded The breeding of cavalry remounts is a matter of patriotic endeavor and every man who has a mare of the proper type should regard it as a duty to mate her this year yearMORE MORE EXCLUSIVE THAN FOUR HUNDRED HUNDREDReformers Reformers are hard people to argue with One of them at Lexington said to me Racing is a test so as to permit the reproduc ¬ tion of the best eh How about a race won by a gelding C CBut But the reformer admitted that the major con ¬ tests are open only to entire horses A horseman gave me tins balanced view Yes racing has parasitic scalawag features which might be reduced if uot eliminated A race track gambler is often a low critter who links up with the underworld of vice and crime Racing and Iwixing have acquired degenrato growths since the days of the Olympian games when they were tests of i nations manhood These sports and tests should not be abolished but they should lie cleaned up Wo need them never more than today when the world issues are being decided in outdoor con ¬ tests of brawn and nerve What is a thoroughbred To the reformer and to most of the public he is the same as a deck of cards or a roulette wheel that is a gamb ¬ ling implement Actually he is a horse whose se ¬ lected lineage runs back to one of thethree Arab or Barb stallions which iu the eighteenth century founded Englands and the worlds present stock of incomparable light horses There are forty families in the thoroughbred list It is much more exclusive than the human Four Hundred The test ofadmis sion is not just ancestry but ancestry that has made good in the fierce battles for speed supremacy Show me a man whose ancestors for 200 years have lieen hand picked to develop the best traits of mind and body If you could you would not sug ¬ gest that all the labor of selection was thrown away WHY THOROUGHBRED IS SUPERIOR Dissect a throiighbrcd post inortemand you find his bones are different harder and closer textured than those of other horses Something of quality can be seen in the appearance of an animal The final test of physical makeup and of those in ¬ tangible merits of nerve and courage that escape measurement with a tapeliue is found in perform ¬ ance on the race frock Maybe for military purposes a competitive performance on the actual battle Hue would lie better But how would you arrange that Under what conditions And how many generations of war competition would it take to establish a breed with a record and ancestry like that of the thor ¬ oughbred oughbredThe The Kentucky racing commission three years ago donated a number of thoroughbred stallions to be distributed in the outlying sections of the state for the improvement of common horse stock The Kentucky State University at Lexington through its department of animal husbandry is custodian of the stallions and supervises their use Prof J J Hooper who is immediately in charge of the work told me there were twelve stallions distributed through the state and that each would serve about forty mares this season A nominal fee of five dollars is charged for service that has a market value up to 500 As a further stimulus to this improvement work prizes totaling 50 are given in each district where there is a thoroughbred sire for the best of his colts shown at a county fair or some designated place An expert of the state university acts as judge and seizes the occasion to give an allround talk on better horses horsesKENTUCKY KENTUCKY AND ITS TRACKS TRACKSKentucky Kentucky has four tracks at which miming races are held The oldest at Lexington has been in practically continuous operation since 182i5 Churchill Downs at Louisville has been going for almost half a century Douglas Park is a newer track at Louisville and there is the Latonia track near Cin ¬ cinnati The tracks race on an average of 100 days a year and pay a revenue to the state of 300 a day dayHow How about Kentuckys actual contribution of horses to the war On this point I talked with T S Harbison the veteran dealer of Lexington He has two sons who are commissioned officers at the front His firm has sold most of the horses sent out of the state for military purposes since 1914 He figures the total round 20000 The English were the first buyers said Mr Harbison They began in the fall of 1914 and kept buying through 1JI15 The English French and to a less degree the Italians bought altogether about 11000 horses and 10000 mules The allies stopped purchasing when the United States entered the war Our government in the nine months up to last March took 15000 horses and 11000 mules from Kentucky Ninety per cent of the horses were of the cavalry type which is easy to define but mighty hard to get I dont know of any horse statistics for the state but I am sure there has been a depletion of the stock For one thing the automobile has limited breeding I hundreds of cases I know a man sold the only horse he had and figured on buying an auto Government prices have been too low to en ¬ courage farmers to breed horses On the other hand if it hadnt been for the war demand horses would not be worth a dollar a dozen The English paid 210 for artillery horses and 185 for cavalry horses while the French gave 1C5 for artillery and iro for cavalry horses The United States price was 190 for artillery and 105 for cavalry horses The Allies paid an average of 175 for mules while the United Slates paid 200 for mules mulesTHE THE SOKT OF HORSES NEEDED A light artillery horse stands 151 to 161 hands and weijflis 1100 to 1300 pounds A cavalry horse stands fifteen to sixteen hands and weighs 950 to 1100 pounds There are some queer results of army horse specifications A sixyearold mare was rejected by the inspectors because she was too 1Bht not worth even 1G5 and she was sold a few months later to private parties for 900 Of course a thoroughbred horse that holds his head up is of no use to the cavalryman who wants to swing a sabre right across the front of his mount A horse with a droop to his neck gives the proper clear ¬ ance Cavalrymen require just a strong animal with a good digestion able to stand up under hard work At the same time a thoroughbred stallion crossed on a plain mare gives the ideal cavalry type The army men agree on this And in order to keep up the thoroughbred iu this state the breeding cen ¬ ter of the United States racing must be continued Its the test Incidentally in Kentucky the race track is what the theater movie and concert are to the people who live iu cities Eventhing seems to be working against the horse including the automobile the low price for horses and high prices for cereals and tobacco Blue grass pasture is being plowed up and put into wheat and tobacco So far the United States government has not transported horses abroad to any extent which is likely why it stopped buying in this sec ¬ tion early this spring They had enough for the time I expect there will be a renewed demand for war horses later SENATOR CAMDENS OPINION OPINIONSenator Senator Caniden talked with me at length on the idiosyncrasies of the thoroughbred the useful ¬ ness of the race track in sifting the intangible virtues and the value of thoroughbred blood for the improvement of coldblooded horses When I purchased Mazagan in England a few year ago he said I was interested to see his sire Martagon which had raced five years and then retired sound in wind and limb ms owner Douglas Baird told me he had refused ail offer of 100000 for this animal from the German govern ¬ ment It was the desire of the German govern ¬ ment to cross Martagon on coldblooded mares for the improvement of cavalry remounts About the same time the Russian government bought Galtce More half brother of Ard Patrick for 125000 iu order to improve the coldblooded horses of that country As I said iu an address some time ago con ¬ tinued Senator Camden few realize the incredible amount of patient labor intelligent study and the billions of money used in the past 400 years to develop the modem thoroughbred As the race course was indispensable in the process of creation so it is equally needed now to keep the breed from deteriorating It is the crucible where all defects of shape constitution faint courage and infirmities of temper are searched out and only the best sur ¬ vive The deceased Count Lehndorrf who was head of the imperial stud of Germany and the foremost European authority of his time paid a remarkable tribute to the thoroughbred as created by means of the English race track He spoke of the only appropriate test proved by the experience of twi centuries the absolute and blind justice personified in the inflexible winning post the irrefutable certainty that neither fashion nor fancy neither favor nor hatred has biased the decision of hotly contested struggles as recorded in the Racing Calendar for the space of 170 years This it is that gives to the English thoroughbred horse a value for breeding purposes uuequalcd and looked for in vain in any other species of animal creation American Crusaders in modern Holy war need the backing of America their mother Back the Crusaders with Liberty Bonds
