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MANNERS OF OUR HORSES English Consider American Thor ¬ oughbreds Easier to Manage Sincere Compliment Paid Amer ¬ ican Horsemanship by Our English Cousins BY SALVATOR SALVATOROne One of the best known of English sporting writers is Alfred E T Watson who over his own name rrd his pen name of Rapier has contributed many articles to the sporting press in addition to vhich he has published a number of different books upon sporting subjects principally connected with the turf His rank as an authority upon such matters is high as evidenced by the fact that be was selected to contribute the historical article on the thoroughbred horse to the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica A veteran in the ranks he has been active for at least forty years we have much to thank him for Among other happy ideas was that which resulted a few years ago in his volume entitled The Racing World and Its Inhabitants Of this he was not himself the author but merely the editor It is composed of a series of articles which he had prepared for the Badminton Magazine of which he was the editor previous to their publication in book form The series includes twelve chapters beginning with Trainers and Training by A Trainer and ranging along through Owners anil Owning by an Owner Breeders and Breeding by a Breeder Jockeys and Jockey ship by a Jockey rover in succession nll tlH principal things Connected with racing Including Vveii a chapter on Touts and Touting by a Tout1 Ihe author of none of these chapters is named but each is stated to be from the pen of a man choson for his practical experience and firsthand knowledge of his subject x xObviously Obviously such a volume must contain much to in ¬ terest anybody who at all cares for racing espe ¬ cially as it is well printed and handsomely illns tivteil in color To be sure since it was published 1901 considerable water has flowed under the bridges Still the bulk of its contents is just as true and apposite today as when written writtenSPOILED SPOILED BACERS GATHER TEMPER TEMPERGlancing Glancing again the other day through the chapter on Breeders and Breeding whose anonymous author is I believe Mr It K Mainwaring my attention was arrested by the following paragraph Young horses from their foalhood upward should be handled witli quietness and firmness and not pitted and made much of Those that have been petted are almost invariably the hardest to break and frequently are possessed of a will of their own which leads to much subsequent trouble It is most probable that after Persimmon had won the Derby Iiis brother Diamond Jubilee was in this wa which would go a long way to account for his way ¬ ward conduct at times though no doubt he was a brilliant race horse when at Iiis best It is the old story of familiarity breeds contempt The Ameri ¬ cans must bring up their horses very quietly or is it the long sea voyage that makes them so docile in the stable V If one goes round a stud of high class American horses as I have several times been around those at Xewmarket one cannot help being ttruck with their extreme quietness You can handle them as you like their gentleness is re ¬ markable markableThis This is certainly a sincere compliment to Amer ¬ ican horsemanship and as our British cousins are not given to praise without warrant may be ac ¬ cepted as one thoroughly deserved And it brings to mind a question which I have often cogitated In the course of a quite extended experience I have been led to ruminate upon the bad temper of Eng ¬ lish horses as contrasted with the good temper of our own and to wonder what the cause may bq They are bred up from virtually the same parent itock and often this parent stock is the same but 1 few removes back Yet what the writer said almve is true the American horse is notably quieter and gentler than the English Of course this is not invariably the case I have seen English horses that were gentleness itself and again I have seen American horses that wer ugly customers in nil the words imply Yet the rule I think holds good
