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HAMPERING REMOUNT ASSN. Statement Made That "Broken Down" Horses Are Being Used at Breeding Stations. SARATOGA, N. Y., August 18. There seems to be a disposition in certain quarters to hamper the work of the National Remount Association, which has undertaken the task of providing cavalry horses for Uncle Sam. One of the most recent criticisms is aimed at the thoroughbred sires which are employed as a. top cross, and the statement has leen made that "broken down" horses art; being used at the various breeding stations. Most horses which have stood the test of racing have the scars of warfare to show for what they have accomplished. Tendon trouble is responsible for the retirement from active participation in racing of most thoroughbreds. The Injury comes from the strain which is put upon feet and legs-in these days of strenuous racing, and manifests itself in the shape of a "bow," or bending of the tendon, and while it does not always mean the permanent eclipse of a racing luminary, it is generally the signal for the retirement of the animal fr.oni severe competition. Numberless instances, however, might be cited of horses that were "bowed" coming back to the races and equaling their greatest triumphs. The case of Old Rosebud is among the best known, perhaps, though Naturalist and Trompe La Mort are others three-year-old of his day, after a period of rest three-year-olds of his day, after a period of -rest-on a Texas ranch, returned to the turf, and was the best handicap horse in a year that was notable for the excellence of the material in that division. Bowed tendons are not transmittable, and they do not constitute unsoundness in a breeding animal. They are not even a blemish, as they almost invariably become straight when the strain of racing at top speed is done away with. The French, as a nation, do many tilings well, and one of their most progressive activities is in connection with horse breeding and equitation. The French cavalry officer is a skilled horseman. Thomas Walsh, who trained horses in France for a number of years, and is among our most intelligent students of the thoroughbred and all that pertains to his welfare, said here a few days ago: "French cavalry officers are constantly on the lookout for thoroughbreds with tendon trouble. They put them into active work, and the animals become sound. Such horses take part in the endurance tests which are held periodically as a medium of guidance in breeding. One that took place while I was in France was from Dieppe to Paris, and I remember that the first ten horses in that contest were all clean-brcds. It is a safe prediction that a majority of them had seen service on the race course. A French officer will have nothing but a thoroughbred when he can secure one for a charger." COL. SCOTT REBUKES CRITICS. The "broken down" thoroughbred critics were rebuked by Col. C. L. Scott at a recent meeting here when the matter of promoting interest in the National Remount Association, of which he is one of the active heads, was being discussed by representative horsemen and breeders from all parts of the Union. Colonel Scott cited the cases of Fashion Plate and Perkeo, recent additions to the Fed-, oral Stud. The former won the Metropolitan Handicap and other good races for H. K. Knnpp, who presented him to the breeding bureau of The Jockey Club. He is 16 years old and, after having done yocman service in the Empire State, he was donated to the government by The Jockey Club. By the imported sire Wooisthorpe, dam Fashionable, a daughter of the English bred stallion Richmond, he was retired from racing because of a bowed tendon. Perkeo is a sou of Previous, by the English horse Meddler. Hq did net race to the same extent as Fashion Plate, and is best known as the sire of many fine hunters, among them C. D. Laniers champion Boiling. "These horses recently arrived at headquarters in Washington," said the Colonel. "They were in perfect condition. Fashion Plate came over the hard roads 350 miles in ten days, nnd lie arrived with head;and tail up. He- was sound as the day he was foaled apparently, and if I were going into action tomorrow J. wouldnt want a better charger. As for Perkeo, he came 55 miles the day before the Washington Horse Show and was as full of play in the ring as a colt." At the same meeting Colonel Scott paid a tribute to the manner in which the work of horse breeding was being carried on in the Genesee Val-ley, where the Gcnecse Valley Breeders Association, of which Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth is the active head, is co-operating with the Breeding Bureau of The Jockey Club. He said that the plan in vogue there was what the Remount Association had adopted as a model, and that, if it were followed out in other parts of the Union, success for the movement would be assured. It is the hope of the government to bo able to place 100 more stallions in the best horse breeding communities within the next year. 5 ? : . r i ; i i ! : i ; ; : I ; i : i . i . ; : i : ;
