has been responsible for many of these faults and has caused many a man
to become bankrupt are equally certain. If a horse can trot 2.10 or
better it is reasonably certain that he will make money for his owner,
and it matters not how homely or unsound he may be; but if the horse has
bad looks and unsoundness, and also lacks speed, he will be unprofitable
on the track, and can not be sold at a profitable price on the market,
while, if used in the stud, his undesirable qualities are perpetuated.
On the other hand, if the horse has a moderate speed, but is sound,
handsome and stylish, with a shapely head and neck, a straight, strong
back, straight croup, muscular quarters and stifles, well-set legs,
possesses good all-round true action and has abundant endurance, he is
almost certainly a profitable investment. This is the kind of light
horse which the market wants and will pay for. If of the roadster type,
he sells well as a driver; if more on the heavy harness order, as a
carriage horse.
“The occurrence of trotting bred horses of the finest conformation is by
no means uncommon; it is so frequent, indeed, that these animals supply
not only the demand for roadsters, but the principal part of the fine
city trade in carriage horses, and are conspicuous winners at the horse
shows. The demand for such horses has been so keen that dealers have
resorted to the pernicious practice of buying mature stallions, many of
them valuable breeders, and castrating them to be sold later as carriage
horses. The famous Lord Brilliant, three times winner of the
Waldorf-Astoria gig cup at Madison Square Garden, is a notable instance
of this practice; Lonzie, a noted Chicago show horse, is another, and
the horse purchased for the department experiments (Carmon) narrowly
escaped the same fate. This practice can not be too strongly condemned.
There is reason to believe that if these stallions were used as the
nucleus of a breed the type would in time become fixed and their blood
be saved to the country. On the other hand, if steps are not taken to
mould the blood of these horses into one breed, and preserve the blood
lines which produce them, an irreparable loss to the industry will
result. The first step should be to select foundation stock strictly
according to type; the next to study the lines of breeding which produce
these horses. To a certain extent they are accidents of breeding, but
there is little doubt that certain families show a greater tendency in
this direction than others. For example, the descendants of Alexander’s
Abdallah, Harrison Chief, the Morgans and the Clay family have been more
or less notable in this respect. Further, certain sires are known to
produce handsome and marketable horses with regularity.
“In view of these facts, the department decided to undertake the
development of a breed of carriage horses on an American foundation as
an interesting and important problem for solution. If successful it will
show that we can develop our own breeding stock of horses in this
country; it will make light horse breeding less a lottery than it is at
present, and will at the same time provide breeding animals which can be
used profitably on the lighter horses of the country.
“After a thorough search the department has purchased as foundation
stock eighteen mares and one stallion. In addition, it can command the
services of additional stallions if desired. The instructions of the
purchasing board allowed considerable latitude, but it was required to
select strictly according to type. Hereditary unsoundness was regarded
as a disqualification. Pedigree was not considered, so far as
registration was concerned, but the board required evidence to be
submitted showing that the animals purchased were from parents and
ancestors of like type, thus insuring blood lines that would breed
reasonably true. Speed, while not ignored, was not made an essential.
Life, spirit, and energy, with moderate speed, were considered, and,
while conformation was not sacrificed to speed, speed with conformation
and good action was regarded as an advantage.
“The type for mares was one standing about 15.3 hands, weighing 1100 to
1150 pounds, bay, brown or chestnut in color, with stylish head and
neck, full made body, deep ribs, straight back, strong loin, straight,
full croup, muscular forearms, quarters and lower thighs; good all-round
was insisted upon. Any tendency to pace or mix gaits was regarded as
grounds for disqualification. In some cases mares of more than 15.3
hands were purchased and in others they were less than this. All,
however, conformed closely to type. Some of the mares are in foal; the
rest will be bred this spring.
“The ancestors of six mares purchased in Wyoming have been bred for five
or six generations in that state, the band having been started by means
of an importation of horses from the Central West which was largely
Morgan stock. On this stock Thoroughbred and Standard sires have been
used, and the herd has been developed more to produce a horse suitable
for carriage purposes than one which had speed characteristics. Some of
the six have been exhibited at the New York Horse Show, and the owner of
the ranch maintains a stable near New York City, where he sends his
surplus from year to year to be finished for the fine city trade.
“The search for a stallion to head the stud was the most difficult of
all. An almost unlimited number of trotting horses suitable to get good
carriage horses were recommended to the department, but on investigation
it would be found that they were deficient in some respect and could not
be considered. A horse was finally selected which was among the first
suggested—Carmon 32907, American Trotting Horse Register, 16 hands,
weighing 1200 pounds in fair condition, bay with black points and no
white markings, bred by Norman J. Coleman, of St. Louis.
“The points of Carmon’s conformation which deserve special mention are
his head and neck and hind quarters. His forehead is broad and full,
with a straight nose and face; full, expressive eyes and well-carried
ears. The neck is clean, muscular, and well arched. In the hind quarters
special attention should be directed to the straight, broad croup and
the muscular quarters and lower thighs. The horse has an abundance of
bone and substance, but ample quality at the same time. His action is
excellent.
“A study of Carmon’s pedigree shows that it is not a particularly
fashionable one from the standpoint of the man who is breeding solely
for speed. This is a pedigree from which one might expect a horse of
excellent conformation. Robert McGregor, for example, was a horse with
especially well-developed hind quarters and this characteristic is seen
in his sons and grandsons, as shown by Cresceus and Carmon. Abdallah XV
was a horse with a particularly attractive head and neck. The frequency
with which the Abdallah cross appears in Carmon’s pedigree and the
presence of Morgan, Mambrino Chief and Clay blood readily explains where
this horse gets his handsome head and neck and his full quarters and
stifles. These families have produced some of our handsomest horses.
Their blood makes up nineteen-sixty-fourths of Carmon’s pedigree.
“The small percentage of pacing blood is worthy of particular notice.
Further, the prominent trotting sires in it have produced more trotters
than pacers, and Robert McGregor, Abdallah XV, and Ethan Allen are
noteworthy for the small number of pacers sired by them or produced by
their sons and daughters. This is so small that they may be regarded
strictly as sires of trotters. Abdallah XV and Ethan Allen sired no
pacers, and of the immediate get of Robert McGregor less than ten per
cent are pacers.”[8]
Footnote 8:
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY
LOCAL OFFICE
_John Gilmer Speed_, FORT COLLINS, COLO., _June 12, 1905_.
_New York, N. Y._
DEAR SIR:—Your favor of May 24 has been referred to me for reply. Will
say that we now have 19 brood mares and a stallion in our breeding
stud here and as you probably have learned, our object is to establish
a type of American carriage horses eventually. We will found a stud
book for this type of horses in America and we hope to so foster and
develop this type of horses in America as to make them par excellence
as a heavy harness horse. The mares that we have secured range in
weight from 1050 to upwards of 1280 pounds. They are from 15.2 to 16.1
hands in height and are without exception high headed with superb
action, of fine quality and while not noted for speed, can trot a mile
in approximately three minutes and do it in a wonderfully easy and
graceful manner, showing great style and finish. They are all bred
from the American trotter foundation, and as far as possible of Morgan
blood. We were careful to secure nothing but straight _trotting_ bred
stock, as we wish to eradicate the pacing characteristic from our
horses. As you are aware, the Government and the Colorado Agricultural
College are co-operating in this work. The Government is furnishing
part of the funds and the College has taken charge of and is directing
the work.
Trusting that this information is satisfactory, I am,
Yours very truly,
W. L. CARLYLE,
_Expert in charge_.
I need not explain to readers of this book that I do not entirely agree
with Dr. Salmon in his views of the American trotting horse. But in the
main I do agree with him in the selection of his mares. The stallion
used to be known in the horse-show rings as Lawson’s Glorious Thunder
Cloud. He never struck me as anything at all out of the common and I am
astonished at his selection. He was a good wheeler in a four-in-hand,
but that was all. In single harness he never won in any ordinary class
at any important show. He seemed to me to lack quality and to be lacking
in many of the things for which Dr. Salmon gives him praise. I trust,
however, he will prove a better sire than he was a show horse, for the
need for carriage horses is great; then it would be a great pity for
this first official experiment to turn out badly. It will be watched
with peculiar interest. But I wish Dr. Salmon had selected as his
stallion a horse that was in blood and conformation similar to
Clay-Kismet.
CHAPTER TEN
FOREIGN HORSES OF VARIOUS KINDS
For draught purposes there have been a great many foreign horses brought
here, and they have served an excellent purpose. I suspect indeed that
if we had a record of the Percherons, Clydesdales, and Shire horse that
have been brought into America for the purpose of breeding heavy horses
for trucking, that the number would exceed the Thoroughbreds that have
been imported for the improvement of that special type. We had no heavy
horses of our own, and as there was a constant demand for draught horses
it was inevitable that breeders should go for stock where that stock had
been brought to the highest perfection. To us it seemed that the French
horses, the Percherons,[9] were best adapted for our use. And though
many have been brought here, it is not likely that the generality of
Americans know the pure bred Percherons. But all of us are familiar with
Rosa Bonheur’s “Horse Fair.” The models of the horses in this stirring
and beautiful picture were Percherons, and nearly all of them stallions.
The French, and other Latins besides, have a fondness for using
stallions in ordinary work, and any day in Paris a visitor may see a
long string of Percheron stallions drawing a heavy load as placidly as
geldings would do it. There is no reason why stallions should not be
used more generally in this country. The prejudice against their use as
saddle- and harness-horses no doubt arose when the business of a greater
part of the country was transacted by travelers who needed to hitch
their horses where other horses were also tethered. But in work where a
groom or driver is always in charge of a horse the stallion may be used
with much advantage to himself and satisfaction to his owner.
Footnote 9:
Mr. Walters of Baltimore, began importing Percherons to America in
1866 and kept it up for twenty years. He translated the work of M. du
Hays on the Percheron and illustrated it with photographs of horses
and mares of his own importation. It is one of the handsomest horse
books ever published.
The basic blood of these Percherons is Arab and Barb mixed with the
blood of those heavy Norman horses that were used by the heavily-armed
knights in the time when the lance, sword, and crossbow took the place
in war now monopolized entirely by rifles, balls and powder or other
explosives. After securing the type the French have been so zealously
aware of its value that they keep agents in Arabia always looking out
for animals suitable to start a new and parallel supply of this basic
blood. These same agents are also on the lookout for horses to be used
in the breeding of army horses. Few of the Percherons that are brought
over here are used in actual work, but are kept on the breeding farms in
Ohio, Illinois, and other places for the production of “graded draught
horses,” horses not quite so heavy as the Percheron, but heavier than
any draught horses we previously had of our own breeding. The Percheron
stallions are mated with heavy American mares and with “graded” mares,
and the produce sent to the great cities where the animals fetch highly
satisfactory prices. Great care has to be exercised in making the cross
between a Percheron and an American that the contrast shall not be too
great between the members of the union. When it is too great the
consequences are disastrous, and result in a misshapen beast with
unrelated characteristics of each parent. This shows that the blood of
the union has not blended harmoniously. But the men who are in the
business of producing “graded draught horses” appear to know that
business well as the horses sold are handsome, strong, and active, and
well adapted for the work for which they were created. This is a
business pretty sure to decrease rather rapidly. These graded horses are
not the ideal farm horse, although on a large farm where there is a deal
of hauling, they serve a very useful purpose. But in plowing or in other
work over soft ground they are too heavy. The city is the place for
these horses. And year by year the heavy hauling will more and more be
done by auto-cars. The auto-car for trucking is at present probably the
most satisfactory achievement of the designers of horseless vehicles.
When it is satisfactorily demonstrated that this mode of transferring
freight, building material, and so on, is the cheapest way, then draught
horses will be less and less in demand, and the French will lose one of
their most profitable markets for her large, heavy, and symmetrical
horses. Still that may be a many years off, and if I were Dr. Hartman or
Messrs. Dunham I should not just yet sacrifice my Percherons to any save
the highest bidder.
Before the era of the draught horse from France, those from England had
a certain amount of popularity. That has long since passed away, and the
Shires and Clydesdales in the United States are not proportionally so
numerous as formerly. But they keep their popularity in Canada, where
probably the farmers, being chiefly Britons, understand them better.
That they should have been supplanted by the Percheron in the United
States is no doubt due to the fact that the Oriental blood in the French
horse makes that blood more assimilative with other strains. The French
coach horse is brought over here to an extent for experimental use, and
the Cleveland Bays formerly were brought quite frequently. Both, no
doubt, have had temporary influences on the American stock in the
localities where these horses were in the stud, but I know of no type
that has been influenced by them to any great extent.
The Orlof trotting horse of Russia is one of the most interesting horses
in Europe, and was created by Count Alexis Orlof-Tchestmensky, who began
his work during the reign of Peter III, in the last half of the
eighteenth century. As there has been an effort to make this type
popular in America, it may be interesting to record how Count Orlof went
about his work to secure a reproducing type of animals that resemble
each other as much as the puppies in a litter of fox terriers. In 1775
he imported from Arabia a stallion named Smetanka, and bred this horse
to a Danish mare. The produce was Polkan who sired in 1784 Barrs out of
a Dutch mare. Barrs is looked upon as the founder of the Orlof type.
Barrs sired Lubeznoy out of a mare that was sired by an Arab out of a
Mecklenberg mare; Barrs also sired Dobroy out of a Thoroughbred English
mare; also Lebed out of a mare by Felkerzamchek out of a Mecklenberg
mare, Felkerzamchek being by Smetanka out of a Thoroughbred English
mare. Now all the Orlofs must descend from Smetanka and Barrs through
the three stallions named. This mixture was crossed and recrossed until
it became homogeneous, and so the Russian noble had created a type.
In 1772 he had in his stud the following horses:
Arab 12 stallions and 10 mares
Persian 3 stallions and 2 mares
English 20 stallions and 32 mares
Dutch 1 stallions and 8 mares
Mecklenberg 1 stallions and 5 mares
Danish 1 stallions and 3 mares
Miscellaneous 9 stallions and 17 mares
He developed his type before his death in 1810, and his widow kept up
the same method of breeding until 1845, when she sold the horses to the
Russian government. These horses have been of vast service in Russia,
where even in the eighteenth century the steppes were filled with wild,
scrubby but hardy little horses to such an extent that even the poorest
peasant could own one or two. The Orlofs have done much to improve these
steppe ponies and it is upon them that the Russian cavalry largely
depends for remounts.
The fastest of these trotters can go a 2.20 clip, but I have heard that
a rate like this can be maintained only a short while. They are not so
symmetrical as our Morgans or Clay-Arabians, but they have immensely
more substance than the Standard Bred Trotters. I do not see how they
can find any very useful place in this country. We could from our own
stock quickly develop a better looking coach horse, and I believe we
will do it, but never until we keep in mind that type is nine-tenths of
any horse breeding battle that is ever won.
The English Hackneys at one period promised to be popular in this
country. This popularity was stimulated by fashion, and the English
breeders did not fail to take advantage of the fad that possessed some
Americans of wealth. The Hackney comes from the Dutch horses by way of
the Norfolk trotter. He is a horse of substance and easily acquires a
high step with much knee action. In the show ring he is exhibited after
the English fashion and makes a very lively picture. But his step is not
light. He pounds the ground as though he wished the earth to tremble,
and the Chinese feel his tread on the other side of the world. He has no
very fitting place here, no more than the Orlof, either in his purity or
as a cross with our own horses. We can easily do without him, and
accomplish the creation of heavy harness and coach horse without the
assistance of this English type. Originally in England the Hackney was a
knock-a-bout horse, good under the saddle and in harness; but he has
been bred up to large size and very heavy weight. Some of the American
breeders of hackney ten or fifteen years ago when they went to England
for stock to breed from paid such prices that the English laughed with
delight, for they never dreamed of such a market at home. The fad is
fastly dying out, and it is likely that in a few years there will not be
opportunity even in the show rings for their exhibition. As they are
deficient in courage and staying qualities, this will not be a bad
result of lack of popularity.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE BREEDING OF MULES
On the first day of January, 1905, we had in the United States 2,888,710
mules with a taxable value of $251,840,378. This shows how extensive an
industry mule-breeding is, and also what an important place the mule
occupies in the economy of the country. The mule is an ideal farm
animal. They would find it hard to get along without him on the
plantations in the South. The negro is the poorest horseman in the
world. As a groom he is careless and neglectful. A horse must be
attended to or he will get ill and die. The mule seems, if not to thrive
on neglect, at least not seriously to deteriorate. On many of the
Southern plantations mules never know either currycomb or brush during
all their long lives. And they live to a great age. I have never seen
any statement based on carefully ascertained statistics at to the
comparative length life of the horse and mule, but I am persuaded, from
my own observation that on an average a mule lives twenty-five per cent
longer. And there is pretty nearly as much work in an old mule as in a
young one. They can also be put to hard work sooner than a horse. So the
working life of a mule is lengthened at both ends. Moreover, they can
subsist on what would be starvation for a horse.
If mules were bred at all in America in the Colonial era it was to a
very limited extent. But after the Revolution they were bred a little,
and George Washington was the man who encouraged this new industry. In
1786, before his election to the Presidency, Washington accepted from
the King of Spain the present of a large Spanish Jack. He called the
jack Royal Gift, and thus advertised his services in a Philadelphia
paper:
“Royal Gift—A Jack Ass of the first race in the Kingdom of Spain
will cover mares and jennies (she asses) at Mount Vernon the
ensuing spring. The first for ten, the latter for fifteen pounds
the season. Royal Gift is four years old, is between 14½ and 15
hands high, and will grow, it is said, until he is twenty or
twenty-five years of age. He is very bony and stout made, of a
dark colour with light belly and legs. The advantages, which are
many, to be derived from the propagation of asses from this animal
(the first of the kind that was ever in North America), and the
usefulness of mules bred from a Jack of his size, either for the
road or team, are well known to those who are acquainted with this
mongrel race. For the information of those who are not, it may be
enough to add, that their great strength, longevity, hardiness,
and cheap support, give them a preference of horses that is
scarcely to be imagined. As the Jack is young, and the General has
many mares of his own to put to him, a limited number only will be
received from others, and these entered in the order they are
offered. Letters directed to the subscriber, by Post or otherwise,
under cover to the General, will be entered on the day they are
received, till the number is completed, of which the writers shall
be informed to prevent trouble or expense to them.
“JOHN FAIRFAX, Overseer.
“February 23, 1786.”
Washington believed in mules and in the inventory of live stock in his
will made in 1799, mention is made of two covering jacks, three young
ones, ten she asses, forty-two working mules, and fifteen younger ones.
It was a much later period, however, before mules were extensively bred
in the United States. With the exception of Royal Gift, it is likely
that the jacks brought from Europe were rather inferior. But in 1832,
Henry Clay imported two pure-blood Catalan asses, a jack and a jenny.
They were landed in Maryland, and there the jenny had a foal. This foal
was called Warrior. This jack was fifteen hands high, and he became a
great ass progenitor in Kentucky. The jennies there at that time were
not well bred, but mongrels, mostly a light shade of blue, with gray,
buff and grizzly hair, nearly as stiff as hog bristles, generally with a
colored stripe across the shoulders and down the back, ewe-necked, flat
in the rib, low carriage, and heavy headed, entirely destitute of any
good quality except hardihood and ability to get a living where any
other animal, save a goat, would have starved to death. With such
jennies began the first effort to improve the race in Kentucky, and they
flocked to Warrior in droves. He seemed to cross advantageously with
them, just as the Cashmere goat crosses on the common hairy goat. His
progeny seemed rapidly to lose the leading traits of their dams, and to
inherit in a remarkable degree the color and outward characteristics of
their sire. Four years later Dr. Davis imported in South Carolina
another Catalan jack. He was 16 hands high and of great weight. This
jack, Mammoth, was mated to the young Warrior jennies then just
maturing, thus making the second cross of pure blood, and upon these two
crosses rest to-day the breeding of the race of jacks known throughout
the United States as the Kentucky Jack. These Kentucky jacks are still
popular, and last year the British Government bought a number of them to
take to India.
Mr. J. L. Jones, of Columbia, Tennessee, is a recognized authority on
mule breeding, and I prefer to give my readers his counsel in a matter
with which he is better acquainted than I am.
He says: