RIDING

By EDWARD L. ANDERSON

RIDING

CHAPTER I

BREEDING THE SADDLE-HORSE

The thoroughbred is universally recognized as the finest type of the horse, excelling all other races in beauty, in stamina, in courage, and in speed; and, further, it is capable in the highest degree of transmitting to its posterity these valuable qualities. Indeed, the greatest virtue possessed by this noble animal lies in its power of producing, upon inferior breeds, horses admirably adapted to many useful purposes for which the blooded animal itself is not fitted.

In England and upon the continent the thoroughbred is held in high esteem for the saddle; but, as General Basil Duke justly remarks, it has not that agility so desirable in a riding-horse, and because of its low action and extended stride it is often wanting in sureness of foot, and in America we prefer to ride the half-breed with better action. Occasionally the thoroughbred is found that fills the requirements of the most exacting rider, and the author has had at least six blood-horses that were excellent under the saddle. One of these, represented by a photograph in a previous work, in a gallop about a lance held in the rider's hand, gave sufficient proof of quickness and suppleness. However, it is admitted on all hands that the horse which most nearly approaches the thoroughbred, and yet possesses the necessary qualities which the superior animal lacks, will be the best for riding purposes.

Although every thoroughbred traces its ancestry in the direct male line to the Byerly Turk, 1690, the Darley Arabian, circa 1700, or the Godolphin Barb, circa 1725, and "it is impossible to find an English race-horse which does not combine the blood of all three," the experience of modern horsemen points to the fact that the blood-horse is as near to the Eastern horse as we should go with the stallion in breeding for the race-course or for ennobling baser strains.

In view of the great influence that these three horses had almost immediately upon English breeds, this present exclusion of the Eastern stallion is striking; but it means simply that the race-horse of our day has more admirable qualities to transmit than the sire of any other blood.

024a

FIG. 1.—RACE-HORSE IN TRAINING

024b

FIG. 2.—DICK WELLS. HOLDER OF THE RECORD FOR ONE MILE

The Bedouin Arabian of the Nejd district, supposed to be the purest strain of the race and the fountainhead of all the Eastern breeds, has become degenerate during the past two hundred years; too often horses of this royal blood are found undersized, calf-kneed, and deficient in many points. Notwithstanding the virtues that such animals may yet be able to transmit, I venture to say that the disdained "Arab" of Turkey, Persia, Egypt, and even that of Europe, as well as the so-called Barb, are better and more useful horses, and it is from these impure races that nearly all of the Eastern blood has come that has found its way into the crosses of European horses during the past hundred years or more. Indeed, if we may believe the statements of the partisans of the Eastern horse, but very little of the best Arab blood has been introduced into Europe.

The Darley Arabian, the ancestor of the best strains in the world, was doubtless of pure desert blood. His color, form, and other characteristics have always satisfied horsemen that his lineage could not be questioned.

In crosses of thoroughbred strains and desert blood the stallion should be of the former race; but in bringing Eastern blood into inferior breeds the blood of the latter should be represented by the mare. All good crosses are apt to produce better riding-horses than those of a direct race.

From the fossil remains found in various parts of the world it is certain that the horse appeared in many places during a certain geological period, and survived where the conditions were favorable.

But whether Western Asia is or is not the home of the horse, he was doubtless domesticated there in very early times, and it was from Syria that the Egyptians received their horses through their Bedouin conquerors. The horses of the Babylonians probably came from Persia, and the original source of all these may have been Central Asia, from which last-named region the animal also passed into Europe, if the horse were not indigenous to some of the countries in which history finds it. We learn that Sargon I. (3800 b.c.) rode in his chariot more than two thousand years before there is an exhibition of the horse in the Egyptian sculptures or proof of its existence in Syria, and his kingdom of Akkad bordered upon Persia, giving a strong presumption that the desert horse came from the last-named region, through Babylonian hands. It seems, after an examination of the representations upon the monuments, that the Eastern horse has changed but little during thousands of years. Taking a copy of one of the sculptures of the palace of Ashur-bani-pal, supposed to have been executed about the middle of the seventh century before our era, and assuming that the bare-headed men were 5 feet 8 inches in height, I found that the horses would stand about 14½ hands—very near the normal size of the desert horse of our day. The horses of ancient Greece must have been starvelings from some Northern clime, for the animals on the Parthenon frieze are but a trifle over 12 hands in height, and are the prototypes of the Norwegian Fiord pony—a fixed type of a very valuable small horse.

028a

FIG. 3.—THOROUGHBRED BROOD-MARE

028b

FIG. 4.—CAYUSE

028c

FIG. 5.—DESERT-BRED ARAB STALLION

The horse was found in Britain from the earliest historical times, and new blood was introduced by the Romans, by the Normans, and under many of the successors of William the Conqueror. The Turkish horse and the barb, it is understood, were imported long before the reign of James I., when Markham's Arabian, said to be the first of pure desert blood, was brought into the country; but from that time many horses were introduced from the East, of strains more or less pure. The Eastern horse was the foundation upon which the Englishman reared the thoroughbred, but we must not lose sight of the skill of the builder nor of the material furnished by native stock. The desert strains furnished beauty, courage, and stamina; the native blood gave size, stride, and many other good qualities; the English breeder combined all these and produced what no other nation has approached, the incomparable thoroughbred.

We accept the thoroughbred as we find him. No man can say exactly how he was produced. The great Eclipse (1764) has upward of a dozen mares in his short pedigree (he was fourth in descent from the Darley Arabian) whose breeding is unknown and which were doubtless native mares, for already the descendants of Eastern horses were known and noted. What is true of the breeding of Eclipse is true of many of his contemporaries who played prominent parts in the studs of their day.

For more than one hundred years no desert-bred stallion has had any marked influence upon the race-horse directly through a thoroughbred mare. In the first decade of the last century a barb stallion bred to a barb mare produced Sultana, who brought forth the granddam of Berthune to Sir Archy. Berthune was much sought after as a sire for riding-horses; besides this barb blood he had strains of Diomed and of Saltram in his veins, all of which were desirable for saddle-horses.

Breeds of animals deteriorate rapidly through lack of nourishment and from in-and-in breeding. It is questionable whether a degenerate race may be restored, within measurable time, by the use of any appreciable amount of its own blood; it is certainly bad policy to found a breed upon poor stock. The better plan would be to form the desired type from new strains. One hundred years ago Lewis and Clark found upon the plains of the Northwest "horses of an excellent race, lofty, elegantly formed, and durable," but one could hardly hope to replace such animals from the cayuse ponies, their descendants, without the introduction of superior blood in such quantities as practically to obliterate the inferior.

032a

FIG. 6.—NORWEGIAN FIORD STALLION

032b

FIG. 7.—HEAVY-WEIGHT HUNTER

034a

FIG. 8.—CHARGER

034b

FIG. 9.—MORGAN STALLION

Some of the range horses of Washington and of Oregon are fairly good animals, and these have more or less of the bronco blood, but all that can be said of the influence of the wild horse is that its descendants can "rustle" for a living where an Eastern horse would starve, and the same thing can be said of the donkey. Admitting that for certain purposes inferior blood must sometimes be introduced for domestic purposes, the better the breeding the better the horse will be. Bon sang bon chien.

The mustang of the southern central plains maintains many of the good qualities of its Spanish ancestors, and is a valuable horse for certain purposes, but we need not consider this animal in breeding for the saddle when we have so many other strains infinitely superior. Polo and cow ponies are not within our intent.

Types and families of horses are produced either by careful "selection and exclusion," or by the chances of environment In the first manner was brought about the thoroughbred, the Percheron, the Orloff, the Trakhene, the Denmark, and every other race or family of real value.

All over the world isolated groups of horses may be found which have become types by an accidental seclusion, and these from various causes are usually undersized and often ill-formed. Such are the mustang and its cousins on the plains, many breeds in Eastern Asia, the Norwegian Fiord pony, the Icelander, the Shetlander, etc., the last-named three being, it is supposed, degenerates of pure desert descent from animals taken north from Constantinople by the returned Varangians in the eleventh century.

In breeding for the saddle, or for any other purpose, the mare should be nearly of the type the breeder desires to obtain, and she should be of strong frame, perfectly sound, of healthy stock, and with a good disposition. If her pedigree be known, the stallion, well-bred or thoroughbred, should be selected from a strain which has been proved to have an affinity with that of the mare. The mingling of certain strains is almost as certain to produce certain results—not, be it understood, everything that may be desired—as does the mixing of chosen colors on the palette. That is to say, size, form, action, and disposition may ordinarily be foretold by the mating between families that are known to nick. The stallion should be no larger than the mare, of a family in which there is no suspicion of transmissible disease, and of good temper, and it certainly should not be lacking in the slightest degree in any point where the mare is not fully developed. The mare might be the stronger animal, the stallion the more highly finished.

037a

FIG. 10.—TRAKHENE STALLION

037b

FIG. 11.—TYPICAL DENMARK STALLION

Where the mare's pedigree is unknown, and the matter is purely an experiment, or where she is undoubtedly of base breeding, the stallion, while of superior blood, should not vary greatly from her type. Peculiarities in either parent are almost certain to be found in an exaggerated form in the foal.

It would be difficult to imagine a better horse, for any conceivable purpose except racing, than a first-rate heavy-weight hunter; yet he may be called an accident, as there is no such breed, and his full brother may be relegated to the coach or even to the plough. The large head and convex face almost invariably found in the weight carrier, and in the "high-jumper," are derived from the coarse blood which gives them size and power; but these features are indications of that courage and resolution which give them value—characteristics which in animals of wholly cold blood are usually exhibited in obstinacy. Indeed, while the English horse, each in its class, has no superior, Great Britain has no type or family of saddle animals such as our Denmark, unless one except cobs and ponies.

Of course, where two animals of the same or of similar strains, and bearing a close resemblance to each other, are mated, the type will be reproduced with much greater certainty than where various strains are for the first time brought together; but even in good matches a foal may show some undesirable feature derived from a remote ancestor. Some marks or characteristics of a progenitor reappear at almost incredible distances from their sources. That Boston's progeny should be subject to blindness, or that Cruiser's descendants should be vicious, or that the offspring of whistlers should prove defective in their wind, are reasonable expectations; but that the black spots on the haunches of Eclipse should be repeated upon his descendants of our day, as is doubtless the case, exhibits an influence that is marvellous. Stockwell (1849) and many others of Eclipse's descendants had those ancestral marks, but Stockwell had many strains of Eclipse blood through Waxy, Gohanna, and other progenitors. When a chestnut thoroughbred shows white hairs through its coat, that peculiarity is ascribed to Venison (1833) blood, if by chance that stallion's name may be found in its pedigree.

041a

FIG. 12.—BROOD-MARE OF SADDLE STRAINS

041b

FIG. 13.—CECIL PALMER RACKING

Where undesirable qualities appear in the products of crosses in breeding for a type, they are bred out in breeding up, or the failures are permitted to die out. It is not probable that any one who was desirous of breeding a horse suitable for the saddle would select a very inferior mare, for, even though her pedigree were unknown, the qualities which suggested her selection would prove her something better. It cannot be denied that occasionally a literal half-breed, by a thoroughbred on common stock, turns out a good animal, and such a cross is often the foundation of valuable types; but the chances are too remote to induce one to try the experiment solely for the produce of the first cross. It is rarely the case that a horse may be found in a gentleman's stable that has not either a liberal, direct infusion of thoroughbred strains, or is not itself a representative of some family which owes its distinction to the blood-horse.

I am schooling a pretty little mare, picked up by chance, for the illustrations of the chapters on riding and training. I believe that Daphne is out of a Morgan mare by a Hambletonian stallion, and that her symmetry comes from the dam. It is greatly to be regretted that the so-called Morgans have been so neglected that it is not easy to find horses with enough of the blood to entitle them to bear the family name. The Morgan, although rather a small horse, was an admirable animal, good in build, in constitution, in action, and in temperament, and its blood combined well with that of the old Canadian pacing stock (of which the original Copperbottom was an example), with Messenger strains, and with those of some other trotting families.

At the Trakhene stud in Germany a distinct breed has been obtained by the admixture of thoroughbred and Eastern blood. How long it took and how many crosses were made to establish the type I cannot say, but it is understood that in the first crosses the stallions were of English blood, the mares of desert strains. These Trakhene horses, usually black or chestnut, are very beautiful animals—large, symmetrical, and of proud bearing. They are sometimes used as chargers by the German emperor and his officers, and in this country they are somewhat familiar as liberty horses in the circus ring. It is said that the Trakhene is not clever upon his feet and that he is not safe in easy paces, which is likely enough, for both the blood-horse and the Arab are stumblers in the walk and in the trot.

In the province of Ontario, Canada, and in the states of Maine and New York, very fine horses are bred for various purposes; and from among these are found good hacks and the animals best suited to the hunting-field that America affords. These Northern horses have good constitutions and, it is thought, better feet than those found beyond the Alleghanies, and the best examples fill the demands of the most critical horseman; but in none of the Northern states can it be said that a breed or family exists that produces a type of hack or hunter, while in the Blue Grass region south of the Ohio we find the Denmarks splendidly developed in every point and with a natural grace and elasticity that make them most desirable for the saddle.

For quite a century the riding-horses of Kentucky have been celebrated in song and story. In the days when bridle-paths were the chief means of intercommunication throughout this state, the pioneer made his journeys as easy as possible by selecting and by breeding saddle-horses with smooth gaits, the rack and the running walk. These movements had been known in the far East and in Latin countries from time immemorial, but it remained for the Kentuckian to perfect them.

Some fifty odd years since a stallion called Denmark was introduced into Kentucky, and from him there has descended a type of saddle-horse which is everywhere held in esteem, for the Denmark horse of to-day has no superior for beauty of form, for docility, for graceful movements and, indeed, for every good quality which should be found in a riding animal. Denmark had been successful on the race-course; he was by imported Hedgeford, and if it be true that there was a stain upon the lineage of his dam, there had been a very successful cross, for the great majority of the saddle-horses of Kentucky boast Denmark as an ancestor. More than nine-tenths of this family trace to the founder's son, Gaines's Denmark, whose dam was by Cockspur, and, probably, out of a pacing mare.

The American Saddle-horse Breeders' Association has undertaken to improve the riding-horses of this country by the formation of a register and by the selection of foundation stallions whose progeny under certain conditions shall be eligible for registry. Their primary object is to encourage the breeding of the gaited saddle-horse, that is, the animal which, from inherited instincts or natural adaptability, may readily be taught to rack, to pace, to go in the running walk and in the fox-trot; but at the same time General Castleman, Colonel Nall, and the other gentlemen engaged with them, are exercising great influence for good upon the horse of the three simpler gaits.

The pedigrees of the foundation sires of this register show many strains of the blood of Saltram and of Diomed, a fair share of that of the Canadian pacer, and enough, doubtless, of that of the Morgan. A fabric woven of such threads must prove of national importance; for, although the registry is open to all horses which can show five saddle-gaits, it should be remembered that such an exhibition is almost a certain proof of the desired breeding and is a certain proof of quality. We may, then, hope for a typical American saddle-horse,—a race that shall have no superior, representatives of which shall be found wherever the horse flourishes.

I am no advocate for any paces other than the walk, the trot, and the gallop, these being the only movements in which the rider can obtain immediate and precise control over the actions of the horse. The riding-horse must be managed by reins and heels; no motions or signs are so exacting, so unmistakable in their demands, and it is impossible readily to obtain movements from a horse that is confused by eight or even five gaits, particularly when some of these gaits require an extension of the animal's forces incompatible with the union required in quick turns and in immediate obedience. It must, however, be acknowledged that the rack, the running walk, and the fox-trot have had a beneficial influence upon the Kentucky saddle-horse. In the first place, these paces required selection in the breeding, and, secondly, the discipline implied by the training, through many generations, has had its effect upon the tempers and dispositions of these splendid animals.

A brood mare should always be well nourished, but not over fed, and, from the time it is able to eat, the foal should have its share of oats as well as of succulent, nutritious grasses, and of sound hay when grazing is impracticable. Our cavalry officers, and horsemen in general, bear testimony to the endurance of animals bred in Kentucky. This vigor is due to the rich blue-grass pastures and to the liberal feeding of the mare and her offspring.

It would appear, upon first viewing the subject, that a horse bred upon rough pasture-land would be more sure of foot than one bred on smooth plains; but that is not always the case. It is true that the animal bred on uneven ground learns to look after itself, and becomes very clever on its feet when obstacles exist, but mountain-bred horses are often stumblers on level roads, in the walk and in the trot. The fact is, that sureness of foot depends upon the manner in which the horse extends and plants its feet, moderate action being the safest, either extremes of high or low action, of short or long strides, militating against the animal's agility. The reason that horses stumble ten times in the walk to once in the trot is because in the first-named pace the pointed toe is usually carried along close to the ground before the fore foot is planted. When the rider unites the horse, this defective action is obviated. During the past twenty years I have taken thousands of photographs of the moving horse in studying the question of action, and I am satisfied that the horse which plants its fore foot with the front of the hoof vertical will stumble; that the horse which straightens its joints and brings the heel to the ground first will travel insecurely and slip on greasy surfaces. I had an example of the last-named in my stable, and the animal several times "turned turtle," as I might have anticipated. Fair action, with fairly bent joints which bring the feet about flat to the ground, the hind legs well under the mass, is the safest form in which the horse moves.

DRIVING

CHAPTER I

ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE HORSE

In dealing with the horse as a source of national income, or as an opportunity for sport and pleasure, there is little to be taught Americans along the lines of harness-making, carriage-building, and other mechanical appliances for the comfort and best use of the animal. But both owners of horses and their care-takers are often lamentably ignorant of the general history of the horse.

If one is to get most value out of the horse on the farm, as a draught animal in city streets, or on the road, in harness or under saddle, some knowledge of his past history and present value cannot be out of place. The harness, the bit, the vehicle, may be right, but the head, hands, heart, and temper of the coachman may be wrong. To know how the horse came to be what he is, and to know something of the kind of a machine that he now is, will do much to explain his vagaries, and even more to make his owner and user more patient, more gentle, and more intelligent in handling him.

You do not expect poetry from a blacksmith, nor a fourteen-inch forearm on a poet. You deal with men the more comfortably the more you know of their antecedents and training. The same is even more true of this subject of horses. It is not necessary that a man should be an experienced navigator or an off-shore sailor to enjoy a yacht; but on the other hand there is no question but that the man who knows most of these matters gets the most enjoyment out of his boat. It is not necessary to write books in order to enjoy them; but the practice of writing adds an hundred fold to the enjoyment of other men's books.

It is not necessary that a man should be an accomplished palæontologist, and an experienced veterinary, in order that he may take pleasure in his stable; but some knowledge of these matters adds greatly to one's understanding of the proper treatment of horses, and greatly, too, to one's stock of patience in dealing with their eccentricities and obstinacies. "Mad men and mad horses never will agree together."

The horse is not an intelligent animal as a rule. He is the only animal that loses its head to the point of its own extermination when not restrained and controlled. He has no affectionate recognition of even his best friends. Your dog twists himself into extravagant physical contortions when you return after a month's absence; your horse, on the other hand, is no more warm in his welcome than your saddle. He is, now that he has been so long guarded and cared for by man, a pitiably helpless animal when left to himself. The mere fact that the reins lie on the dash-board, that he hears no voice behind him, that he is free, sends him off at a gallop—possibly to his own destruction.[1]

A certain politician from Tennessee, in describing a particularly erratic party leader, said that he reminded him of a horse sold to a friend of his. Many questions were asked concerning the horse, and finally the seller was asked about his gaits. After some hesitation he finally drawled, "Well, I guess his natural gait is running away!"

This is true of practically all horses, and it is because he is so well known to man and so useful to man, and because he is amongst the animals the greatest pleasure giver to man, that some knowledge of his ancient and modern antecedents and training is desirable.

America is the home of the horse in more senses than one. We have more money invested in horse-flesh than any other country in the world. A very conservative estimate of the value of the horses in this country is something over $1,050,969,093.

Scientific men tell us, too, that the first horses were natives of this country. The prehistoric horse of America probably wandered across Behring's Strait to Europe, Africa, and Asia at a time when that passage was dry land. Though the earliest travellers to, and the first settlers in, America found no horses here, there is no doubt that the horse originated on this continent. Why the horse disappeared entirely from this continent for a long period of time, while flourishing particularly in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, is one of the mysteries that science has not explained. Whether the ice age destroyed them, or a plague or flood swept them away no one knows. Two facts are well known: the first is that the oldest remains of the horse are found in this country; the second is that when Columbus touched at what is now San Domingo in 1493 he brought with him horses, animals that for thousands of years had not been seen here.

In four hundred years we have become the largest owners and users of horses in the world.

Our agricultural supremacy is due in great part to our use of horse-power in our fields and farms. Our superiority in this respect may be seen at a glance by a comparison of the number of horses in the leading European countries and our own. It is to be noted that in many cases these figures comprise, not merely the number of horses on farms, but the total number in the country. For the United States the number given is for horses on farms only.

Country Date Number

Great Britain

1901

1,511,431

Ireland

1901

491,380

British India

1900

1,343,880

Australia

1900

1,922,522

Argentine Republic

1900

4,447,000

Austria

1899

1,711,077

Hungary

1895

2,308,457

France

1900

2,903,063

Germany

1900

4,184,099

Italy

1890

702,390

Japan

1900

1,547,160

Russia, including Siberia

————————

1898

25,354,000

United States

1900

21,216,888

Iowa, Illinois, and Texas have each almost as many horses as Great Britain, and these three states alone have more horses between them than any foreign country except Russia.

These figures do not include the mules which are more extensively used here than in any other country. Including, with the horses, mules, and asses on farms, those not on farms, it is probable that the United States has more work animals than even the Russian Empire, Siberia included, with a population exceeding that of the United States by many millions.

The horse-power, including mules, on American farms is at least six times that of Germany; twelve times that of Great Britain and Ireland; eight times that of France; thirty times that of Italy; and six times that of Austria and Hungary combined. This difference in horse-power on American farms gives us a great advantage over other countries—so great an advantage indeed that our competition affects land values in Europe, and is gradually forcing a readjustment of the industries of the world. It is estimated that we have invested in horse-flesh in this country $1,050,969,093. In 1901 we exported 82,250 horses, while in 1891 we exported only 3110, and the number of horses increased from 4,337,000 in 1850 to 16,965,000 in 1900. Since 1850 the number of farms has increased 296.1 per cent; acres of improved land 267.0 per cent; and of horses 291.2 per cent, which seems to show that despite the increased use of machinery the horse is still a necessity in agriculture.

What could be gained economically by the intelligent breaking, breeding, shoeing, feeding, harnessing, bitting, driving, and handling of horses in this country is not easily calculable. The difference in the amount of work one horse can do when he is properly stabled, fed, harnessed, and driven, multiplied by millions, gives one some idea of the economic utility of such knowledge. It is well known that good roads add enormously to the availability of agricultural land and has a notable effect upon the cheapening of farm products. The first men to agitate for good roads, and they who do most to see that good roads are provided, are the users of horses. One might indeed write a telling chapter of eulogy on the horse, if one gave him the credit due him, for bringing about the cheapening of products necessary to the comfort and pleasure of mankind.

This whole subject of the care of the horse takes on a new aspect when it is looked at with these figures in mind. Books on driving, riding, and the like should be classed, not merely with books of sport and pleasure, but with scientific and economic treatises.

We are a nation with over a billion dollars invested in equine machinery. It is an absurd misunderstanding of the subject to look upon the time, money, and intelligence devoted to the driving, bitting, and harnessing of horses as so much time, money, and intelligence devoted to a sport of the rich and fashionable. If we had a steel plant, or a coal company with $100,000,000 invested therein, no investigation would be too minute, no saving of labor here, no improvement there, and no supervision would seem out of place in adding to the economy and efficiency of such an aggregation of capital. The man who can bit, harness, and drive four horses, or two horses, comfortably to himself, and to his horses, is adding just so much to the understanding of a subject which is of practical bread-and-butter interest to every man, woman, and child in the United States. Every ounce more of work that a horse can be harnessed to do, every practical hint that the master of horses can be induced to apply, every yard of road that can be improved, take something off the cost of everything we eat, drink, or wear. To put a coach on the road for a few weeks in the spring, to turn out a well-mannered pair for a lady's phaeton, to temper the disposition of two horses so that they bowl along pleasantly in a tandem, may at the first blush seem to be merely the idle vagaries of the unemployed rich. As a matter of fact, the knowledge and patience required in these exercises percolates through all classes of horse owners, and produces a marked effect from the utilitarian standpoint. We of the large cities, with steam and electricity as our daily servants of locomotion, ignore the twenty odd million agricultural machines in this country that are helping to feed and clothe us, and get to look upon the horse as merely the fashionable physician's prescription for the liver, under saddle; or a fashionable appendage of wealth, when in harness.

294a

PLATE I.—PROTOROHIPPUS

Earliest known species of horse, eleven inches high, with four complete toes, and remainder of fifth on fore feet, and three on hind feet]

294b

PLATE II.—DEVELOPMENT OF HORSE'S FOOT FROM FIVE TOES TO ONE

In forty years we have increased from 33,000,000 to 82,000,000 in population; from $174,000,000 to $873,000,000 in agricultural products exported; from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 farms; from $8,500,000,000 to $22,000,000,000 total value of farm property; from $1,500,000,000 to $4,500,000,000 annual value of farm products; from $1,250,000,000 to $2,500,000,000 total value of farm animals, and from $17,000,000,000 to $100,000,000,000 total national wealth. In this progress the horse has played a very large part, and, contrary to the general and ignorant opinion, the horse still maintains his place as the most valuable piece of all-round useful machinery in the world.

One has merely to note the way in which this valuable partner of our national prosperity is stabled, groomed, harnessed, and handled to excuse the writing of any number of books, and the persistent hammering away upon this subject. Sport and athletics are serious subjects because they are so vitally important to the physical comfort of man; and this branch of sport which deals with the horse, is of surprisingly vital interest to the nation when one comes to investigate it.

The cruelty, impatience, and ignorance displayed by the great majority of horse-steerers—they are nothing more nor less than that—are apparent wherever we turn. Not only the shockheaded MicMac who tools the grocery wagon about our crowded streets; not only the Sunday boy who indulges his Rowena in an hebdomadal picnic on wheels; but the hundreds of so-called coachmen who drive the high-priced horses of their masters in reins, bits, head-stalls, and collars fitted without discrimination upon any horse that comes into the stable,—all alike are in dire need of learning how to make the most of their opportunities.

It is not to be expected that every man who owns, or handles, a horse should be a veterinary, but the elementary principles of harnessing and bitting a horse so that he can do his work comfortably ought to be required of every one who, either for his own pleasure, or for hire, has anything to do with horses. Such an one ought to know how he came to have his present teeth and legs, his present mouth and small stomach, which reveals at once the secret of many of his weaknesses and their proper care. Not to know, or to care to know, any of these things is to lessen the value of your horses as work-horses very materially, and to deprive yourself of the best part of the pleasure of dealing with your horses, if you have them and handle them merely for sport.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The average number of times the brain is heavier than the spinal cord, which is a fair measure of intelligence in certain animals, is as follows:—

In man

——

33.00

In dog

5.14

In pig

2.30

In cat

3.75

In horse

2.27

In ass

2.40

In ox

2.18

[391]

[392]

[426]

[427]