98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



miserable horse to have ; and I got rid of him. An evil dis- 

 position is transmitted just as much as any other quality, per- 

 haps more : so I say, Get your form, get your size, get your 

 beauty, get your style, get your action, get your disposition, 

 and bring them down through a long line ; and, when you 

 start another one from similar horses, you will have similar 

 qualities, and in that way you will get horses that will bring 

 you money. 



In regard to the management of horses, what the lectur- 

 er said was very beautiful. I believe in that through and 

 through. He said something like this : " Let no man at- 

 tempt to break a horse until he has broken himself." Let 

 no man come into my stable who is going to jerk or kick 

 my horse. That will never do. That is not the way to 

 besfin. What is wanted is kindness and firmness. I think 

 the gentleman said, " A steel hand in a velvet glove." That 

 is beautiful, and that is true. When you attempt to do a 

 thing with a colt, be sure you do it, but do it in a pleasant, 

 agreeable way; and it can be done so better than in any 

 other way. I believe in that fully. 



I indorse also what the gentleman said in regard to feed- 

 ing most fully. You let a colt become stunted, and no 

 amount of feeding will ever bring him up : you cannot 

 make a horse of him. He is lost just as much as though he 

 had a contracted foot. He is a scrub, good for nothing. 

 You can breed up just as well as you can breed down. The 

 breeding down is plain enough. Look at the Mexican mus- 

 tangs, or Indian ponies, with their long, shaggy manes and 

 bushy tails, their big heads and small frames. They will 

 endure any amount of abuse ; they will live on almost any 

 thing ; the weather is nothing to them : but they have no 

 aptitudes ; they have no style ; they have no beauty. They 

 are not the colts that civilization wants ; but they were the 

 colts that Chief Joseph wanted when he fled from our sol- 

 diers, who could not catch him with the best horses of Amer- 

 ica : but he could be stopped by Miles, who was in his track. 

 That is breeding down. They came from the real Andalu- 

 sian blood of Spain, taken to Mexico by Cortez. See how 

 they have gone down ! If we can go one way, we can go the 

 other. Take your colts, and breed them up : I think you can 

 bring out a style of horse that you can depend upon almost 



