324 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



DR. GAY: I say the best part of the Belgian horse is from here 

 up and from there back and within those limits he is a pretty hard 

 horse to beat. But when you consider the wonderful improvement 

 wrought in the last 15 years, you have great hopes for the future. 



Here is the proposition ; what kind of mares are you going to breed 

 to a Shire horse? What kind of mares are you going to breed to a 

 Clyde? What kind to a Perch eron? What kind to a Belgian? 

 You will find that the Belgian horse will give you drafty bodies on 

 colts out of the average run of mares we have in the east that carry 

 a predominance of trotting blood, quicker perhaps than any other 

 breed. You understand you cannot cross a cold blooded horse on a 

 hot blooded horse; the more extreme your crosses, the more variation 

 you get and as a result you come to a head-on collision; they simply 

 stand at loggerheads; but on the other hand, if you can take a mare 

 that is not too hot blooded and a Belgian horse that is not too cold 

 blooded and make the mating there, I think you will find that you 

 will get a better, draftier shape and form from a Belgian than a 

 stallion of any other breed, on an average. The criticism of the Bel- 

 gian is that he is cold, lacks quality, is not good in the face and legs. 

 Our trotters will give him enough quality and enough refinement 

 about the head and neck and enough bone in the legs and he will 

 give them the body, the point at which they are most markedly 

 deficient. Here is a pair of Belgians of Belgian breed. 



A Member: Would you then cross a heavy Belgian or trotting 

 mare with a Belgian sire? 



DR. GAY : No, I say you cannot make two extremes a cross ; you 

 cannot take one of a straight hot breed and one cold breed and mate 

 them, because you are liable to get a Belgian head and maybe a trott- 

 ing horse body, and Belgian legs and trotter's feet. They have got 

 to be somewhere nearly approaching; but what I mean is that where 

 you have comparatively draft mares but averaging light waisted, 

 leggy and want their form improved in draft lines, that is the class 

 of mare that the Belgian horse will do the most good on. These are 

 Belgian. They have the characteristic red color. They don't stand 

 quite as nice on their legs as the Percherons or the Clydes that you 

 saw in the other picture, but they have the form and shape. These 

 are Percherons again, the same as I showed you in the first place. 



In conclusion, let me just simply say this; when we talk about 

 breeds, don't take the same stand on breeds that you take on politics — 

 what we call voting on principle. Don't vote for a Percheron horse 

 simply because he is a Percheron horse, but make him be a good one 

 before you vote for him, and when it comes to a choice between a 

 horse of definite breed or one by different lots of stallions, take the 

 best horse regardless of breed and I think you are safer than you are 

 to follow out this partisan breed sentiment that so many people ex- 

 press. 



