Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



435 



to back what they will pull, because of never being properly- 

 mouthed in breaking, and because eastern labor will not try to 

 "get on with" mules. So this market will never be a large con- 

 sumer of such creatures. One strong objection to them is that a 

 crippled mule is that and nothing else, while a mare similarly dis- 

 abled may be, through her colts, the most profitable bit of prop- 

 erty her owner has. 



I have run on. to undue lengths, I fear, and could argue on for 

 hours over any detail among those upon which I have herein 

 touched in such a haphazard and skeleton fashion. I only wish in 

 closing to urge that there is no question of whether any farmer 

 can afford to breed horses. I insist that he can not afford not to 

 breed horses, and that in no other way can he so cheaply and satis- 

 factorily maintain, his horse stock, while getting his own work 

 done practically for nothing through his profits from sales, and the 

 extra work, thoroughly done, that able, sturdy, vigorous, young 

 heavy horses will easily accomplish, America can be the greatest 

 horse-breeding country in the world — why not, by your intelligent 

 endeavor, patience and forethought, help to make it so? 



THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE AND AMERICANS. 



(E. A. Trowbridge, Professor of Animal Husbandry, University of Missouri, 

 reproduced by courtesy of the Saddle and Show Horse Chronicle, 

 Lexington, Kentucky.) 



Article 



As is the case with most other valuable features of our civili- 

 zation, the American or five-gaited sad- 

 dle horse is an outgrowth of a necessity. 

 In his first estate, he is the result of 

 an effort to supply a possible and prac- 

 tical means of travel. It was with this 

 purpose in view that the predecessors 

 of the present "gaited" horse were de- 

 veloped. As has been the case with 

 nearly everything American, the spirit 

 of competition in the production of this 

 class of horses developed early and 

 great pride was found in the owner- 

 ship of the best saddle horse. This 

 was particularly true because the 

 saddle horse was a close companion to 

 to the men he served, and if he main- 



E. A. Trowbridge. 



