SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 467 



for Finch Bros. The two-year-old winner from the Truman stalls was 

 rightly enough named Gaiety Banker. He is a cocky chap of the quality 

 kind, a colt of beautiful quality but hardly so heavy of bone as the 

 ordinary run of Shires. The big thick chestnut John D., shown by Coch- 

 rane, came second, much heavier in body and in bone, but coarser In his 

 joints. Verona Bounder, from the Finch stalls, brought up the winners, 

 a big, well-topped bay colt. The blocky, round-built, good-going Noble 

 ■ King led the yearlings for Soderberg, followed by Finchs' Bounder and 

 Finchs' Buster Brown. 



V BELGIANS. 



R. B. Ogilvie was listed as the judge of Belgians, but owing to illness 

 on the day when this class was called he was unable to serve and John 

 G. Truman, Bushnell, Hlinois; Graham Galbraith, JanesviUe, Wisconsin, 

 and S. B. Frey, Ames, Iowa, were appointed to pass on this breed. Mc- 

 Laughlin Bros., Columbus, Ohio; W. L. DeClow, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; 

 Finch Bros., Verona and Joliet, Illinois; Henry Lefebure, Fairfax, Iowa, 

 and W. W. Garner of Iowa were the exhibitors. It was altogether a very 

 good show of this draft breed, the aged stallions making an especially 

 impressive display. Mr. DeClow had some highly creditable entries in the 

 aged, three-year-old and two-year-old stallion classes. Mr. Lefebure gained 

 most of the prizes without competition in the remaining rings. Mr. Tru- 

 man and Mr. Galbraith were assisted by Mr. Frey in but one class, that 

 for aged stallions. 



THE SADDLE HORSES. 



Some little interest was aroused in the saddle horse exhibit, and a 

 number of capital specimens of the gaited variety were present. The 

 entries were larger than the exhibits. Of the eight aged stallions cata- 

 logued only three reported — Wallace Estill's handsome black McDonald, 

 shown by Tom Bass, and two sons of Rex Denmark — the black Reckless 

 Squirrel, owned by Tom H. Jones, and brown Cleburn, owned by Ed 

 Clapper. All of them came from Missouri. There was something of a 

 family resemblance between the two blacks, although the Rex McDonald 

 horse was palpably the superior of Reckless Squirrel in range and supple- 

 ness of neck, and a more graceful pattern throughout. He was put and 

 kept in form through all his work, while Reckless Squirrel spent most 

 of his time with nose in air fighting the bit, evidently having failed to 

 learn the first principle of a saddle horse education. He is lower to the 

 ground and has more substance than McDonald and clearly outpointed 

 him on the flat-foot walk. The decision which placed Reckless Squirrel 

 first partook of the character of the old-time western estimates when 

 the manners of a saddle horse and the form in which he did his work 

 counted not at all with the judge. The rider of Reckless Squirrel did 

 his best to cover his horse's withers with the saddle. Cleburne Denmark 

 lacked the finish of the other two and never knew what it was to go 

 in form. 



