346 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the collar, but not too heavy; barrel large and increasing from girth 

 toward flank; withers elevated; back short and straight, with broad, 

 deep loins, short coupled with solid hind quarters; hocks well bent and 

 under the horse; pasterns slanting, and feet sound and in good order. 

 Long-legged, loose-jointed, long-bodied, and narrow-chested horses, a3 

 well as those which are restive, vicious, or too free in harness, or which 

 do not, upon rigid inspection, meet the above requirements in every 

 respect, will be rejected." 



HOESES FOE HABNESS AND SADDLE. 



In taking up the class which, excluding cavalry horses, might be 

 termed "pleasure horses," in contrast with the previous group, the classes 

 which are used almost exclusively for business purposes, we come to the 

 horse that brings by far the highest market prices when of a high degree 

 of excellence, but whose breeding has been attended with more disas- 

 trous failures than any other; the horse that is the ennoblement of 

 equine virtue when it approaches perfection and that in the embodiment 

 of uselessness and insignificance when poor. More "tinkering" has been 

 done with trotting, coach and thoroughbred blood than with any other, 

 and it is safe to state that the unintelligent, indiscriminate, and im- 

 proper use of sires of these light breeds has had more to do with the 

 development of an unsightly mass of scrub horse stock than any other 

 cause. 



Stand by the auction ring of any great horse market and observe 

 closely the horses that fail to bring prices sufficient to cover cost of 

 production. In the great majority of cases trotting blood predominates 

 if any breeding at all is noticeable. Ask a dealer what is the breeding, 

 if any, of most of the large numbers of the unclassed horses on the mar- 

 ket, his answer will be: "Trotting and coach blood.'' This is not be- 

 cause draft blood is more valuable or that the blood of the light breeds 

 is not wanted, for the great cry of the market at present is that good 

 drivers and saddlers are extremely scarce. It is because performance 

 and style are much more difficult to acquire in breeding than size and 

 weight. It is because men with a fascination for the race track attempt 

 to produce trotters without the slightest regard for nature's laws, and 

 no disappointment or failure seems sufficient to bring them' to realize 

 their folly. Breeding to a trotter without system and study, but only in 

 the hope of getting a speedy foal as a possibility or an accident, is "play- 

 ing with fire." The breeding of light horses requires not only a con- 

 siderable amount of capital, but demands a knowledge of horses of the 

 very highest order. It necessitates concentration of effort and years 

 of waiting and planning. It is not every man that brings such qualities 

 to bear when he takes a 1,600-pound draft mare to a 1,200-pound harness 

 or saddle stallion, and it is largely because of this, and not on account 

 of the breeds themselves, that so many poor horses are forced on the 

 market. 



A high-class roadster, coacher or saddler is by far the most difficult 

 horse to produce that the market calls for. In addition to careful plans 



