DECADENCE OF HORSE BREEDING 



Impending Crisis in Whole Breeding Industry — Imperfections Found in Present 



License Laws — Differences between Congenital and Acquired Defects 



not Always Made Plain — Unsound Mares a Menace^Actual 



Breeding Test often Contradicts Theoretical Forecasts 



Henry M, Jones, Lexington, Ky. 



THE article "Better Horses" in 

 the November Journal is most 

 pertinent, coming as it does at an 

 impending crisis in the whole 

 breeding industry. However, the writer 

 wishes to enter a protest against the 

 license system as a means of eliminating 

 congenital defects or undesirable blood 

 lines. The license laws that I have 

 examined do not prohibit the use of 

 either defective or scrub sires but merely 

 require that all unsoundness, either con- 

 genital or acquired, be made public. 

 Further, these laws do not prohibit the 

 use of unsound mares for breeding. It 

 is true that a congenitally unsound mare 

 produces but one foal in a year, still 

 that foal may be a stud and be a greater 

 detriment to the breed than the older 

 horse. In the first place, none of these 

 laws define congenital unsoundness nor 

 do they prescribe any test by which con- 

 genital defects can be separated from 

 acquired. A congenital defect exists at 

 birth. Biologically, this is the only 

 defect that can be transmitted. It is 

 unthinkable that any breeder would 

 keep entire a colt that was foaled blind, 

 or with any other of the numerous un- 

 soundnesses that these laws class as con- 

 genital. There is but one test of any 

 congenital character, and that is the 

 "actual breeding test." It may be well 

 to refer to the history of some noted 

 stallions that w^ould have been placed 

 under the ban by these laws. 



NOTED THOROUGHBRED BLIND 



The noted thoroughbred stallion 

 "Lexington" w^as blind through the 

 greater part of his stud career. Yet he 

 founded one of the greatest families ever 

 known, not one of which inherited weak 

 eyes. The most prominent living thor- 



oughbred sire is blind. Yet he has 

 never sired a blind colt and his produce 

 are selling for higher prices than any 

 other sire. 



Two of the most noted living trotting 

 sires would be branded as congenitally 

 unsound, as one has a bog spavin and the 

 other is string halt; and yet each has 

 sired champions and founded families 

 that are as free from this unsoundness 

 as any other family. It is not invidious 

 to mention the names of the noted sires 

 now dead, that were blind. Especially 

 is this the case as the present writer 

 bred to each of them and now has their 

 blood and factors for unsoundness (?) 

 incorporated in his greatest brood mares, 

 line bred and inbred, for four genera- 

 tions, and yet has never had a blind 

 foal or a horse with weak eyes, although 

 some of them reached the age of twenty- 

 five years. The stallions referred to 

 were Simmons, Wilkes Boy, Jay Bird 

 and Eagle Bird — all of which were 

 blind, yet the large families left by each 

 of them are as free from blindness as 

 other sons of the immortal George 

 Wilkes who were more fortunate. If 

 these horses were congenitally unsound, 

 the factor must have been transmitted 

 by their sire George Wilkes or by the 

 dam's family — which was by Mambrino 

 Patchen. 



ACTUAL BREEDING REAL TEST 



To publish to the world that these two 

 greatest of all progenitors of trotting 

 speed transmitted factors for blindness is 

 to condemn the best families of the trot- 

 ting breed. To this breeders will not 

 willingly submit nor will they submit to 

 their life work being stigmatized by 

 theoretical laws when the "actual breed- 

 ing test" disproves their efficacy. The 



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