Jones: Decadence of Horse Breeding 



129 



owner of the stallion at any price he. 

 may name. Not one of them is reserv- 

 ing fillies for future brood mares, and 

 when the present brood mare holdings 

 pass away or become barren, finis will 

 be written. 



The writer has handled stallions for 

 many years and now has one of the most 

 prominent stallions of the trotting breed 

 and is intimately acquainted with 

 breeders and owners of stallions through- 

 out the U.S. and finds that what is true 

 of Kentucky is true of every section 

 where stallions are kept. The present 

 decadence in breeding is not such as has 

 been caused by financial panics, when 

 breeders curtail operations for a while 

 and reduce the brood mare ranks. In 

 fact, these periodical reductions have 

 been an advantage as it caused a weeding 

 out of the lower class, reducing the num- 

 ber of foals but greatly improving qual- 

 ity. Our government, as is well known, 

 is far behind foreign governments in en- 

 couraging improvement in stock breed- 

 ing. In fact, even the state laws have 

 thrown serious obstacles in the way. 

 Kentucky has a license tax of one service 

 fee instead of a bonus and the assessor 

 never fails to raise the value to the limit. 

 In Virginia a noted stallion was assessed 

 at $50,000 and when sold at public 

 auction only brought $30,000, quite dis- 

 couraging to the owner who had invested 

 close to a million dollars in Virginia 

 land. 



FAULTS OF PRESENT PLAN 



The consensus of opinion among many 

 breeders is that the present plan of the 

 Government to improve horses by the 

 use of its stallions upon grade and scrub 

 mares cannot be entirely successfiil. It 

 might be more practical to buy at the 

 various auctions pure bred mares, plac- 

 ing them in the hands of farmers, re- 

 quiring them to sell the geldings to the 

 government at not less than $200 and 

 keep the fillies to be bred at three years 

 of age under the same contract. In 

 this way breed improvement would be 

 sure as grading is worthless in the second 

 generation. (But a mare may have but 

 one offspring a year while a stallion ma}^ 

 have fifty. It is for this reason that it 

 is of paramonnt importance to see that 



only pure bred stallions are used. — The 

 Editor.) Under state aid it is only 

 a matter of a few years when every 

 county seat will be connected by roads 

 of easy grade, and as smooth as an 

 asphalt street. Every mile of such road 

 increases the use of motor power and 

 decreases the use of horse power pro- 

 portionately. Particularly is this the 

 case in the mountainous section of the 

 country where coal and lumber are abun- 

 dant and the horse has been used 

 exclusively. 



As stated, racing is now the only in- 

 centive to continue breeding, but con- 

 ditions controlling trotting races are so 

 arbitrary that the exceptional horse can 

 win through the entire circuit without 

 incurring a handicap until the following 

 season. 



There is no question that two- and 

 three-year-old colts that can trot in 

 2 : 08 to 2 : 10 are high class, yet they can- 

 not now earn expenses in the colt stakes 

 as they have to compete with colts that 

 can trot in 2 : 04 or better throughout the 

 entire racing season. Such colts have no 

 earning capacity and represent a far 

 greater percentage of the breeder's pro- 

 duct than the exceptional colt and yet 

 cannot be sold for cost of production. 

 This is the most discouraging feature of 

 breeding and is the chief factor of the 

 decadence of breeding the trotter. This 

 could be easily changed if racing asso- 

 ciations were controlled by either state 

 or government commissions that would 

 foster the breeding interest and at the 

 same time not impose burdensome con- 

 ditions upon racing associations. This 

 is the most opportune time to place all 

 racing, from the largest association 

 down to the county fair, under a govern- 

 ment commission. Such a commission 

 should be composed of breeders and 

 promoters of racing and should have the 

 power to make and enforce all laws 

 governing racing and speculation. Un- 

 less some such safeguard is found in the 

 very near future, an industry which is 

 wholly American will become extinct. 

 The trotter originated in America and 

 nowhere on earth has his equal been 

 found, as no other breed of domestic 

 animals has ever withstood the adverse 

 conditions as long as this breed, but at 



