A Pica for a Use/id Trotter 307 



trotters and pacers, like great men, often spring from lowly surround- 

 ings, where work and frugality impart vim to the offspring, and where 

 the unremitting care and the personal attention of the owner build up 

 the health and energy and the confidence of the animal. As a wine- 

 grower I would venture the comparison that great trotters are like 

 great wines for the" can be raised and properly matured only in 

 small lots. 



The key to the whole problem of interesting all breeders in- 

 cluding the farmer who breeds most horses in the harness contests 

 lies in a more adequate classification of our standard bred horse. The 

 mere "2:30 standard" is often unsatisfactory to practical breeders be- 

 cause it sets no limit to the smallness of the horse, and because it 

 represents or encourages qualities for racing rather than for useful 

 purposes. Every useful horse should combine size with quality, in- 

 telligence with endurance, and weight with vigor ; and the develop- 

 ment of our standard bred horse should be encouraged along such 

 lines of utility. 



It is not here intended to disparage in any manner the importance 

 of the "2:30 standard" or the great work of the Trotting Register, 

 which by the genius of the late John H. Wallace has given the breed 

 of the harness horse a certain foundation and direction. There was 

 and is great need of just such a guiding principle to develop and es- 

 tablish this type of a horse, and it has proved to be of inestimable 

 value to this industry. In fact, it would be far better for harness 

 racing and the whole development of the harness horse if only regis- 

 tered horses were allowed to start in races. 



The Register takes the place of government supervision to some 

 extent or of the registration of stallions as practiced on the continent. 

 Progressive development, however, seems to call for a better criterion 

 than a test of speed only. A standard based on speed alone is apt 

 to disregard and even eliminate size and weight as hindrances to its 

 end. As many harness horses show and possess these qualities it 

 seems but fair that they should be recognized by reason of their use- 

 fulness ; and an allowance for such a handicap should be made by 

 means of a more equitable classification of the standard bred horse. 



