132 THE HOUSE BOOK. 



only by submitting them to the show ring test 

 that the breeder may discover how they rank 

 with the products of other establishments. 

 "Who's afraid!" should be his motto. He 

 should court the trial of the show ring and cut 

 and come again until he lands on top. There 

 may be breeders who have ridden to fame along 

 a road that did not lead across the tan-bark, 

 but if there are history does not record their 

 names. Gen. Sherman's epigrammatic defini- 

 tion of war has been accepted by the world at 

 large as correct. The show ring is the seat 

 of war, mimic it is true, but war nevertheless, 

 and the showman's campaign must be no less 

 carefully planned 'and vigorously prosecuted 

 than the famous march to the sea. 



In North America the practice of exhibitors 

 differs materially from that of the old world. 

 Commercialism dominates all modern American 

 life; the business element is always easy of 

 discovery. The United States and Canada are 

 the only countries in the world in which many 

 of the leading prizes are won by horses im- 

 ported from beyond the seas and shown by 

 exhibitors whose chief object in trying to win 

 honors is to make money. This is not true, of 

 course, of a few of the rich men who show 

 horses as a pastime, but these few often work 

 the hardest to win and it is on the basis an- 

 nounced that show yard methods, ethics, pro- 

 cedure and preparation must be discussed. It 



