THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE. 191 



thing plain as we go along, I will very briefly consider this 

 point. Twelve years ago, through Wallace's Monthly, I presented 

 the following questions to all gentlemen interested in saddle- 

 horse affairs and acquainted with saddle-horse history: "Are all 

 the tribes and families noted for their saddle qualities descended 

 in whole or in part from pacing ancestry?" In order to cover 

 the whole question, no difference from what standpoint it might 

 be considered, I added the following: '"Has any family or sub- 

 family of saddle horses come from pure running ancestry and 

 without any admixture of pacing blood?" To these questions 

 Major Hord, then editor of the Spirit of the Farm, at Nashville, 

 Tennessee, a gentleman of very wide and accurate knowledge on 

 this subject, but strongly in favor of running blood, made the 

 following response through his paper: 



"We can only draw conclusions from established facts in reference to these 

 questions, for we do not think they can be answered otherwise, as the original 

 ancestry of our best saddle families is more or less clouded in obscurity. It is 

 an established fact, demonstrated by experience, that in order to get a saddle 

 horse, the quickest and most successful way is to get in the pacing blood; it 

 matters not how good or bad the other blood may be, a strong dash of pacing 

 blood will almost invariably improve the animal for saddle purposes, and never, 

 under any circumstances, does a pacing cross detract from an animal's qualities 

 for the saddle. Judging from these facts, we conclude that all our saddle 

 families are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry. On the other 

 hand, all our best saddle families have a strong infusion of thoroughbred run- 

 ning blood. This blood, however, is valuable only for the courage, bone, and 

 finish it gives the animal, for it imparts none of the saddle gaits; and while 

 we have secured the best results in breeding the saddle horse by mixing the 

 running and pacing blood, we have observed that too much running blood in 

 the stallion detracts from his success as a sire of saddle stock. As a rule, no 

 trainer's skill can make a good saddle horse out of a thoroughbred runner, 

 whereas if you mix two or more strong pacing crosses on top of the running 

 blood, a child can gait the produce to the saddle. We have sometimes seen 

 good saddle horses that were thoroughbreds, but have never seen a perfect one. 

 Our observation and experience lead us to the conclusion fhat the natural saddle 

 gaits come from the pacers, but to the runner we are indebted for the size, 

 style, bone and finish of our saddle stock." 



In this reply, when the author says "all of our saddle families 

 are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry," and when 

 he adds to this that "running blood imparts none of the saddle 

 gaits," he has answered both questions very fully and very satis- 

 factorily. The argument that running blood gives bone and 

 finish, and all that, is very well as a theory of breeding, but it 



