463 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



nothing but the fastest pacing blood. But, possibly you may be^ 

 breeding for size, style, and beauty, and in that case you must be 

 particularly careful to have your tabulation full of animals pos- 

 sessing these qualifications. In times past many breeders have 

 been led to their own hurt in making ill-considered attempts at 

 improvement by mating animals of antagonistic instincts. The 

 fast runner and the fast trotter have nothing in common between 

 them in the way of gait. In physical structure there may be no 

 antagonism that we can see, but in mental or psychical structure 

 there is nothing but what is inharmonious. Each animal and 

 each line of blood must be considered as it stands separate from 

 the other, and the question must be not only asked but answered: 

 "What has this line of blood done in its own right and by its own. 

 power?" 



In studying these tabulations it certainly is not necessary to 

 remind any thinking man of the comparative value of near and 

 remote individuals. The first and second generations are the 

 important factors in the character and value of the proposed colt, 

 and, as a rule, the four grandparents are not given that weight 

 in making up a sound judgment to which they are entitled. A 

 tabulated pedigree may show a general equality or average good- 

 ness all over, in the direction we are looking; although it may 

 embrace but few stars it is not a pedigree that should be hastily 

 rejected. The student should never lose sight of the truth that 

 bad qualities are just as certain to be transmitted as good ones. 

 Bad feet, bad limbs, bad eyes and bad respiration should be 

 sufficient cause for prompt rejection. Derangement or unhealthi- 

 ness of the internal viscera or any of them is just as likely to be 

 transmitted as an external malformation or disease. 



In some instances the qualities sought seem to emanate 

 entirely from the sire or the dam, and this prepotency seems to 

 appear more frequently as the work of the sire than of the dam, 

 perhaps because the opportunities are greater in the number of 

 services. Thousands of stallions have failed to get trotters out 

 of running-bred mares, but as many as you could count on the 

 fingers of one hand, probably, have succeeded in a few instances. 

 Of these Pilot Jr., Almont and Electioneer occur to me at this 

 time as the most prominent. These horses, so far as we know 

 the lines of their blood, were strictly trotting and pacing bred, 

 with no tincture of running blood in their veins. On a certain 

 occasion Senator Stanford wished to demonstrate to the writer 



