HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED. 485 



degree higher and embraces one generation more than the for- 

 mula usually prescribed as necessary to constitute the rank of 

 thoroughbred. Five "generations of ancestors" do not include 

 the representative product of those generations. The product 

 would be the sixth generation, which is one more than the gen- 

 erally accepted usage requires. An animal representing five 

 generations of standard trotting blood, complete and without 

 contamination, is "thoroughly bred" and is justly entitled to be 

 classified as a "thoroughbred trotting horse." At this point of 

 breeding it is considered that the danger of reversion is practi- 

 cally eliminated, and hence this distinctive classification. At the 

 time of this writing (1897) there should be, in this country, quite 

 a number of youngsters fully entitled to rank as thoroughbreds. 



All intelligent breeders have long been aiming at this point, 

 not merely for the name "thoroughbred," but for the greater 

 certainty of uniformity in producing what they want the 

 ability to perform; and the quality of these thoroughbred trotters 

 must be determined by the ability to perform and the quality of 

 each and every one of the ancestors. If each and every one of 

 the four or five generations of ancestors was able to go out and 

 win himself or herself, there could hardly be a doubt that the 

 colt could do the same, but some of those ancestors may be in the 

 standard merely from reflected honors, which are good, but not 

 a crucial test of superiority in the individual. There is nothing 

 like the animal that "has gone out and done it" himself, over 

 and over again, and when we sit down to the study and compari- 

 son of pedigrees in the thoroughbred rank we find great differ- 

 ences in the quality of the lines of descent. The reflected honors 

 of an uncle or an aunt are of much less value than the honor of 

 a direct ancestor. While the blood of all the ancestors is tested 

 blood, the individuals may not all have been tested, and hence 

 are less certain in transmitting the true trotting instinct. While 

 the standard has done wonders in teaching the true art of breed- 

 ing, like all other human devices it has its imperfections. Jnst 

 like the runner, the trotter may be strictly thoroughbred, and 

 yet in taking after some of the imperfections of one or more of 

 his ancestors, he may be of bat little value as a performer. This 

 truth has been verified in a thousand experiences in the runner, and 

 it is just as liable to be verified in the trotter. Hence the supreme 

 importance of looking well to the qualities and capacities of 

 every animal in the inheritance. 



