HOW THE TEOTTING HORSE IS BKED. 517 



antedated any compilation or known authority of trotting pedi- 

 grees, and there can be no doubt they were accepted as honest 

 statements of the blood of the animals in question, while many 

 of them were wholly fictitious and all of them contained crosses 

 on the maternal side that were merely imaginary. These embel- 

 lishments, to call them by no harder name, were uniformly in 

 one and the same direction, all stretching out to embrace as 

 much of the blood of the running horse as possible, and often a 

 great deal that was impossible. Here I may state the general 

 fact that all Kentuckiaus had claimed and exercised the right so 

 long to shape up their pedigrees to suit themselves and to bring 

 the most money in the market that a number of them still 

 claimed that as a right and became somewhat restive when told 

 that their pedigrees would be recorded just as far as they were 

 proved, and no further. Two or three breeders expostulated 

 .against this rule, and in reply they were assured that they had a 

 perfect right to shape their pedigrees as they pleased, but that in- 

 sertion in the Register was the same as my personal indorsement, 

 and -that this indorsement could not be given to any pedigree 

 that I did not know or believe to be honest and true. This 

 ended all doubts about the position and character of the Register, 

 and I think that every breeder of any standing in Kentucky 

 submitted to the rule, with the solitary exception of Woodburn 

 Farm. The manager of that establishment was not only unwill- 

 ing to have the infallibility of Woodburn pedigrees called in 

 question, but he aspired to the control of the pedigrees of all 

 other breeders in the whole country. When the National Asso- 

 ciation of Trotting Horse Breeders was organized in December, 

 1876, he was* not only asked, but pressed, to become a member 

 and take part in its management and control. But no, he would 

 be "boss," or he would be nothing. New York was not the 

 right place to organize it. It should be organized in Kentucky, 

 and with the manager of Woodburn at the head of it. The 

 arrogance of this young manager was something amazing, his 

 intrigues to get control of registration were continued for a num- 

 ber of years, and the means employed to accomplish his ends 

 were of such a character as clearly to demonstrate that of all the 

 men in the world he was the last one who should be placed in 

 the control of such a trust. As this controversy extended 

 through the period of building up the breed of trotters, it is of 

 necessity a part of the literature of the formation of that breed, 



