HORSE SHOWS AND CONTROVERSIES 



at first, but the directing heads were not discouraged, 

 and success was finally the reward of persistence. 

 Now Madison Square Garden is the great focal 

 point of interest during horse-show week in Novem- 

 ber, and the rule of Fashion is absolute. The edu- 

 cational character of the show was so marked, giving 

 emphasis to beauty of outline, manners, and ap- 

 pointments, as well as to motion, that its best features 

 were reproduced in other social centers, to the ad- 

 vantage of the breeder and handler, and to the in- 

 structive pleasure of the community at large. Th© 

 sea is not always calm. There are unexpected things 

 which seriously disturb it. The President of the 

 Horse Show Association must be versed in diplomacy 

 to calm the troubled waters. At the Philadelphia 

 Horse Show, in the spring of 1895, Colonel Law- 

 rence Kip, who had excited envy by winning season 

 after season in New York, met with keen disappoint- 

 ment. His celebrated light-harness pair, Mona and 

 My May, were disqualified, and he expressed himself 

 in no uncertain tones. I quote from a letter which 

 he sent to me for publication: 



" Of course Mr. Cassatt had done just right and 

 tried to help his associates out of the hole. His 

 vets, say Mona was lame. She is a Jay Gould, pe- 

 culiarly gaited, and was not lame. My May, they 

 say, whistled. She is free and sometimes frets when 

 you take her back. She did not whistle. I certainly 

 know something about the soundness of a horse. 

 We were entered in a special, one prize. Four rib- 



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