486 CONCLUSION 



allowed that in some matters equine we Americans are 

 pre-eminent. The word "allowed" is, perchance, too 

 strong. I know that some Britons — bless their cramped 

 Saxon obstinate blindness I — will not allow that we Ameri- 

 cans have ever done anything — be it in electricity, ma- 

 chinery, or trotting - horses. Not even our republican 

 institutions or our public schools have any merit or 

 originality ; that we can build or sail yachts is to them a 

 mere fiction. But apart from this distinct type of all- 

 owning, all-controlling, all-inventing, all-comprehending 

 Briton, I have generally found that the Briton who truly 

 "knows and knows that he knows" is glad to admit 

 virtue and ability wherever he may find it. And, eliminat- 

 ing the Briton who "knows not and knows not that he 

 knows not," I will venture to claim that in distance-riding, 

 which is perhaps the very highest form of horsemanship, 

 we Americans are quite unapproached — our army-marches 

 and express -rides have clearly demonstrated this fact; 

 that in rouffh-ridincr no man alive comes near the cow- 

 boy, and that in road -riding and breeding of saddle- 

 beasts the Southerner " beats all creation." It might be 

 more scholarly to make the superlatives a trifle less ob- 

 trusive ; but, on the whole, they may stand. Added to 

 all this the fact that we have enriched the world by a 

 brand-new type in the trotter, and that in racing and in 

 polo and hunting we are fast catching up with our English 

 cousins ; and while I do not wish to " claim everything," 

 I think — to recur to my original word — that it must be 

 allowed that in all-round ability to breed, train, and ride 

 the horse to the very best advantage, the American is 

 primus inter pares. 



THE END 



