FOKM AND ACTION. 311 



form the better. The idea that any thing will do for 

 a brood-mare is a fallacy of bygone days. If I were 

 breeding trotters I would have good mares or none. 



In conclusion, I like the sire and dam to be devel- 

 oped trotters, and the faster they can go the better. 

 If they are natural trotters, and have in training shown 

 great speed, together with good form and balance, from 

 mating them you are almost sure to get a trotter. 



As for the trotting blood you have, of course the 

 richer the better. The best test of trotting blood is 

 how fast and how much it has trotted, and how many 

 and how fast trotters it has produced. Any kind of 

 blood is better than v.nhiovm blood. 



As to thoroughbred blood in the trotter — that sub- 

 ject of endless discussion — I will try and give ni}^ views 

 as briefly and as clearly as possible. Perhaps the best 

 way to sum up my idea in a nutshell is to say that I 

 want all the good thoroughbred blood that can be con- 

 trolled. To say how much that ma}^ be is impossible. 

 Electioneer may in some cases control fifty per cent — 

 trith some in ares he might fail to do it — while some horses 

 do not have the ability to control it at all. I believe 

 that Mr. J. C. Sibley has put the whole thing in as con- 

 cise and logical a form as possible in these words: 

 *' My judgment is that some horses will sire trotters 

 from some thoroughbreds ; that no horse can sire trot- 

 ters from some thoroughbreds, and that some horses 

 cannot sire trotters from any thoroughbred." 



My experience has been, in training horses from 

 thoroughbred mares, that their heads are as good as 

 the average trotting-bred horse's head. This experi- 

 ence has been, it is true, mostly with the get of Elec- 



