290 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



The combined influence of the three associations 

 is very great, and all who object to discipHne are 

 in the position of the boy who tried to whistle 

 down the tides of the sea. 



The National Horse Show Association of 

 America, founded in 1885, has been quite a fac- 

 tor in improving the Hght-harness type. It rec- 

 ognizes speed, but emphasizes conformation. In 

 other words, its aim is to combine beauty with 

 action. The faddists who sacrificed everything 

 to speed have been checked. At the annual 

 horse show in Madison Square Garden, New 

 York, always held in the month of November, 

 the keenest critics watch the distribution of rib- 

 bons, and the great world of fashion honors the 

 occasion. The show has made plain the fact 

 that the well-bred and well-schooled horse is the 

 idol of cultivated classes. The trotting-bred horse 

 which possesses substance and high conforma- 

 tion is easily schooled to heavy-harness classes, 

 and he gathers in blue rosettes by the dozen. 

 The fever kindled by The National Horse Show 

 Association has spread over the entire land, and 

 the annual horse show is the leading social func- 

 tion of cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, 

 Louisville, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Kansas City. 



