42 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



selves as to the exact proportions that the factors of 

 heredity and environment play in the human character, 

 for in dealing with humans things are more or less 

 complicated by the third factor of the human will, 

 to which both heredity and environment are subser- 

 vient. But in the animal world the will plays a minor 

 part, and environment is almost as negligible an 

 influence. The determining factor is undoubtedly 

 heredity. 



Coming to the question of breeds among horses, we 

 find that in the American saddle world there is no 

 more hotly contested argument than the one as to 

 which breed — or more broadly construed — which type 

 of horse is best suited for saddle work and best ful- 

 fils the aforementioned requirements of conformation, 

 gaits, and manners. 



The Arab, the Morgan, even the Standard bred, all 

 have their votaries, but the main controversy consists 

 between the advocates of the thoroughbred type of 

 horse and the Kentucky bred. I personally believe 

 that the thoroughbred is the beau ideal of what a 

 saddle horse should be. But in believing this I hope 



ing, representing a recognized type, both of whose parents were pure- 

 bred animals of the same breed. For example, the Kentucky horse, 

 the hackney, and the Arab, all (when unadulterated with another 

 cross or breed) are pure breds. To be considered pure-bred live stock 

 must, of course, be registered, or, in the absence of such registration, 

 be eligible for such registration in the respective stud-books of the 

 breed. In this sense of the word a "thoroughbred" is also a pure- 

 bred, but there is no need in his case to apply the word, for, whereas 

 there are many hackneys or Kentucky horses who are not sufficiently 

 pure-bred to be eligible to their stud-books, no thoroughbred is a 

 thoroughbred unless he is eligible. In no case can one ever reverse the 

 statement and say that since a thoroughbred is a pure-bred, a pure- 

 bred is a thoroughbred. The rule does not work both ways. 



Standard Bred. This term refers to a distinct breed of pure-bred 

 American light-harness horses (both trotters and pacers), who are eligi- 

 ble to American Trotting Registry. 



