680 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



minister to our necessities or to cater to our enjoyment by 

 personal service, as with the saddler and the driving horse. 



Excellence is not to be measured by the power to withstand 

 deprivation, but rather by efficiency to do work under full feed 

 and under good conditions ; and to this end it is but good busi- 

 ness sense to secure for each individual the full development of 

 all the useful qualities with which he is naturally endowed. 



Development is a study by itself. Here is an entire field 

 almost unexplored. We know, in a general way, that the 

 "energy of embryonic development" is never attained later in 

 life, and that if we would secure full development in growth we 

 must "keep the young thing growing." In some way or other 

 this business of body development, if once checked, is never 

 again fully resumed. It is true that a few experts have learned 

 fairly well how to develop speed in horses, and others how to 

 train saddlers and drivers ; but whether we consider the growth 

 of the body, the development of its functions, or the education of 

 the mental faculties, we do not yet possess even the rudiments of 

 the knowledge of the most successful development. With us only 

 an occasional individual enjoys optimum conditions throughout 

 his life, and only a few exhibit in their own personality the really 

 wonderful capacity of the breed to which they belong. If one 

 were to say that the science and practice of breeding is far better 

 known than that of development afterward, he would be well 

 within the truth, and in the opinion of the writer here will lie 

 some of our greatest improvements of the near future. The 

 excessive fitting of an occasional individual for the show ring, 

 regardless of consequences afterward, is not what is here meant, 

 but rather the orderly and full development, in substantially all 

 individuals, of those qualities which we deem valuable, so that 

 we may fully realize in our animals the qualities we select and 

 breed for in our yards. 



