THE TROTTING HORSE IN TENNESSEE 



you can perpetuate vigorous performers by using 

 generation after generation in the stud nerve-racked 

 and vitality-sapped mares. His preference is mares 

 rich in winning strains, but which have never been 

 raced. The victories of Proctor Knott at Monmouth 

 Park and Sheepshead Bay caused great rejoicing at 

 Belle Meade. With regard to Tallapoosa, dam of 

 the Futurity winner, the General said that she was 

 about the least impressive looking mare on the farm. 

 He did not value her highly, but Proctor Knott was 

 evidence that she had nicked perfectly with Luke 

 Blackburn. The great problem of the breeder is to 

 discover the golden nick for his stallions, and the 

 fruits of success are gathered by sticking to this nick. 

 General Jackson is of the opinion that breeders of 

 the trotter will frequently have to return to the 

 thoroughbred for an improvement of the arterial 

 system. The lung and circulation capacity of the 

 thoroughbred horse is superior to that of any other 

 animal, and this capacity is essential to the sustain- 

 ment of action when heats are divided. The mule 

 is presumed to be iron-clad against heat and fatigue, 

 and yet the late General Harding demonstrated at 

 Belle Meade that the thoroughbred horse was less 

 affected by heat than the mule. He worked the 

 mule to one plow and the thoroughbred to another 

 and drove them alternate rows in fields of corn so 

 high as to shut out the breeze, and in every instance 

 the mule hoisted the sign of distress long before the 

 horse. The superior arterial system of the horse 

 brought him victorious through the test." 



In one of the trotting races on the track there 

 was an interference, and a negro driver in the em- 

 ploy of President Fogg lodged a complaint against 



255 



