The Standakdbked Hokse 25 



the morgans 

 Other Standardbred family lines not akin are the descendants 

 of Justin Morgan whose best blood comes down through Sher- 

 man Morgan, Black Hawk, Ethan Allen, and, in Daniel Lam- 

 Ijert, is engrafted onto the Ilambletonian stalk, F'anny Cook, the 

 dam of Daniel Lambert being by Abdallah and therefore half 

 sister of Ilambletonian. The more light there is thrown on the 

 ancestry of the early Standardbreds the more credit attaches to 

 Justin Morgan. He is ranked by some authorities along with 

 ^Messenger, they being claimed as the two breed-foundation sires. 



DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS 



The present status of the Standardbred is subject to some 

 discussion. While he is primarily a light-harness race horse, the 

 percentage of those bred that make good in this capacity is low, 

 and hardly sufficient in itself to justify the breeding of them to 

 the extent that they have been bred. 



Harness racing seems to be as popular as ever, but the demand 

 for road horses, misfits in the breeding of race horses, has been 

 more impaired by the general use of motors than has that for 

 any other type of horse. Without an outlet for the ninety-nine, 

 the one hundredth one, that is good enough to race, becomes an 

 expensive proposition to produce. ]S'o one is unwise enough to 

 advocate the breeding of race horses by farmers, but the economic 

 importance of the breed depends as much upon what is to become 

 of the majority of the colts as upon the successful careers of the 

 exceptional few. This is the problem in this breed at present. 



The high-class road horse or gentleman's driver stands a fair 

 chance to come back, perhaps, but the road horse which serves only 

 as a means of rapid transit can never hope to compete again with 

 the roadster car. There is, however, a practically new field opened 

 up to the good-gaited, well-mannered trotter. For some time 

 trotters have been used in a limited way as saddle horses, but they 

 have been backed chiefly by trotting, not saddle, horsemen. Now 

 riders of much experience have been heard to, say that if more 

 people had experienced the delightful sensation of riding trotting 

 horses more would l)e ridden. The extended trot of the light- 

 harness horse is so distinct from the collected, weight-carrying 



