CHAPTER II. 



FACILITIES FOR BREEDING IN AMERICA. 



Where do our best horses come from ? 



" They are imported principally from England. 

 From English thoroughbreds we get our hunters, 

 runners, trotters, hackneys, post and cart horses, etc. 

 Books have been written upon the subject which 

 tell about selecting good horses for breeding pur- 

 poses, but they have not yet learned how to get a 

 good horse from poor parents." 



But is that possible? 



" Certainly it is. They understand the result of 

 certain combinations, but with all the wonderful 

 facilities in America, men have yet to learn how to 

 mate horses, so as to be sure of securing one that will 

 trot in two minutes, all the way to one that will trot 

 in 1 :5o. They do not understand how to combine 

 the breeds, so that the inbred, so far, is only occasion- 

 ally good. To mate extremes, such as the Arabian 

 with the Shetland pony, is not to produce good 

 results. In mating, the mechanical proportions of a 

 horse, together with lungs of great volume and capa- 

 bility, are of the highest importance to consider. 

 From endurance you get the greatest speed, but from 

 the speediest horses never endurance. Physiological 



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