CHAPTER XXI. 



BREEDING THE AMERICAN TROTTER. 



Speed attractive feature — Only few trot fast — Breed for beauty, size, style, 

 and action — Demand for first-class roadsters in advance of supply — 

 Easier to breed beauty than speed — The standard craze — French 

 ahead of Americans in systematic breeding — Selecting breeding stock 

 — The most modern breed — Color — Hambletonians — Mambrino 

 Chief — Blue Bull — Early foals — Good care important — High prices 

 for. 



THE general principles of horse-breeding as laid down in 

 another chapter are, of course, as applicable to breeding 

 the American trotter as to that of other breeds ; nevertheless, 

 I feel that the importance of this breed in America requires a 

 more special notice than I have given in my general principles 

 of horse-breeding. 



In breeding the American trotter, speed is one of the most 

 attractive features of the whole business, but it should ever be 

 borne in mind that to breed for speed alone would be the 

 height of folly. 



Every breeder who has carefully studied the matter knows 

 full well that only a small portion of well-bred trotters go fast ; 

 consequently, when we select our trotting-bred sires and dams 

 for the purpose of producing fast trotters we must bear in mind 

 that not more than one out of every twenty will make a fast 

 trotter, while the other nineteen will be left on the breeder's 

 hands, and for what purpose? 



Well, if proper attention and good judgment is given in the 

 selection of the parents, out of these nineteen colts that cannot 

 trot sensationally fast, at least fifteen of them will sell at re- 

 munerative prices as roadsters and business horses, or for breed- 

 ing purposes, as they will have good size, style, action, and be 

 possessed of enough beauty to make them an article of ready 

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