— 204 — 



As private citizens we have learned to some trifling extent tlie n^ 

 oessity of breeding horses for special purposes. Trotters don't emi- 

 nate from dung-hills, nor do running horses spring up unsought 

 from the farm or plain. These horses are bred for the especial pur- 

 pose of getting speed out of them, and men spend their life in the 

 selection and breeding of horses for speed. The government, how- 

 ever, which pre-eminently needs the best of horses, horses that it 

 cannot buy from horse breeders, as such horses are not raised here, 

 is content with scrubs from the West and cart horses from the Mid- 

 dle States. 



2. There is no training school for government horses. Private 

 citizens who are best informed send their horses to professional horse 

 trainers, that they may have animals able and willing to carry out 

 their every wish. The government allows each soldier to train his 

 own horse by the mere power of force of habit. These soldiers 

 know little or nothing about a horse, and the proper way to handle 

 him, in order to get the most out of him, and often valuable horses 

 are spoiled, or at best but poorly broken to the service for which 

 they are intended. Soldiers are trained and educated by men who 

 have learned the proper method of educating a soldier, but horses 

 upon whose trustworthiness and ability success largely depends, 

 are allowed to go into engagements with the half training that 

 a soldier can give them. 



On this government farm there should be built a large training 

 academy, in charge of a thorough horseman, and every horse that 

 leaves the farm for active service should have been trained and edu- 

 cated by this horseman in all respects and as thoroughly as the sol« 

 dicr who is to ride him in battle. 



Even if the government should not breed its own horses, the 

 educating school is not only a very valuable adjunct to the army, 

 but would prove a proiitable investment. As I have already said, 

 green broncos can be bought at almost one-third what the govern- 

 ment pays for them " saddle broken," and such horses could be 

 broken, trained and educated in this training academy at the same 

 cost or but a trifle more, that they could be educated for war after 

 being saddle-broken — this being an immense saving to the govem- 

 aient every year. 



8. When a horse is oat of condition and is condemned by the in* 



