552 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEEON HORSE 



pered horses of the lower altitudes in breeding and 

 size. My start in the business consisted of a number 

 of high-grade and purebred mares, of good colors 

 and size, picked to conform to my idea of what good 

 dams should be. I chose for the head of the band an 

 imported stallion that weighed 2,140 pounds, as good 

 a horse as I could purchase at that time. With this 

 start I have been able to .build up by the purchase 

 of new blood, always of the best, until I now have 

 a band of Percherons that is the delight of all who 

 see them. 



' ' In the early days the country was new and there 

 was plenty of good grass; the horses made excellent 

 growth and kept fat the year around, running on 

 the range. Later, as the country was stocked and 

 the settlers came in large numbers, the range kept 

 getting shorter, and my horses came in thin in the 

 spring instead of fat as before. I saw that if I 

 continued in the horse business I would have to 

 change with the country. The day of the range was 

 passing; it was necessary to provide some means 

 of feeding through the winter, and about the only 

 way to do this was to secure a ranch from which 

 I could cut hay, and also have pasture for use as it 

 became necessary. I finally purchased a ranch at 

 the foot of the Big Horn Mountains, where I could 

 cut plenty of hay and raise grain and also have 

 plenty of pasture when necessary. Being close to 

 the forest reserve of the Big Horn Mountains, I 

 could also use that in summer, giving the horses an 

 ideal summer pasture at the nominal cost of 35 cents 

 per head for the season. I have been operating this 

 ranch for several years, using the forest reserve in 

 the summer. Late in the fall I bring the horses off 

 the mountains and feed them on alfalfa hay until 

 the grass starts in the spring. Under this system 



