198 



t 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the contrary. The Abdallah stock are from 

 the Messenger blood, and all of them go — many 

 being remarkably fast. The fastest Western 

 trotting horse, O'Blenis, is an Abdallah. Al- 

 though Messenger was imported into the United 

 States as early as 1791, sixty-one years since, 

 his descendants at this day partake largely of 

 his characteristics. Other stocks of horses 

 could be cited to support this position; the 

 Morgan horse, for instance, is a striking exem- 

 plification of our theory. That color, speed, 

 longevity, vice, defective vision, and various 

 malformations in horses are inherited, no ob- 

 serving man will den}^ 



"In selecting a brood mare, as much atten- 

 tion should be bestowed, or more, as in selecting 

 a sire. About fifteen and one-half hands has 

 been very near the height of the most celebrated 

 horses of our day. They should have good 

 length of body, with clear bright eyes, small 

 head, long clean neck, oblique shoulder, and 

 withers as high as possible, which position of 

 the shoulder blade allows extensive and safe 

 action. Such horses never stumble; and if they 

 trip, will recover, while an animal with an up- 

 right shoulder would come down entirely. High 

 withers give room for the attachment and length 

 of muscle which an upright shoulder cannot 

 have. The oblique shoulder is indispensable 

 for rapid, safe and easy motion. The legs 

 should be muscular, and as long from the elbow 

 joint to the knee, and as short from the knee 

 to the hoof as possible ; this will also give ex- 

 tensive action to the foreparts, which a horse 

 could not have with a length from the knee to 

 the hoof equal to the length from the elbow to 

 the knee. The chest should barrel out back 

 of the girth, and be large and capacious, both 

 to give the animal good health, and cause it to 

 keep easy, as the size of the chest is of great 

 consequence to the health, longevity and use- 

 fulness of the horse. This part is too superfi- 

 cially noticed by purchasers in general. The 

 loins should be broad and well covered with 

 muscle, and the haunch — or as it is generally 

 called, hip — should be long, to the place of its 

 termination. The old saying of a 1 long-bodied 

 horse, with a short back, and long under the 

 belly,' being a good one, was not without truth, 

 as a long oblique scapula, with a long hip or 

 haunch would produce just that conformation 

 of body best suited for speed. Great length 

 from the hip to the gambrel, and short from 

 the gambrel to the ground is also one of the 

 best indications of speed. We see an example 

 in the form of the rabbit and greyhound. By 

 a close and constant attention to the anatomi- 

 cal conformation of a horse, a person may soon 

 become a better judge of capability in the horse 



than any one can, who does not take into con- 

 sideration the important facts that all animal 

 mechanism is upon the same principles — that 

 the weight to be moved, and the facility with 

 which it is moved, depends upon the length of 

 the lever and its advantageous position, and 

 the consequent length of the muscles, which 

 are the pulleys, and by their action, contrac- 

 tion and extension, propel the animal over the 

 ground. 



" That speed adds to, and often constitutes 

 the sole value of the horse, in the estimation 

 of many, is well known. An instance now oc- 

 curs to me: Mr. S. B. Davis of Milwaukee, 

 took to the New York market, last May, a 

 number of horses, among which were one pair 

 which he sold for $1200, and a single horse 

 which he sold for $600. They could all trot 

 their mile in about three minutes; and to this 

 fact can be entirely attributed all he realized 

 on them, over $200 each. There is always a 

 market for well broken horses of good size and 

 good age, if they can go in three minutes or 

 less. Another instance, too, is in point : Jack 

 Rossiter, the celebrated trotting horse, worked 

 in an omnibus in Milwaukee, and could then 

 have been bought for $200, and probably for 

 less. Falling into the hands of a horseman, he 

 trotted a mile in 2 minutes 32 seconds, and 

 sold for $2000. Lady Jane, a western mare, 

 was bought in Chicago for $100; she was af- 

 terwards sold for $1600 at a dozen years of 

 age. There are numberless examples of a simi- 

 lar nature. The farmer should not hesitate as 

 to which of the two to expend his surplus food 

 upon; an eight-mile-an-hour drudge, that will 

 cost $80 at four years old, and sell for the same; 

 or a horse bred on scientific principles, worth, 

 at four years of age, $200 to $1000, according 

 to the stock he springs from. One farmer in 

 the vicinity of Milwaukee, raised several fast 

 horses, and from their sale, realized a far greater 

 profit than he realized from ten years of wheat 

 farming ; yet the number was only five. These 

 facts are worthy of the attention of breeders 

 of horses. 



" In breeding, let the sire and dam possess 

 as many desirable points as possible, and as 

 not one in ten thousand is unexceptionable in 

 every respect, it is desirable that the two should 

 not be deficient in the same particular point. 

 If either has a little failing in one part, let the 

 other be remarkably good in that point, if pos- 

 sible. In this way, the undesirable or excep- 

 tionable points may, in part, be obviated; and 

 if they are not, you will, in all probability, 

 breed an animal not less valuable than the sire 

 or dam. The fastest trotting horse now living 

 west of the Lakes, was bred from a mare and 



