VOL. XLIX. NO. 2129 . 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER i5, i89o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
ABOUT ROAD HORSES 
A Typical Roadster. 
T HERE is scarcely anything in horse-flesh more 
difficult to obtain, and yet more constantly in 
demand, than a good road hoise, snch a horse, for 
instance, as is described any day in the advertising col 
nmns of the morning papers by an advertisement like this : 
F or salk.- 
horse; six years old, hands high ; 
-A GENTLEMAN'S DAPPLE GRAY ROAD- 
frce, easy, rapi 1 
and pleasant driver; sound, kind and true in ail harness: 
gentle for ladles’ driving: fearless of anything; good wind and 
great endurance. Koopay and Hak’s Stable, 9999 Boulevard. 
The trouble with this advertisement is, not that it is an 
exaggeration, but that such horses are as rare as a poor 
United States Senator. A fine trotter, a staunch truck 
horse, a splendid stallion can always be obtained; but it 
seems to me that the breeding of and dealing in road- 
horses have been neglected in this country. In this con 
nection the readers of The Rural New-Yorker are pre¬ 
sented with the picture of a typical road-horse — see 
Fig. 354. It is the portrait of 
a horse now in daily use as a 
driving horse by a family in 
Orange County, N. Y., and he 
comes about as near to filling 
the description of the above 
fictitious advertisement as is 
possible; but it took several 
months and many trials to 
find him. Any one who is 
interested in road-horses will 
find it worth his while to 
read a thoroughly well 
written article about them, 
by H. C. Merwin, which ap¬ 
peared in The Atlantic 
Monthly for last April. 
The road-horse par excel¬ 
lence ,” says Mr. Merwin, ‘‘is 
a beast of medium size, 
which can draw a light car¬ 
riage at the rate of seven 
miles an hour all day without 
tiring himself or his driver. 
He should be able to travel 
at least ten miles in an hour, 
20 miles in two hours, 60 
miles in a day; and by this 
is meant that he should do it 
comfortably and “handily,” 
as the term is, and feel none 
the worse for the exertion. 
Such roadsters are rare- 
much more so now, in pro¬ 
portion to the total number 
of our horses, than they were 
25 years ago or before the 
war; the reason being that 
the craze for fast trotters has 
thrown the roadster into the 
shade. Of course, almost any 
sound hotse can be urged and whipped over the ground, 
“driven off his feed,” perhaps, and so travel these dis¬ 
tances in the time mentioned. Nothing is more common 
than for some broken-down animal to be pointed out by 
his cruel and mendacious master as one for whom 10 to 
12 miles an hour is only a sort of exercising gait; the poor 
beast having very likely been ruined in the effort to ac¬ 
complish some such feat which was beyond his capacity. 
The mere fact that a horse has gone a long way in a short 
time tells little about his powers; the more important 
inquiry is, What was his condition afterward ? 
A liveryman in Vermont declared not long ago that, at 
one time and another, he had lost $1,200 worth of horse¬ 
flesh through the ignorant and murderous driving of 
customers who had endeavored to keep up with a certain 
gray mare, of extraordinary endurance, that was owned in 
his vicinity for some years. A horse that will step off 
cheerfully and readily eight miles au hour, a pace so 
moderate that one never sees it mentioned in an advertise¬ 
ment, is much better than the average; one that will do 
ten miles in that time and in the same way is an exception¬ 
ally good roadster; and the horse that goes 12 miles an 
hour with ease is extremely rare. A stable-keeper in Bos¬ 
ton, of long experience, tells me that he has known but 
two horses that would travel at this last mentioned rate 
with comfort to themselves and the driver, though he has 
seen many others, pulling, crazy creatures, that would 
keep up a pace as fast, or even faster, till they dropped. 
Of these two pleasant roadsters that were capable of cover¬ 
ing 12 miles in 60 minutes, one trotted all the way, up and 
down hill, whereas the other walked up the steep ascents, 
and went so much the faster where the grade was favor¬ 
able. The latter method is easier and better for most horses. 
The capabilities of a roadster having now been indicated 
in a general way, the first and most obvious inquiry is, 
What will be the conformation and appearance of a horse 
likely to possess them ? This is a subject upon which it is 
dangerous to dogmatize. For example, a flat sided, thin- 
waisted animal is apt to be wanting in endurance, and yet 
there have been some notable exceptions to this rule. A 
leading quality of the road horse is shortness; that is, his 
back should be short and, it may be added, straight. The 
same is true of his legs, especially as regards the cannon- 
bone. A short cannon-bone is perhaps the most nearly in¬ 
dispensable characteristic of a roadster. The knees should 
A TYPICAL ROAD HORSE. Owned by Mr. Lawson Valentine. Fig. 354 
be large, the hocks well let down, the belly round, and the 
hind-quarters closely coupled to the back. He should have 
great depth of lung, but not a very broad chest, for that 
usually indicates want of speed. Good, sound feet of mod¬ 
erate size, and pastern-joints neither straight nor oblique, 
are essential. It is no harm if his neck be thick, but it is 
absolutely necessary that he should have a fine head and 
clear, intelligent eyes, with a good space between and 
above them. The ears also are an important point; they 
should be set neither close together nor wide apart, and it 
is of the utmost consequence how they are carried. A 
lively, sensible horse, one who has the true roadster dis¬ 
position, will continually move his ears, pointing them 
forward and backward, and even sideways, thus showing 
that he is attentive and curious as to what takes place 
about him, and interested to observe what may be coming. 
A beast with a coarse head, narrow forehead, dull, timor¬ 
ous eyes, and ears that tend to incline either away from or 
toward each other when held upright, and which are apt 
to be pointed backward,—such a horse is one to avoid as 
certainly deficient in mind, and probably in courage and 
in good temper as well. Many lazy, sluggish animals of 
this sort are considered eminently safe for women to drive; 
and so they are until the harness breaks or something else 
frightens them, when they become panic-stricken and tear 
everything to pieces. On the other hand, a high-strung 
but intelligent horse will quickly recover from a sudden 
alarm, when he finds that after all he has not been hurt. 
L. F. A. 
Breeding and Training the Roadster Colt. 
Few lines of live stock husbandry are more remuner¬ 
ative, or hold out better inducements for the future than 
roadster horse breeding. The fact that the work will 
necessarily be restricted as to men who can successfully 
engage in it, makes it all the more promising to the 
favored few. The roadster horse is not and never will be 
the product of hap hazard breeding, careless feeding, or 
thoughtless handling. Few men “ build better than they 
know ” in the production of fine live stock. While I be¬ 
lieve that in the near future we shall breed for and produce 
a certain degree of speed among our roadsters, as surely as 
we now produce weight among our drafts, I do not wish 
to say anything that might induce the average horse- 
breeding farmer to make speed the sole object in his 
breeding. Indeed, I would say, “go slow” to the hun¬ 
dreds of our American farm¬ 
ers who to-day are anxious to 
raise Axtells, Sunols and Nel¬ 
sons. Thousands will fall 
here where one succeeds, and 
the risk is not worth taking. 
In breeding roadsters, one 
should rather aim for a com¬ 
bination of qualities, that can 
rarely fail to give him good 
results. Size, finish, style 
and a movement that Is 
“trappy” if not rapid, are 
properties comparatively easy 
to obtain, and always rec¬ 
ognized in our best markets. 
It matters little whether the 
horse trot in 2.40 or four min¬ 
utes—neither rate of speed of 
itself makes him specially de¬ 
sirable or otherwise—but if 
his movement is stylish, and 
he is sound and smooth, of 
good disposition, and weighs 
from 1,150 to 1,800 pounds, he 
makes more money for his 
owner than if he had trotted 
a few seconds faster, but had 
no other specially desirable 
qualities besides his speed. 
The basis of good work is a 
careful selection of mares for 
breeding. I know men who 
in their anxiety to raise trot¬ 
ters, are breeding grade draft 
mares to little 900 pound fly¬ 
ers. Others are breeding 900 
and 1,000 pound mares to stal¬ 
lions of about the same 
weight. These men are sim¬ 
ply adding to the undesirable, 
of horses already much too large upon 
unsalable class 
our farms. 
Select well-bred, well-formed roadster mares, sound and 
docile, of good style and action, and weighing from 1,100 
to 1,300 pounds. Mate these with standard-bred roadster 
stallions of the best quality obtainable, weighing from 
1,150 to 1,300 pounds. Don’t let five or ten dollars in the 
service fee lead you to use an inferior animal. If the 
result be a 2.30 colt you are very fortunate. If not speedy, 
you have a fine carriage horse selling at good figures, or, 
failing in this, an animal of sufficient size to be useful in 
farm work. The draft colt can be raised with as little 
care and anxiety as a steer. This is not true of the road¬ 
ster colt. He must be kept free from barbed wire cuts, 
blemishes and unsoundness to which his active, restless 
nature makes him more liable than his slower going, 
quiet draft cousin. He should be generally fed oats, 
wheat bran and good hay for development of bone and 
muscle, and be allowed plenty of exercise in a yard or 
roomy paddock. He lyas no need of exposure or starva¬ 
tion to keep him sound and healthy. Keep him growing 
from birth until he is fully developed. The handling of 
him should be commenced early. Teach him not to fear 
you, but to submit to restraint and handling. I am in¬ 
clined to believe that the early driving of the colt in har- 
