SHALL WE HAVE A NATIONAL HORSE?

To the Editor of Scientific American Supplement:

In your issue for August 13 is "A Proposition for a Government Breeding Farm for Cavalry Horses," by Lieutenant S.C. Robertson U.S.A., First Cavalry. The article is national in conception, deep in careful thought, which only gift, with practical experience with ability, could so ably put before the people. As a business proposition, it is creditable to an officer in the United States army.

The husbandman and agriculturist, also the navy and scientific explorations, each in turn present their wants before the government for help in some way, and receive assistance. The seaman wants new and improved or better ships, and the navy gets them; but the poor cavalryman must put up with any kind of a craft he can get; the horse is the cavalryman's ship—war vessel on land.

The appeal of Lieut. Robertson to our government for better horses is reasonable; and he tries to help the government with a carefully studied business proposition through which to enable our government to grant the supplication of the army. That Lieut. Robertson loves a horse, and knows what a good one is, no man can dispute who has read his article; but as to how it can best be produced, he does not know. While I for one applaud both his article and his earnestness, with your permission I will make some suggestions as to the breeding side of his proposition. The business portion will, of course, come under the ordnance department in any event.

As for a government breeding establishment for any kind of livestock in this great agricultural country, I feel that such would be at variance with the interests of husbandry in America.

The breeding of horses is particularly an important branch of agriculture, and the farmers should be assisted by the government in the improvement of their horses, until they are raised to a standard which in case of emergency could supply the army at a moment's notice with the best horses in the world at the least possible expense.

Our government Agricultural Bureau is constantly spending thousands of dollars to help the agriculturist in matter of better and greater varieties of improved seeds and the better way for cultivation. Now, the seed of animal life is as important as in vegetable life to the interest and welfare of the husbandman, which also means the government. For the government to become a monopolist of any important branch in agriculture is not in harmony with the principles of our republican-democratic form of government. While advocating a protective tariff against outside depreciation of home industries, our government should not in any way approach monarchical intrusion upon the industries of its husbandmen. Our government cannot afford to make its agriculturists competitors in so important a matter to them (the farmers) as in the raising of horses; but the government can see to it that the husbandman has a standard for excellence in the breeding of horses which shall be recognized as a national standard the civilized world over. Then, by that standard, and through our superior advantages over any other civilized nation in the vast extent of cheap and good grass lands, with abundance of pure water, and with all temperatures of climate, we can grow, as a people, the best horses in the world, to be known as the National Horse of America. Our government must have a blood standard for the breeding of horses, by which our horses can be bred and raised true to a type, able to reproduce itself in any country to which we may export them; and the types can be several, as our territory is so great and demands so varied, but blood and breeding must be the standard for each type. Our fancy breeders have a standard now, called a "time standard," which is purely a gambling standard, demoralizing in all its tendencies to both man and beast. With this the government need have nothing to do, for it will die out of itself as the masses learn more of it, and especially would it cease to be, once the government established a blood standard for the breeding of all horses, and particularly a National Horse.

When the cereal crops of our country are light, or the prices fall below profitable production, the farmer has always a colt or two to sell, thus helping him through the year. In place of constantly importing horses from France, England, and Scotland, where they are raised mostly in paddocks, and paying out annually millions of dollars, it is our duty to be exporting.

As an American I am ashamed when I see paraded at our county or state fairs stallions and mares wearing the "blue ribbon" of superexcellence, with boastful exclamation by the owner of "a thoroughbred imported Percheron, or a thoroughbred imported French coacher, or a thoroughbred imported Scotch Clyde, or a thoroughbred imported English coacher, or a thoroughbred imported English Shire, or a thoroughbred imported English Cleveland Bay!"

The American farmer and his boys look on aghast at the majesty and beauty of these prize winners over our big-headed, crowbar-necked, limp-tailed, peeked-quartered horses called "standard bred!" What standard? "Time standard," as created by a man who is neither a horseman nor a breeder; but because of the lack of intelligent information and want of courage upon the part of a few, this man's ipse dixit has become law for the American breeders until such time as cultured intelligence shall cause them to rebel. It soon will.

It is indeed time for the government to step in and regulate our horse breeding. Of all the national industries there is none of more importance than that of horses. More so in America than in any other country, because our facilities are greater, and results can be greater under proper regulation. Lieut. Robertson has proved to be the right man in the right place, to open the door for glorious results to our nation. No one man or a small body of men can regulate this horse-breeding industry, but as in France, Russia, and England, the government must place its hand and voice.

We are indeed an infant country, but have grown to an age where parental restraint must be used now, if ever. We have millions of farmers in America, breeding annually millions of horses; and except we have another internal war, our horses will soon become a burden and a pest.

There are numbers of rich men throughout the country breeding fancy horses, for sport and speculation, but they only add to the increasing burden of useless animals, except for gambling purposes; for they are neither work horses, coach horses, nor saddle horses. Our farmers of the land are the breeders, as our recent war of the rebellion testified. The war of 1812, the Mexican war of 1847, and the war of 1861 each called for horses at a moment's notice, and our farmers supplied them, destroying foundation bloods for recuperation. From 1861 to 1863 the noble patriotism of our farmers caused them to vie with each other as to who should give the best and least money to help the government; and cannot our government now do something for the strength and sinew of the land, the farmers?

I was dealing in horses, more or less, from 1861 to 1863 (as I had been before and long after), and many was the magnificent horse I saw led out by the farmer for the government, at a minimum price, when, previous to 1861, $400, $500, and even $600 was refused for the same animals. Horses that would prove a headlight to any gentleman's coach in the city, and others that would trot off fourteen to sixteen miles an hour on the road as easy as they would eat their oats, went into the cavalry or artillery or to baggage trains. What were left for recuperation at the close of the war were mongrels from Canada or the Indian and wild lands of the West, and such other lazy brutes as our good farmers would not impose upon the government with or later were condemned by the army buyers. These were largely of the Abdallah type of horse, noted for coarseness, homeliness, also soft and lazy constitutions. No one disputes the brute homeliness of the Abdallah horse, and in this the old and trite saying of "Like begets like" is exemplified in descendants, with which our country is flooded. The speed element of which we boast was left in our mares of Arabian blood through Clay and Morgan, but was so limited in numbers as to be an apology for our present time standard in the breeding of fancy horses. Knowing that Abdallah blood produced no speed, and being largely ignorant as to the breeding of our mares, which were greatly scattered over the land after the war, some kind of a guess had to be made as to the possibility of the colts we were breeding, hence the time standard fallacy. But it has ruined enough men, and gone far enough.

Upon Lieutenant Robertson's proposition, a turn can be made, and a solid base for blood with breeding of all American horses can be demanded by the government for the country's good.

From the earliest history of man, as a people increased in wealth, they gave attention to mental culture with refinement; following which the horse was cultivated to a high blood standard with national pride. From the Egyptians, the Moors, the Romans, and Britons to France, Russia, and Prussia we look, finding the horse by each nation had been a national pride—each nation resorting to the same primitive blood from which to create its type, and that primitive was the Arabian. Scientists have theorized, men have written, and boys have imagined in print, as to some other than the Arabian from which to create a type of horse, and yet through all ages we find that Arabian has been the one stepping stone for each advanced nation upon which blood to build its national horse.

Scientists have reasoned and explored, trying to prove to the contrary, but what have they proved? The Arabian horse still remains the fact.

The lion, the tiger, the leopard, still remain the same, as does the ass and the zebra. As God created and man named them, with all animal life, subject to the will of man, so do they all continue to remain and reproduce, each true to its type, free from imperfections or disease; also the same in vegetable and mineral life. In animal life, the build, form, color, size, and instincts remain the same, true to its blood from the first, and yet all was created for man through which to amuse him and make him work.

It is a fact that all of man's creations from any primitive life, either animal or vegetable, will degenerate and cease to be, while of God's perfect creations, all continue the same.

We will condense on the horse. The Arabian is the most pliable in its blood of any other known to man. From it, any other type can be created. Once a type has been created, it must be sustained in itself by close breeding, which can be continued for quite a number of years without degeneracy. For invigoration or revitalizing, resort must be made to its primitive blood cause. To go out of the family to colder or even warmer creations of man means greater mongrelization of both blood and instinct, also to invite new diseases.

Nothing is more infatuating than the breeding of horses. A gifted practical student in the laws of animal life may create a new and fixed type of horse, but it can be as quickly destroyed by the multitude, through ignorant mongrelization.

In the breeding of horses, our people are wild; and in no industry can our government do more good than in making laws relating to their breeding. It can father the production of a national horse without owning a breeding farm. It can make blood and breeding a standard for different types, and see to it that its laws are obeyed, thus benefiting all the agriculturists, and have breeding farms in America; and also itself as a government, financially. We must not however begin upon the creation of other nations, but independently upon God's gift to man, as did England, France, and Russia. That a government should interfere in the breeding of horses is no new thing. The Arabs of the desert boast to this day of King Solomon's stud of horses; but in each and every instance where a nation has regulated and encouraged the breeding of the horse to a high standard of excellence, they have all begun at the primitive, or Arabian. Thus England in boasting of her thoroughbred race horse admits it to be of Arabian origin. Russia in boasting of her Orloff trotting and saddle horse tells you it is of Arabian origin. France boldly informs you that her Percheron is but an enlarged Arabian, and offers annual special premiums to such as revitalize it with fresh Arabian blood.

After the war of 1812 our forefathers imported many Arabian stallions to recuperate the blood of their remnants in horses. From 1830 such prominent men as Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay said all they could by private letter and public speech to encourage the importation of and breeding freely to the Arabian horse, and specially did the State of Kentucky follow the advice of Henry Clay, so that from 1830 up to 1857 Kentucky had more Arabian stallions in her little district than the combined States of the Union. Kentucky has had a prestige in her mares since the war, and it comes in the larger amount of Arabian blood influence she has had in them, than could be found elsewhere. Kentucky is shut in, as it were, and retaining her mares largely impregnated with Arabian blood, all that was necessary for them to do was to get trotting-bred stallions from New York State, then eclipse all other States in the produce. While I cheerfully award to Kentucky all credit due to it, I am not willing that Lieut. Robertson should make his base for government breeding establishment sectional, nor would I submit to England through Kentucky. I am too American for that.

For cavalry purposes, the Prussian horse is the best in the world, and is also Arabian in its closest foundation.

To get at this blood question more definitely, let us inquire into these different recognized self-producing national types of horses abroad.

First is the English thoroughbred race horse, which is simply an improved Arab. The functions of this English national horse are but twofold—to run races and to beget himself, after which he ceases to be of value. He is not a producer of any other type of value; to breed him out of his family is mongrelism and degeneracy, so we don't want him, even though we could humiliate our American pride through our loved State of Kentucky.

Count Orloff of Russia was a great horseman, exceedingly fond of horseback riding independent of the chase. He tried in 1800 to breed a satisfactory horse from the English thoroughbred race horse, but went from bad to worse until he resorted to the ever-pliant blood of the Arabian. He sent to Egypt and secured a thoroughbred Arabian stallion, paying $8,000 for him (in our money). This horse he bred to Danish mares, largely of Arabian blood, and created a very stout, short-backed horse, standing from 15½ to 15¾ and 16 hands high, of great trotting speed, also able to run to weight, and with good disposition, which the English thoroughbred did not have. This type he continued to close-breed, going back to the Arabian for renewed stoutness. At his death, his estates passed to his daughter, who continued her father's breedings until the Russian government purchased the entire collection, about 1846, since when the Russian government Orloff trotting and saddle horse has become famous the world over as a first-class saddle, cavalry, stage coach, and trotting horse combined. They are broken at three years of age, and scarce any that cannot beat 2:30 at trotting speed, and from that down to 2:15 in their crude way of hitching and driving. This is something for American breeders to think very interestedly upon.

France wanted heavy draught horses, also proud coach horses; so rather than go to any competing nation for their created types, her enterprising subjects took the same Arabian blood, and from it created the beautiful Percheron, also French coach horses, so greatly valued and admired the world over, and which the gifted and immortal Rosa Bonheur has so happily reproduced upon canvas. Can America show any kind of a horse to tempt her brush?

With regard to a foundation for a government or national horse, I am certain so gifted and able United States officer as Mr. S.C. Robertson did not know that it was unnecessary to go to England for the blood of their national horse, even though we smuggled it through Kentucky or any other of our States. Again, it would be impossible to produce any type of a horse from the English thoroughbred, except a dunghill, and Mr. Robertson would not have his government breed national dunghills!

I love England as our mother country, but am an American, born and dyed in the wool to our independence, from the "Declaration."

Now let us see what England says of her thoroughbred: "He is no longer to be relied upon for fulfilling his twofold functions as a racer and reproducer of himself. He is degenerating in stoutness and speed. As a sire he has acquired faults of constitution and temper which, while leaving him the best we have, is not the best we should aspire to have. His stoutness and speed are distinctly Arabian qualities, to which we must resort for fresh and pure blood." We have shown that the Englishman says "his thoroughbred is full of radical and growing defects in wind, tendons, feet, and temper, and that his twofold functions are to run races and reproduce himself, which are the end of his purpose." Does our government want breeding farms upon which to nurse these admitted "defects," including the "confirmed roarer," for cavalry horses? I quote again: "Those who have had most to do with him are ready to admit that he no longer possesses the soundness, stoutness, speed, courage, and beauty he inherited from his Arabian parentage. As a sire for half-bred stock, he may do for those who will use him, but we must resort to the Arabian if we would revitalize and sustain our thoroughbred race horse."

In the face of these statements, in print abroad, would Lieut. Robertson make the base for our proposed national horse that of the English thoroughbred, scattering the weeds from such imperfect breedings among the farmers of our land?

I am writing as an old horseman and breeder, and not as a newspaper man or young enthusiast, although the enthusiasm of youth is still in me, for which I am thankful.

This question of horse breeding I have been deeply interested in for forty years past. Let me quote to the reader from one of many letters I have received from Sir Wilfrid Seawen Blunt during the past seven years. His practical knowledge of the English thoroughbred race horse and his blood cause, the Arabian, is the equal if not superior to any other one man of this present age.

With his wife, Lady Anne, he dwelt with the different tribes of the desert, studying the Arabs as a people, in their customs and habits, also traditions with beliefs. In matter of their horses, Mr. Blunt made a special study, while Lady Anne put her diaries in book form after her return, and which book should be owned by every cultured and educated lady in America. After spending a year in Arabia, traveling both sides of the Euphrates and through Mesopotamia, as no other Anglo-Saxons have been known to do, living with the different Bedouin tribes of the desert as they lived, Mr. Blunt and his wife, Lady Anne, came out with sixteen of the choicest bred mares to be found, also two stallions, the mares mostly with foal. These were placed upon their estates, "Crabbet Park," to continue inbreeding as upon the desert, pure to its blood. As this question in itself will make a long and interesting article, I will avoid it at present, quoting to the reader from one of my old letters:

"CRABBET PARK, SUSSEX, ENGLAND.

"Dear Sir: Political matters have prevented an earlier reply to your last.

"I am well satisfied with my present results, and shall not abandon what I have undertaken. The practical merits of Arabian blood are well understood by us.

"Our sale of young stock maintains itself in good prices in spite of bad times; indeed, my average within the past two years has risen from £84 to £102 on the pure-breds sold as yearlings, and we receive the most flattering and satisfactory accounts from purchasers, although it is known that I retain the best of each year's produce, and so have greatly improved my breeding stock.

"You speak of the opinions of the press as against you. The sporting press are not breeders, but are the mouthpiece of prejudices. We have had them somewhat against us, but they now view things in more friendly tone.

"For immediate use in running races (in which the sporting press are chiefly interested), the Arabian in his undeveloped state and under size will not compete with the English race horse. This fact has caused racing men to doubt his other many and more important merits; indeed, it is only those who have had personal experience of him that as yet acknowledge them.

"The strong points in the Arabian are many:

"First, his undoubted soundness in constitution, in wind, limb, and feet. It will be noticed that the Englishman must have soundness in wind, limb, and feet, showing that their thoroughbred is the thorn in that particular. The Arabian has also wonderful intelligence, great beauty, and good disposition, with an almost affectionate desire to adapt himself to your wishes.

"In breeding, I have found the pure-breds delicate during the first few weeks after birth, and have lost a good many, especially those foaled early in the year; yet it is a remarkable fact that during the eight years of my breeding them, I have had no serious illness in the stables; once over the dangerous age, they seem to have excellent constitutions, and are always sound in wind, limb, and feet.

"Second, they are nearly all good natural and fast walkers, also fast trotters; and from the soundness of their feet are especially fitted for fast road work, being able to do almost any number of miles without fatigue.

"Third, they are nearly all good natural jumpers, and I have not had a single instance of a colt that would not go across country well to hounds.

"They are very bold fencers, requiring neither whip nor spur. They carry weight well, making bold and easy jumps where other larger horses fail.

"Fourth, they have naturally good mouths, and good tempers, with free and easy paces; so that one who has accustomed himself to riding a pure-bred Arabian will hardly go back, if he can help it, to any other sort of horse.

"There is all the difference in riding the Arabian and the ordinary English hunter or half-bred that there is in riding in a well-hung gig or a cart without springs.

"Fifth. As sires for half-bred stock, the Arabian may not be better than a first-class English thoroughbred, but is certainly better than a second-class one, and first-class sires are out of the reach of all ordinary breeders; for that reason I recommend a fair trial of his quality, confident your breeders will not be disappointed.

"With good young mares who require a horse to give their offspring quality, that is to say, beauty, with courage and stoutness, and with a turn of speed for fast road work, the Arabian is better than any class of English thoroughbreds that are used for cross breeding.

"I trust then for that reason you will not allow yourself to be discouraged by the slowness of the people to appreciate all the merits of the Arabian at once.

"Our breeders are full of prejudices, and only experience can teach them the value of things outside their own circle of knowledge.

"I have no doubt whatever that truth will in the end prevail; but you must have patience. Remember that a public is always impatient, and most often unreasonably so.

"My stud I keep at a permanent strength of twelve brood mares, and as many fillies growing in reserve.

"You ask me regarding the pacing gait. I have seen it in the pure-bred Arabs on the desert; and in many parts of the East it is cultivated, notably in Asia Minor and Barbary. The walk, pace, amble, trot, and run are found in the Arabian, and either can be cultivated as a specialty.

"If you think any of my letters to you are of general value to your people, I am quite willing you should so use them.

"I am, very truly yours,

"WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT.

"To RANDOLPH HUNTINGTON, Rochester, N.Y."

My experience with Arabian blood the past seven years justifies all that Mr. Blunt has predicted to me from time to time. So also do old letters by Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay hold out the same inducements to the breeders of Kentucky and Tennessee in their day.

From my long years of experience in all classes of horses, I am frank to say to-day that I would not be without a thoroughbred Arabian stallion on my place, and journalists who inform their readers that they "are liable to splints, ringbones, and spavins," give themselves away to all intelligent readers and breeders as exceedingly superficial in matter of horses; for ringbones and spavins are positively unknown among the Arabs. The way to get rid of such imperfections in our mongrel breed of horses is to fill them up with pure Arab blood.

Such paper men also talk about "fresh Diomed" and "fresh Messenger blood," as though there had been a drop of it in never so diluted form for any influence these many years, of course forgetting that Diomed was a very strongly inbred Arabian horse. He came to this country when 21 years old.

He was foaled 1777, and arrived in Virginia in 1798. From his old age and rough voyage in an old-fashioned ship, it required nearly a year to recuperate from the journey, and was 23 years old before he could do stud service to any extent. Then, at no time to his death was he a sure foal getter, even to a few mares. He died in 1808, thirty-one years old, long enfeebled and unfit for service.

Between 1808 and 1887 is quite a period of time, during which we have had four different wars, beginning with 1812, and how much Diomed blood does the reader suppose there is in this country? Yet I take up daily and weekly papers devoted to horse articles, extolling the value of Diomed blood as cause for excellence in some young horse. Are we a nation of idiots to be influenced by such nonsense?

I wish there was fresh Diomed blood; thus the public would know what Arab blood had done for England. So I can say of imported Messenger. What our breeders want is good, solid information in print, and not the; dreamings of some professional writer for money. For myself, I am on the downhill side of life, but so long as I can help the young by pen or example, I shall try.

RANDOLPH HUNTINGTON.

Rochester, N.Y.