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Show i" WHAT IS THE BEST HORSE? The recent liorse show in New Yoik has given rise to some discussion as to the merits of hunters and trotters, and which' will make the best all-around liorse. The Nation, of November 12th, has a leader upon the subject and it comes to the conclusion that the hunter I . is the better horse for all purposes. Ex- icellent as is the Nation and high as is its authority, we cannot concur in its decis- . " ion. If the trotter has a special purpose s; so has the hunter, and neither would Ij excel in the particular field of the other, ij The trotter is par excellence as an Amer- III ican production, and one of which Amer- ! j ica may be proud. The Nation makes the 1 1 following objection to the trotter: f j The effect of the cultivation of the trotter I j , on the American working horse has been ( I very like what the effect of racing two-year- I I olds would have been in England had it not I been neutralized by the demand for hunters. I Oar pleasure carriages all over the country, I when we leave the light wagon, are horsed 1 by animals not np to their weight, either in f J size or bone an evil which is aggravated i j by the heaviness of the roads. Un- i til a very recent .period nearly every Ameri- I can horse, sold for light draught at a mod- erate price, was simply a horse which had failed to develop trotting speed: and as ! 5 trotting speed was very often found in very j unpromising frames, and sometimes without I ; any pedigree, breeding for points was very I t little attended to by the farmers who raise i most of our horses. j Ihere is sometlung m this, but this 5 i condition of things existed to a much j- I greater extent some years ago, in the ; I neighborhood of fifteen, than now. The : trotting horss to-day is bred on entirely I different principles from those in . vogue - fifteen years ago. Then, and long prior thereto, the one great object was to get I speed, and to attain this everything else I was sacrificed. Not so to-day. To-day the trotter is bred for size, style, beauty If and speed. Everything is considered in j I his breeding that it is desirable to have I , " inahorije. Points with the trotter are as f much consideied as points M'ith the run- f ner. For a general horse there must be ! size, but for a general horse there may be I '; too great size as well as too little size. A general horse will have multifarious du- l ties to perform, but he must not be expected ex-pected to excel in anj' particular one. ; j Which will make this general ; horse best, the trotter or the I i hunter? The most desirable weight l for a general horse is about eleven ' . hundred and titty pounds to twelve hun- dred; any weight in excess of this unfits him for many purposes to which the general gen-eral horse will bs put. The hunter very rarely reaches this weight, for he is mostly thoroughbred. As a general rule, the weight and size of the trotter will ex- wed that of the hunter. Any horse to j ; have any-worth must be 60und in limb I and wind, and he must have staying i qualities, no matter for what purpose he is bred nor for what purposs he is to be used. These qualities are essential to - the draft horse as well as to the trotter or runner. A good saddle horse will rarely be a good buggy or carriage horse, and f ve versa, and yet the general horse will have to do duty in all these places. For I buggy and carnage purposes the trotter i is superior to the hunter, while for sad dle purposes the superiority is on the side of the hunter; for purely farm purposes, the two kinds are about equal. Says the I : Nation: i !! i The excellence of the hunter consists in his ability to "jump, gallop, and stay," or, in other words, in great power of limb and great endurance and courage. To breed good hunters is to breed these qualities, and ihey are the ones that make the best horse for harness as well as for the saddle. Breeders of trotters breed for "great ; power of limb and great endurance and I courage," as well as breeds of the hunter , j or race horse; and they get these quali- ' ties. While a first-class hunter will outr I Klay a .trotter when it comes to a run I across country, put your hunter in harness I ' i van(i to bujrgy alongside of a trotter so I harnessed, and the trotter will out-stay I i your hunter. Your Perchcron or Norman I ; . will out-stay either at the slow, heavy I I:,' work -of the plow' or dray, and merely I because he is bred for that particular pur- I -' pose. A general liorse is a jack of all trades and master of none. It does not I detract in the least from the merits of the I . hunter that he cannot pull a buggy fifty 1 miIcs with the same ease and in the same I ... time as a trotter will, nor does it detract ! from the merits of the trotter that he can- I ; not keep alongside the hunterinarun I ' afer the fox or hare, nor take the jumps f : or make the leaps which the hunter does I with ease. f The general horse will always be. an I ; average horse, never a superior horse, I and if owners of horses desire great ex- cellence in their animals, they must I ' l,reed them facially for the purjwses for which they want them, the draft liorse j for the dray ; the heavy plow horse for the j farm ; the hunter for the chase ; the thor-' oughbred for the run ; the trotter for the ! lugg.v; the carriage horse for the "car-4 "car-4 riasre, and soon. Wanting a horse for a I' particular purpose, the horse that is bred i , ' ' for that purpose is the best, and no horse can be the best which is bred iorall 1 1 j purposes. |