Chapter XXXIII (1)

HOW THE TROTTING HOUSE IS BRED (_Continued_).

Breeding the trotter intelligently an industry of modern
development—Plethora of turf papers, and their timidity of
the truth—The accepted theories, old and new—Failure of
the “thoroughbred blood in the trotter” idea—“Thoroughbred
foundations,” and the Register—“Like begets like,” the great
central truth—Long-continued efforts to breed trotters from
runners —New York the original source of supply of trotting
blood to all the States—Kentucky’s beginning in breeding
trotters—R. A. Alexander, and the founding of Woodburn—The
“infallibility” of Woodburn pedigrees—Refusal to enter
fictitious crosses in the Register and the results—The
genesis and history of the standard—Its objects, effects and
influence —Establishing the breed of trotters—The Kentucky
or “Pinafore” standard —Its purposes analyzed—The “Breeders’
Trotting Stud Book” and how it was compiled—Failure and
collapse of the Kentucky project—Another unsuccessful attempt
to capture the Register—How honest administration of the
Register made enemies—The National Breeder’s Association
and the Chicago Convention—Detailed history of the sale and
transfer of the Register, the events that led up to it, and the
results—Personal satisfaction and benefits from the transfer,
and the years of rest and congenial study in preparing this
book—The end.

All that American breeders know about producing the trotting horse they have learned in the past twenty-five years. In that short period this interest has developed from practically nothing into a great national industry that has placed this country in front of all the nations of the earth in the character, quality and speed of the light harness horse. It is true we had the “raw material” out of which to build up this new breed, and this had been in our possession we may say for generations, but we didn’t know how to use it. There may be some apparent indelicacy in making the remark, but I think every intelligent man who is acquainted with the subject will sustain me in saying that, had it not been for the compilation of the “Trotting Register” and _Wallace’s Monthly_, with the facts, statistics and reasonings which were developed through them, we would know no more about the trotter today than we did thirty years ago. The trotting horse, therefore, as we contemplate him in his position of superiority to all others of his kind, is simply the result of great labor in collecting the facts and sound reasoning from the lessons taught by those facts. With all the facts placed in his hand, any breeder of intelligence, if he were honest, could not fail to reach the truth; but, unfortunately, all breeders have never learned to divest themselves of their prejudices, and to accept the plain teachings of the facts, just as they are.

To be able to think intelligently and honestly and to reason soundly, is the first requisite to success in breeding the trotter. It is a seeming paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that many men who are able to think a little are not able to think honestly. It is easy to understand why a man may act dishonestly, for there is the hope of gain to impel him; but why he should think dishonestly is not so apparent. Let us illustrate this matter of thinking dishonestly. On an occasion a correspondent asked a breeding journal to give a list of the thoroughbred horses that had sired trotters. A list of horses, represented as thoroughbred in the reply, was given, embracing some ten or twelve, about half of which were either unknown or dependent upon the most flimsy kind of representation as to their blood. It is not with the actual misrepresentation of the blood of most of the animals named, but with the use that was made of the list that I will now speak. After accepting the list as true and genuine, the correspondent comes before the public with his conclusions. He shows that these dozen performers from about as many horses made an average record of 2:24 and a fraction, and then triumphantly raises the question whether any single trotting-bred sire can show as many performers with as low an average record. Having satisfied himself that all the running-bred sires, real and imaginary, put together could more than equal any one trotting-bred sire in the average high rate of speed, he reaches the profound conclusion that the way to breed the trotter is to go to the runner. This is a real and not an imaginary instance of a few years ago. No doubt this man thought he was thinking when he reached this conclusion, and that he had solved the problem of breeding the trotter; but, poor man, he was simply trying to advertise a half-and-half-bred stallion he had in his stable.

I have no old scores to pay off against the breeding and sporting press, for I generally managed to pay them off as we went along, and the triumph of the views I advanced and sustained has become sufficiently complete to satisfy the most fastidious. It seems to be a real misfortune that there are so many weekly journals in this field and most of them leading a precarious existence. It may be observed in most directions that the management of these journals is hesitating and timid, as though afraid that somebody might be offended and a five or ten-dollar advertisement lost thereby. It is all right to make the advertising patronage remunerative, but it is all wrong when that department is placed in control of all the others, from the fear that somebody may be offended if the truth be told. In the present depressed condition of the breeding interests, and indeed of all interests, the horsemen of the whole country feel that they are carrying too heavy a burden in supporting so many papers, and the question of the “survival of the fittest” is already imminent. But, whatever the present financial and intellectual condition of the breeding and sporting publications of the country may be, a number of them have had their part in the discussions and wrangles that were naturally coincident with the progress of the revolution on the question of breeding the trotter, which finally brushed everything out of its way and fully established the truth of the laws of inheritance. Twenty-five years ago there was a good number of intelligent and capable writers on the horse, and they were either engaged in editing horse papers or contributed to them, and one and all they were handicapped with the idea, inherited from their fathers, that whatever of excellence that was found in the American horse came from the English race horse, and that all the speed, at any gait, that he was able to show came from the same source. From this absurd fallacy, it naturally followed that speed at the trot was merely the result of accident or of the persistent skill of the trainer. This was, substantially, the view of the general public at that date.

When, therefore, it was announced that the horse was far more than a mere machine, that he had a mental as well as a physical organization, that these were both equally matters of inheritance, that one horse ran fast because his ancestors ran fast and that another horse trotted fast because his ancestors were able to trot fast, and that no fast runner was ever a fast trotter, there was a tremendous hubbub. This was a new gospel, and it threatened to annihilate the stupid Anglo-Arabian fetish that all that was good in horsedom must of necessity come from that source. For generations the belief had been universal that the only way to improve the horse for any purpose under the sun was to “breed up” to the running horse and thus get back to the blood of the pure Arabian. On the other hand, and as opposed to this ancient fallacy that the way to breed the trotter was to go to the runner, it was urged, with a thousand proofs at the back of it, that the way to breed the runner was to go to the horse that could run, and the way to breed the trotter was to go to the horse that could trot. Here was a direct issue squarely made, and it was not to be expected that such men as Charles J. Foster, Peter C. Kellogg, Joseph O. Simpson, etc., all writers of ability, would quietly surrender without a battle. They had committed themselves to the running-blood traditions, some rich men had shaped their breeding studs in that direction, and without deciding whether a rich man had necessarily more sense than a poor one, they knew instinctively that a rich man could be more liberal in advertising, and that he could be more generous in properly recognizing the little courtesies that might be extended in the way of keeping his establishment before the public in an approving light. Thus, with an eye to the weather-gauge, the editors were able to maintain their own consistency. As the experiences of every succeeding year added thousands of proofs to the plain proposition that the trotter inherits his speed from a trotting ancestry, the “irreconcilables” began to shift their ground, conceding that there must be trotting blood to give the action, but that there must be “speed-sustaining” blood from the thoroughbred to give courage and endurance. This was the second position, and in a commercial sense it was shrewdly chosen for the advantage of certain localities. This position furnished the “thoroughbred foundation” argument, and for a time it had its supporters. This theory also furnished its promised commercial advantages to such localities as had formerly bred running horses, and it was but a week till everybody in those localities had “thoroughbred foundations” for their trotting pedigrees, and those who did not have them could easily procure them. This brought an avalanche of pedigrees, especially from Kentucky, with “thoroughbred foundations,” consisting of long strings of dams by famous horses, but without names, dates, breeders or histories, and many of them impossible. To checkmate this inundation of manufactured foundations, in the office of the Register, a rule was adopted requiring satisfactory identification and history of each dam, and where that could not be given the pedigree would be cut off. This rule saved the “Trotting Register” from becoming the mere dumping place for countless frauds, but it aroused such a feeling of antagonism on the part of the manager of Woodburn Farm that he, at once, started an opposition Register to be compiled at the farm, under his own personal direction. Of this, and what came of it, I will speak further on. It is but just that I should say here, that from a wide knowledge of men and from a study of their moral fiber extending through many years in connection with horse affairs, I have found many Kentuckians that were thoroughly truthful and reliable in pedigree matters; but at the same time it must be admitted that the conditions there for generations past have not been favorable, among horsemen, for the cultivation of the highest type of truthfulness. Many of them have been making their own pedigrees for so long, and padding them out with nameless dams by suppositious sires, to suit themselves—and the market—that they don’t take kindly to any restraint in what they consider their own business.

The great central truth in reproduction, whether of animals or plants, is summed up in the homely but axiomatic phrase, “like begets like.” With the rank and file of intelligent breeders who were able to think, this axiom was soon accepted as a fundamental and basic truth. The phrase “trotting instinct” was soon in everybody’s mouth, and the broad, plain distinction between that and “running instinct” was so palpable and easy of practical comprehension that the fallacy of a “thoroughbred foundation” was buried out of sight. When it was considered that the instinct of the one was to put forth his supreme effort at the trot, and of the other to put forth his supreme effort at the gallop, the irreconcilable antagonism between the two gaits was apparent. The cumulative evidences furnished year after year by the official records of performances on the tracks, and all going to show that the trotting horse must have a trotting inheritance, soon became so overwhelming in the uniformity of their teachings, and so completely unanswerable in the force of numbers, that no man able to observe and think could any longer doubt the truth of the position taken. But, unfortunately, some men can neither observe nor think, and, what is still more unfortunate, they not infrequently undertake to fill the rôle of public teachers and leaders of public thought. We can understand how a man of average intelligence may be wise in many things and foolish in others. When we come to study the phenomena he presents, we find he has studied the subjects on which he is wise, and he is ignorant on the subjects on which he is foolish. Like “Brother Jasper,” the negro preacher, he is ready to maintain against all comers that “the sun do move.” Another class of men in the writing fraternity, but fortunately they are restricted in numbers, have brains enough to apprehend the facts surrounding them and their teachings, but they have not conscience enough to lift them above their toadying instincts, for fear they might miss the crumbs from a rich patron’s table. Another type of man, generally a beginner in the breeding business, has a half-and-half-bred stallion at the head of his little stud, and he is uniformly an enthusiast for the “thoroughbred foundation.” As might be expected, he fills the columns of all the papers accessible with his “views of breeding,” which are always shaped to fit his own stallion and bring him patronage. We might here go on and point out other types of would-be “teachers” that would be entertaining, but certainly not profitable or instructive. We might follow the vagaries of different writers and show the origin and reason for those vagaries, but as the breeding world has become far more intelligent, and I think more honest, than it was twenty-five years ago, one vagary after another has disappeared and been buried out of sight. All such trumpery as, “to breed the trotter you must go to the runner,” “more running blood in the trotter,” “thoroughbred foundation,” etc., are phrases that are never heard in our day among intelligent breeders. A mile in two minutes and thirty seconds is “played out” as an evidence of trotting speed, but it is still held in its place as such evidence to suit the blood and methods of development at one particular establishment, and to gather in the money for registration from the little fellows.

Anything slower than “two-twenty” is no longer looked upon as of any value in a trotting sense.

This astonishing increase of speed has come hand in hand with a closer and more careful observance of the law of inheritance, or heredity. If we breed the merino ram upon a merino ewe, we know that the produce will be a merino. If we breed the cotswold on the cotswold we know the produce will be a cotswold, but if we breed the merino on the cotswold the produce will be a mongrel. The physical inheritance is destroyed, and in propagating from this mongrel confusion, uncertainty and disappointment always follow. If we go a step higher and consider those types of domestic animals endowed with a species of mentality that we call instinct, we find the illustrations still more marked and effective. The finely bred greyhound coupled with the finely bred pointer produces neither a greyhound nor a pointer, but only a nondescript cur. Sometimes the instincts of the greyhound and sometimes the instincts of the pointer may be the more masterful, but the inheritance is broken and divided, and the mongrel should never be used for propagation. If we couple the very best specimen of the English race horse with the very best and fastest American trotting mare, the produce would be literally half-and-half bred. The sire never could trot a mile in four minutes and the dam never could run a mile in two minutes, and what is the produce good for? Once in a hundred times the running instinct might predominate and develop something of a runner, and once in a hundred times the trotting instinct might predominate, as in the case of Bonnie Scotland and Waterwitch, and produce something of a trotter, but of what value would the half-and-half progeny be for breeding purposes? Whatever might be the characteristics of their progeny, physically, they would undoubtedly and invariably inherit and transmit not only divided, but antagonistic, instincts that would require generations of careful selection and training to get rid of. While the “featherheads” may, for the sake of personal consistency, which is a very weighty matter of public concern, still advocate “more running blood in the trotter;” and while one great concern may still look one way, on this question, and row the other, it being literally true that she has not added a single drop of running blood to her trotting stud in a quarter of a century, it is safe to say that the whole body of intelligent breeders of this country have come to accept and obey the great central truth that the American trotter has reached his present state of perfection by the development of his unbroken and undivided trotting inheritances. These inheritances have been cumulative and thus made stronger in each developed generation of ancestors, and if this high development of speed is kept up for a series of successive generations the speed of the American trotter will be placed at a point of which we have never yet dreamed. The inherited and developed instinct to stick to the trot as the fastest gait of which the horse is conscious, coupled with skillful preparation and handling, are the two factors that will always put the American trotting horse in the front rank and keep him there.

In the early chapters of this work we have considered the horse in his original habitat and his distribution among the different peoples of the then known world, but we have not considered the distribution of the trotter through the different regions of our own country. Fifty or sixty years ago the trotting horse was hardly known outside of a limited territory embracing the cities of New York and Philadelphia. In the New England States the trappy little Morgan filled the place of the driving horse with very great acceptance, but he had no speed as a trotter. We then began to see and hear something of the “Maine Messengers,” that were trotters in reality and able to demonstrate their speed and courage on the track. Occasionally a converted pacer would strike a trot and show speed that was phenomenal in that day, but it was uniformly treated as “accidental.” There was a great deal of high-class trotting blood in the region of Philadelphia, and for a time that was the leading center of the trotting interest, but it did not receive that measure of encouragement and support that was necessary to its permanent growth, and the seat of empire was transferred to Long Island and Orange County, New York. South of Mason and Dixon’s line the trotter was tabooed, as a mongrel nondescript, and “not worthy of the attention of a gentleman, sah.” They had runners and they had pacers, and as all excellence in the shape of a horse, at whatever gait, as they argued, must come from the running horse or his progenitor, the Arabian, they had already the very best material in the world for the production of the fast trotter. The belief as expressed in their motto, “Speed at the gallop was a guarantee of speed at any other gait required,” pervaded all minds and directed all action in matters of breeding. Thus they worked away for years trying to breed trotters from blood that never could and that never did trot, and, strange as it may seem, there are still some people in that region, at the close of the nineteenth century, trying to breed trotters from runners. From New York as a common center all the breeding States obtained their supplies of trotting blood, and they in time became sources of supply. The only exception to this is that of the pacer, which eventually developed into a trotting element of some prominence and value, especially in the West and South.

The prominence of Kentucky as a breeding center is wholly due to the trotting blood she obtained from New York. She had plenty of pacing blood that was good, of its kind, but it was so uncertain and sporadic that it did not commend itself to the breeders of that section as a source of trotting speed. From an early period in the history of the State the habits and fancies of the people, in the richer portions, had been “horsey,” from their knowledge and familiarity with running races for many years, and thus when the demand came for trotters they struck out vigorously to meet that demand. When Mr. R. A. Alexander organized the great Woodburn Farm he established a department of trotters, which was among the very first of any magnitude in the State. As he had been reared abroad he knew nothing about American pedigrees, and in making his purchases of breeding stock he was victimized by every sharper who came along with a brood mare to sell. He was a man of honest purpose and excellent natural judgment which told him to buy such breeding animals as could trot themselves or had produced trotters, and if he had been content to stop with what little he knew of their breeding he would have been all right; but, meantime, the professional pedigree-maker—the successor to the famous Patrick Nesbitt Edgar—came along and tricked them out in an excellent quality of pinchbeck pedigrees containing plenty of running blood that had never trotted nor produced a trotter. When the first Mr. Alexander died he was succeeded in the proprietorship of the great estate by his brother, a very worthy gentleman who made it a law to the establishment that none of his horses should ever start in a race. His fancy and knowledge were all in the line of cattle, and he seemed to neither know nor care anything about horses. Soon after this change in the ownership of the estate a new manager was placed in charge, and it was soon manifest that however absurd and untruthful the pedigrees of breeding stock might be, they must not be questioned nor corrected by any authority whatever. This doctrine of infallibility as applied to Woodburn pedigrees was wholly incompatible with what I conceived to be my duty to the breeding public. I had accepted the Woodburn pedigrees, at the start, as trustworthy, on the grounds of the eminence and high character of the first Mr. Alexander, and it was far more than a surprise to me when I discovered something of the extent to which the pedigrees of the whole establishment had been honeycombed with the dishonesty of “sharpers” and “pedigree-makers.” These fictions antedated any compilation or known authority of trotting pedigrees, and there can be no doubt they were accepted as honest statements of the blood of the animals in question, while many of them were wholly fictitious and all of them contained crosses on the maternal side that were merely imaginary. These embellishments, to call them by no harder name, were uniformly in one and the same direction, all stretching out to embrace as much of the blood of the running horse as possible, and often a great deal that was impossible. Here I may state the general fact that all Kentuckians had claimed and exercised the right so long to shape up their pedigrees to suit themselves and to bring the most money in the market that a number of them still claimed that as a right and became somewhat restive when told that their pedigrees would be recorded just as far as they were proved, and no further. Two or three breeders expostulated against this rule, and in reply they were assured that they had a perfect right to shape their pedigrees as they pleased, but that insertion in the Register was the same as my personal indorsement, and that this indorsement could not be given to any pedigree that I did not know or believe to be honest and true. This ended all doubts about the position and character of the Register, and I think that every breeder of any standing in Kentucky submitted to the rule, with the solitary exception of Woodburn Farm. The manager of that establishment was not only unwilling to have the infallibility of Woodburn pedigrees called in question, but he aspired to the control of the pedigrees of all other breeders in the whole country. When the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders was organized in December, 1876, he was not only asked, but pressed, to become a member and take part in its management and control. But no, he would be “boss,” or he would be nothing. New York was not the right place to organize it. It should be organized in Kentucky, and with the manager of Woodburn at the head of it. The arrogance of this young manager was something amazing, his intrigues to get control of registration were continued for a number of years, and the means employed to accomplish his ends were of such a character as clearly to demonstrate that of all the men in the world he was the last one who should be placed in the control of such a trust. As this controversy extended through the period of building up the breed of trotters, it is of necessity a part of the literature of the formation of that breed, and as some of the more salient points seem to be of sufficient importance to hand down to future generations, I will here consider them very briefly. In doing this I am conscious of some feeling of embarrassment on account of the personal matters that must enter into the recital, but it is a part of the trotting history of the times, and I prefer that the truth may be preserved, whatever may be the teachings of the canons of taste.

In the collection and registration of pedigrees that seemed to be more or less closely allied to trotting blood, embracing all contained in the first, second and third volumes of the “Trotting Register,” there was no guide or rule to determine what was worthy of registration, in a trotting sense, and what was unworthy. I had a general conception of the families that had produced trotters and those that had not, but I had no rule by which I could decide what to admit and what to reject, except that all actual performers of reputable speed must be admitted. To undertake, on individual responsibility, to determine what amount of trotting blood should be requisite to admission, and how that amount should be measured, was quite too hazardous, except when backed by a strong moral and numerical force of breeders. Hence my active interest in the organization of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and my earnest desire that it might be composed of breeders of high standing and character from all parts of the country. Upon the organization of the association, its character was so entirely acceptable to me that I did not hesitate to place in its hands the supervisory control of the registration of pedigrees for the “Trotting Register,” to be exercised by a Board of Censors to be appointed annually. The first board was appointed and entered on its functions January 15, 1877, by formulating the first set of rules relating to the requisites necessary to the acceptance of pedigrees, in their form and completeness. The third volume was then approaching completion and the Board of Censors commenced their supervisory duties on that volume.

The members of the Breeders’ Association were generally men of intelligence, and capable of thinking, and every suitable opportunity was improved to get their individual views on the question as to whether a set of rules could be adopted by the association that would distinguish between animals that had trotted themselves or produced trotters in say 2:30, and animals that had not. Not many had ever thought of the subject, but all were ready to think of it more. The only objection urged was that such a scheme would certainly reduce the fees for registration in large degree. To this I assented as doubtless true for the time being, though in the end it would largely increase them, but declared that it was not for the fees I was working, but to establish a breed of trotting horses. When satisfied that a good number of the leading breeders were thinking favorably of the subject, it was presented to the public in a very modest and unpretentious way. In discussing “The Future of the Breeders’ Association,” in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for April, 1878, the following language occurs:

“In addition to the thought and labor necessary to secure such
an organization as the interest demands, there is another topic
that will require great deliberation and wisdom, in the near
future. The association must fix a standard of admission to the
official record of pedigrees. Up to the present time there has
been no standard of blood requisite to secure a place in the
Register. This matter has been left wholly to the compiler,
without even so much as advice on the subject. The Register,
therefore, has no value as a classification of blood, but
only as a reliable record of the pedigrees of the animals it
contains, whatever their blood may be.”

This is the first intimation ever given to the public, so far as I know, that any body of men ever contemplated the construction of a standard to control the admission of trotting horses to specific rank and registration. The question was thus placed openly before the public and it was looked upon favorably by those most immediately interested. In due time, at a meeting of the Breeders’ Association, a committee was appointed to whom was referred all the suggestions that had been made for the proposed scheme. Soon afterward (November 19, 1879) the committee reported the standard to a large, enthusiastic and harmonious meeting of the Association, and it was unanimously adopted as follows:

THE STANDARD OF ADMISSION TO REGISTRATION.

(Established by the National Association of Trotting-Horse
Breeders, November 19, 1879.)

In order to define what constitutes a trotting-bred horse, and
to establish a BREED of trotters on a more intelligent basis,
the following rules are adopted to control admission to the
records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the requirements of
admission and is duly registered, it shall be accepted as a
standard trotting-bred animal.

FIRST.—Any stallion that has, himself, a record of two minutes
and thirty seconds (2:30) or better; provided any of his get
has a record of 2:40 or better; or provided his sire or his
dam, his grandsire or his grandam, is already a standard animal.

SECOND.—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.

THIRD.—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record
of 2:30 or better.

FOURTH.—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record
of 2:30 or better; provided he has either of the following
additional qualifications:

1.—A record himself of 2:40 or better.

2.—Is the sire of two other animals with a record of 2:40 or
better.

3.—Has a sire or dam, grandsire or grandam that is already a
standard animal.

FIFTH.—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of
2:30 or better.

SIXTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard
mare.

SEVENTH.—The progeny of a standard horse out of a mare by a
standard horse.

EIGHTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare
whose dam is a standard mare.

NINTH.—Any mare that has a record of 2:40 or better, and whose
sire or dam, grandsire or grandam is a standard animal.

TENTH.—A record to wagon of 2:35 or better shall be regarded as
equal to a 2:30 record.

In this, its original form, the standard was administered successfully and smoothly through the period of the compilation of volumes four, five, six, and seven of the “Trotting Register,” when it was revised by the Breeders’ Association as follows:

THE STANDARD.

(AS REVISED AND ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
TROTTING-HORSE BREEDERS, DECEMBER 14, 1887.)

In order to define what constitutes a trotting bred horse and
to establish a BREED of trotters on a more intelligent basis,
the following rules are adopted to control admission to the
records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the requirements
of admission and is duly registered it shall be accepted as a
standard trotting-bred animal.

FIRST.—Any stallion that has himself a record of two minutes
and thirty seconds (2:30) or better, provided any of his get
has a record of 2:35 or better, or provided his sire or his dam
is already a standard animal.

SECOND.—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.

THIRD.—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record
of 2:30 or better.

FOURTH.—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record
of 2:30 or better, provided he has either of the following
additional qualifications: (1) A record himself of 2:35 or
better. (2) Is the sire of two other animals with a record
of 2:35 or better. (3) Has a sire or dam that is already a
standard animal.

FIFTH.—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of
2:30 or better.

SIXTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard
mare.

SEVENTH.—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a
mare by a standard horse.

EIGHTH.—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a
mare whose dam is a standard mare.

NINTH.—Any mare that has a record of 2:35 or better, and whose
sire or dam is a standard animal.

From the indefinite and unsatisfactory starting point, and without any rule or guide as to what should be admitted, except the pointless phrase, “well related to trotting blood,” it soon became evident that the Register would soon contain as much chaff as wheat. Through the _Monthly_, which was established for that purpose, I did not despair of the success of my aim in leading the intelligent breeders of the country up to the point of recognizing and establishing the American trotting horse as a BREED. The road was long, steep, rough in places, and beset with prejudices on all sides, but labor conquers all things, and we have in the standard and its revision, as given above, the culmination and perfection of the implements that were to effect this purpose. To reject a horse from registration merely because he was running bred would have been “flying in the face” of the prejudices of nearly everybody, but to reject him because neither he nor any of his tribe had ever been able to trot, was philosophical and just; and as it gave no section of the country an advantage over any other section, and no theory an advantage over a fact, no man could gainsay or criticise its justice or its truthfulness. This was the wedge that split the rock of ignorance and prejudice, and thus exploded the theories of generations as to the value of running blood in the trotter. As I look at it to-day, the undertaking to gather up a great lot of fragments and convert them into a breed was a tremendous one, and although it was backed up with brains and influence, it is doubtful whether many of its promoters had any very clear conception of the results that would follow—either its success or its failure. It assumed to direct and control the trotting-horse breeding interest of the whole country, and to leave its impress for all time. It required no gift of prophecy to see this as the result of success, and neither did it require any gift of prophecy to foresee that failure would wipe out the work already done in both the Register and the _Monthly_. It was the crucial period in the history of these publications. A misstep or an unwise provision would have brought a disastrous end. To found a breed of horses resting primarily and wholly upon performance and the blood descended directly from performers, or the producers of performers, was something that never had been attempted in the world. The basis was wholly unique, but it commended itself to the public judgment as a just one, and as the only foundation upon which the proposed breed could be successfully established. The basis was wisely chosen and the superstructure erected thereon was equally wise in all its provisions. Never have we known a set of men to work more earnestly or more unselfishly for the common purpose.

After very careful consideration in a large and intelligent committee, the finished labors of that committee was reported to the Association on November 19, 1879, at the Everett House, in this city, and the standard was then and there adopted without so much as a question and without a voice or a vote being raised against it. Thus the standard was launched in unity and wisdom, and from that day it went forward on its mission of educating the people. The “Trotting Register” has done much and the _Monthly_ has done something in the way of education, but the standard has been the special formula through which all these teachings have been brought home to the breeder, great and small, in a manner that educated both his mind and his pocket. If we could conceive of the brightest mind directing the most pointed pen for the period of a hundred years in the special department of how to breed the trotting horse, we feel sure he would fail to accomplish as much as this little, practical formula called the “Standard” accomplished in the first dozen years of its existence.

When the standard was adopted and put in operation there was a material advance in the market value of all animals registered under its requirements, and it thus became not only a matter of honor, but of profit, to breed only in the standard ranks. Everybody was willing to pay more for a good horse that was standard in his breeding than for one equally good that was not standard in his breeding. A record of 2:30 was then accepted as evidence of a high rate of speed, everywhere. There was a grand rush for standard rank and the number of fraudulent performances sent forward in order to secure such classification was overwhelming. This led to many rejections of performances, adroitly shaped up to deceive, and every rejection made a batch of enemies. But great as this evil was, there was another that began to manifest itself very strongly. The Register was rapidly filling up with colts under rules seven and eight, and everyone of them, as soon as he was able to stand up, wanted his number, for he was to be kept as a standard stallion. The public attention was urgently called to the preponderating numbers of these feebly bred colts, as a menace to the hitherto unimpeded progress of the grand purpose of establishing a breed. The Breeders’ Association thereupon took up the standard and revised it, wholly in the direction of higher qualifications and more stringent requirements. By comparing the revised standard with the original, above, it will be observed that rule ten was stricken out, and that rules seven and eight were restricted to fillies only, thus cutting off the source of danger altogether. The rates of subsidiary speed were advanced and there was a tightening up of the requirements in other directions. This revision did not suit all interests, especially beginners who were just starting to breed their first colt by a standard horse, but as every one knew there would never be a time when there would not be just such groundless complaints, the action received the hearty indorsement and support of all breeders who kept in view the central object of the standard in building up a breed of trotters.

When fast horses began to multiply by the thousand, annually, say about 1890-91, we began to hear an increasing number of gibes at the standard as “a slow coach,” “away behind the times,” “a 2:30 horse was no longer considered a trotter,” etc., and every one of these taunts had an element of truth in it. The standard, as the teacher of the breeders of the country, had not only produced trotters, but _great_ trotters, with marvelous rapidity. At one time it was the ambition of all breeders to place their stock inside of the limits of the standard, not only because it was an honor, but because it added materially to the bank account and to the value of every animal, so bred, in the establishment. But breeders both great and small are no longer stimulated to enter a standard with the antiquated 2:30 rate of speed that is everywhere received with a sneer. When the standard was formed on the basis of 2:30, it was within about fifteen seconds of the fastest performance, and if the same ratio were now preserved, “2:30” would be stricken out and “2:20” inserted instead. The breeders would again be stimulated to look forward with hope, and not backward with regret.

Of the numerous criticisms of the standard after its adoption, there were none of any special force or practicability, but from one source there was a persistent war made upon it, not because it was unfair in its principles or administration, nor because it lacked vigor in its support, but evidently because it was not controlled in Kentucky, and that the pivotal authority of that control was not placed in the hands of the manager at Woodburn. It is but just that I should say here that many of the stanchest and most enthusiastic supporters of the standard and the Register were Kentuckians, and with the exceptions of two or three breeders who stood well in their community, and a few others who were bankrupt in character and morals, there were no enemies to engage in this war. I would gladly skip over this period, for it is of necessity more or less personal, but to omit it would leave the history of the times and of the formation of the breed of trotters incomplete, and liable to misrepresentation by those who may come after us.

The first public suggestion or demand for a standard, and the first use of the word “standard” in connection with rules for registration, was addressed to the Breeders’ Association, in the paragraph quoted above, from the _Monthly_ for April, 1878. In that paragraph, while no specific rules were formulated, the whole scope of such rules was foreshadowed.

In the course of correspondence with breeders all over the country as to their views about the provisions of the proposed standard, I received from Mr. Henry C. McDowell, of Kentucky, a little slip of paper, perhaps as large as your hand, marked “copyrighted,” on which were printed a number of rules that purported to be rules for the admission of certain animals, trotters and runners, to some book that was not named or described. This little paper was courteously received and commended as a step in the right direction.

The idea of inserting the word “copyrighted” seemed to be that it might serve as a “scare head” and thus deter all makers of books from attempting to make a book under the provisions of these rules. These rules were strictly tentative, and they were peddled about for months, and changed several times to see whether they would be acceptable or not, and every revised and corrected edition was marked “copyrighted.”

Some of the rules that were, we might say, self-evident, were not very objectionable, but others again were simply intended to give Woodburn and those who had their breeding stock from that establishment a great advantage over all other breeders. The selfish object of the fourth rule is palpable, as follows: “Any mare, the dam of any mare or stallion that has produced or sired a horse, mare or gelding, with a record of two minutes and thirty seconds or better.”

To the original draft of six rules, “rule seven” was afterward added, which reads: “The full sister of any animal entered under rules one, two, three, and four.” This was the capsheaf of absurdity, for it not only made the grandams of trotters standard trotting brood mares, but all their sisters also. This not only embraced a large number of running mares, genuine and bogus alike, in Kentucky, but it reached across the Atlantic and made one of the greatest of English dams of running horses, and all her famous sisters, standard trotting brood mares in America. Bonnie Scotland, the great racing sire, never was able to get a trotter except from old Waterwitch, and upon the strength of that scratch, his sisters and his mother and his aunts were all made standard trotters. No wonder this marvelously stupid production came to be known as the “Pinafore Standard.” [A more extended review of the “Pinafore Standard” may be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for December, 1879, page 831.]

But when we come to consider the ultimate result intended to be reached, the scheme was not “marvelously stupid”—it was not the work of a fool, but of the other kind of fellow. The admission of the grandmothers and all their sisters was not specially intended to bring in the great English racing mare and all her sisters as standard-bred American trotters, but it was intended to bring in a great host of Kentucky running-bred mares that never could trot a mile in four minutes, and place them on an exact equality of rank with mares that had records of 2:20 or less. This would not only place Kentucky away ahead of the North in the length of her lines of inheritance, but would place Woodburn away above all competitors, either North or South, and with a little help of the Edgar-Bruce type, we would soon have had “twelfth dam, fifteenth dam,” etc., not one of them named and not one of them honest. Great local, and especially personal, advantages were to accrue, and the theory that Kentucky running blood was not the best trotting blood in the world was to be smashed, and here we reach “the milk in the cocoanut.” So far as we can understand the conditions as they then existed and so far as we can analyze the facts developed, this seems to be a fair interpretation of the impelling motive. In an unfortunate hour I took up this buntling of the young manager and exposed its absurdities, addressing the exposure to a highly esteemed personal friend whose name was connected with the movement, and just as soon as the gentlemen interested could be got together, every vestige of the “Pinafore” features was eliminated, the poor old grandmothers and their sisters being ruthlessly turned out in the cold. This was the first set-back which Mr. Brodhead received in his enterprise, which was to accomplish so much for Woodburn, and which ended so disastrously.

There was another feature embraced in the “Pinafore,” and protected by the same “copyright,” that was of special significance. It was provided that time made in a public trial, against the watch, should be accepted as of equal value with time made in a race with other horses. It is not worth while to stop to consider the question as to whether these two kinds of performance are of equal merit, and should receive equal honor, for every honest man will call such a claim a bald absurdity on its face. Then why has Woodburn, from time immemorial, it will be asked, always refused to enter a colt in a stake or start one against others? If you ask the manager he will tell you that Mr. Alexander, the owner, is opposed to racing in all its forms. Then why does Woodburn, in one form or other, hold so much stock in the Kentucky Breeders’ Association, one of the most notorious gambling concerns in the whole country? We will not press this question too closely. There can be no shadow of doubt, therefore, that this feature of the “Pinafore” was the special product of the mind of the manager at Woodburn, for no one of the other gentlemen would be willing to own it.

The quasi-organization from which, nominally, the “Pinafore Standard” emanated consisted of the five gentlemen following: Lucas Brodhead, Henry C. McDowell, Richard S. Veech, James C. McFerran, and Colonel Richard West. The names of these five gentlemen when appended to any matter connected with their enterprise and given to the public had no rank assigned to them, except “Committee on Rules.” This implied that there was an organization behind them that had appointed them to this duty, but there never was even a shadow of such an organization. Mr. Brodhead was manager at Woodburn and ambitious to control the trotting pedigrees of the whole country, and for the methods employed the reader is referred to page 430 of this volume. Mr. McDowell is simply Mr. Brodhead’s echo. In December, 1877, he attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and out of compliment to Kentucky he was elected president. He was about the city two or three days, and before he left for home he resigned without ever intimating any reason why he resigned. Mr. Veech is a man of undoubted integrity and plenty of brains, and was identified with the Breeders’ Association from the start. Mr. McFerran and Colonel West are both dead, and while it was not my privilege to know them intimately, I knew enough of them to trust them as honorable and honest men. Not long after the appearance of the original suggestion in the _Monthly_, as given above, that a standard of qualifications for admission to registration was of paramount importance, and that the preparation of such a standard was in the special province of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, Manager Brodhead caught the idea and the situation, and with Mr. McDowell hurried away to spend a night with Mr. Veech, near Louisville, and thus forestall the action the Breeders’ Association might take in the premises. They were all of one mind as to the importance of keeping Kentucky in the foremost position as a breeding State, but they were not all of one mind as to the means best adapted to that end. Mr. Veech was very clear and pronounced in his views that the way to breed the trotter was to go to the trotter and not to the runner, but what Brodhead said McDowell said, and that left him in the minority. Seated around a table, each with a copy of _Wallace’s Monthly_ containing the table of 2:30 trotters under their sires, they commenced forming some rules. With “The Great Table” before them they could not fail to strike the self-evident requirements of a standard, and two or three of their rules were very good, but as a matter of course the scheme of the majority to get in all the running-bred mares possible and enter them as standard trotting mares had to prevail. Hence the provision for admitting the grandams. Imported Bonnie Scotland was kept many years in the trotting latitudes, and just got one trotter and no more at any rate of speed, hence he was a standard horse according to this scheme, and his dam, Queen Mary, in England, was a standard trotting brood mare. Now if the dam thus became a standard trotting mare, why should not Iago, his sire, become a standard trotting sire? This would have been too glaring and open, and would have been ridiculed as an absurdity by everybody. The trick had to be carried through quietly or it could not succeed. At a later period the sisters of all the standard mares were made standard, and then came the very appropriate and expressive title of the “Pinafore Standard,” for it literally embraced “his sisters and his mother and his aunts.” This scheme would have admitted a vast herd of so-called trotting mares in Kentucky that had no trotting inheritance, had never trotted themselves, and never produced a trotter. This part of the scheme was certainly not the work of the “Committee on Rules,” but the work of an individual for the purpose of carrying out a selfish and inadmissible scheme to promote local and personal interests. When the exposure of this scheme came out Woodburn, with all its influence in Kentucky, could not stand against it an hour, and every “Pinafore” feature was promptly eliminated.