Fast Walking Farm Horses

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 212, 23 July 1887, Page 4

Fast Walking Farm Horses

SoMßt ; mo age' we urged in these columns the great vt^Lio of a fa6t walking pace in ' farm hors":«. We want our readois to make colonial 'bi^edera wake up to the need of breeding 'fo; fast walkers, by showing their appreciation of this quality w herever found in a farm horse, and by always requiring a reduction in the price asked for a hort« if he is a slow walker. Buyers of horses have only'Ho know definitely what they want, and to ask for it presistently, being ready ■of ''course to pay a fair price for it, and breeders will before long produce the thing required. Upon this important subject ot fast walking farm horses an agiicultural contemporary takts the fame view as we do. He says :— " The walking pace of our farm hoises is a mater that of late years has received considerable attention in live stock journals but veiy little- in breeding horses. It isa*toni hing that the walking pace ot our horses -bus noC been improved. A slow paced team is expensive propei ty. If we had hordes that would ploug'i a field or cultivate a ciop in onehalf the lime that our horses now do these things wo should be sa\ ing fifty per cent, on the woik. li we had work enough for two slow teams, upon that basis we should need only one team. Hence «o bhould wive the investment in one team, tho expense of -keeping it and the cost of a man to chhe it, and altogether the aggregate Mould make a big item. Nor is it difficult to bleed fastualking horses. The question has been asked and discussed, Will the creation of a fast walking breed depend upon training or breeding? Any on'< who hub made a study of the principles of breeding, anil the law» heredity, ought not to bo bothoied much >\ith that question. The result will depend upon both tiainingevnd bi ceding. A fast ■walking stallion or irare would bo likely to produce a fast walking co t, if it was made to keep up with the stanaaid of It s- possi bilicies. The tiaining will opeiato both before and after, before with she and dam, and after with the colt. Rapid walking may necessitate ceitain changes in the formation ot the limbs, but this will come from persistent exercise and careful breeding, and fa-t walkeis will yet be btcd As long as theie is so much apathy in regaid to horse breeding it. cannot be expected that this featuie will command anything like universal attention. Bug in time breeders will see that fast walkers are not only possible, but that there fc money in breed njx them ; and when that is seen and acted upon we believe that a very great impulse will be given to the woik of replacing our inferior horses w ith better .stock. If we had fa«t walkers they would commend themselves somewhat more readily than would horse* of other excellent characteristics. We believe that any of cur horses can be developed satisfactory n thUd.rection " If it is all a pair of horses can do to draw a load, that load will co-t more to mo%e than if we had a pair of hoises that could move it easily. What every horse owner should aim at is to have hoif-es that would do his work without exhausting thempehes. That would not only bo a saving of horse flesh, but if he is a humane man, it would add to his own comfort and actually to lm life, for there is no'hing nv.ie distiessing than to see a team struggling to the limit of their stiength to pull a load over a bad road, and there is little in faun experience that is more satisfactory than to see a large strong team walking over the game road with just as heavy a load as if it were mcie pastime for it.