HORSES AND BONE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 118, 14 November 1925, Page 19

HORSES AND BONE

QUALITY TELLS,

Many bloodstock buyers make a fetish--of "bone," and "too light under the knee" is a remark anyone who attends yearling sales has _ heard on innumerable occasions. It is impossible for one. horse's bone, though seemingly light, to be of an ivory typo, and consequently better in every way than that which may be.thicker, but is really softer. Beariug on this, I recently read, some interesting remarks in the Lexington "Thoroughbred Kocord," writes "Pilot": — The writer (a" lady) was taking up the cudgels on behalf of the American thoroughbred. She contended American horses were handsomer and more blood-like than those of England; possessed lighter bone of finer quality; had comparatively stronger muscular development; were more intelligent; showed much better top lines from top iof croup to tail, and had much br>M-ov hindquarters. . • . Last year I witnessed a couple of days' racing at Saratoga, but the fields did not include any of America's, test. Those 1 saw did not, as a whole, compare favourably with English racehorses, cither in 'appearance .or 1, quality. They, may have been hardier, but they were more of the Australian typo, and it cannot be contended that our horses take the eye nearly as much as those seen oil English courses. While not Holding with the writer in all her comparisons, I quite agree with her that draught-hor^e bone is not essential in a racehorse;. On this point, the writer expressed herself as follows :

"Bad croups are the most conspicuous defects of otherwise well-made horses everywhere, here and abroad, but they are not as serious an , evil here (America). This is because too heavy bono and bad croups go together, for reasons which every horsoman appreciates. Low blood is the ultimate source of both faults. The British breeders have not tried to eradicate this condition ; on the contrary, they have sought wciglit of bone at all costs, and among their high caste hunter and stoeplechnsing stock they have actually introduced cart blood in "order to obtain it, so crazy are they over the idea of 'bone.' I know nothing about the origin of the desire for disproportionate bone, but judging by the prevalence of the product^ it must date back a long way. "However, it is not the horse of immense bone who performs great feats; it is the horse of proper symmetry. Balanced conformation is the goal ever beiore the wise breeder. When the weight of bone passes a certain ratio to the whole weight of the horse, weakness sets in, and the more the disproportion is increased the more the powers of the horse are sacrificed. That many such horses successfully accomplish all tasks required of them means only that they are not tested to the limit in comparison with well-built horses. Between the two faults of too light bone or Too heavy bone, the former is the lesser evil. Every once in a while ,we see some spindly screw of inadequate bone, but strong nervous and muscular forces, which manifests the best of pace and bottom. The reverse of this does not occur. Near-cart horses don't often do much. In a well-bred horse, power is the result of good co-ordination of structure."