CLYDESDALE BREEDING AS AN ART.

Otago Witness, Issue 3488, 18 January 1921, Page 9

CLYDESDALE BREEDING AS AN ART.

The art of stock breeding has reached its greatest perfection in Scotland. No other race of people so clearly recognises the beauties and utilities of animal form and function, and no other distinguishes so intuitively the traits in an animal that are really inherent and those that are the product of an environment and the feeder’s art. It i 3 well known among breeders that animals may look alike and breed differently, but the Scotchman seems to be the master artisan who can distinguish the animal that can send on and on those values that make the well-selected pure-bred the tool of the constructive live stock breeder. Basic in the success of the Scot as a stockman lies his ability to secure an ideal which combines with the highest) utility a beauty of form and type that challenges the artistio nature of man as well as his technical sense. Among a score of breeder’s triumphs —the Ayrshires, doddie, Aberdeenshire Shorthorn, Galloway, Cheviot, Border Leicester, Blackfaced Highland, Scotch Collie, and Highland ox—justly stands the lordly Clvdesdale as the real climax of Caledonian ingenuity. In order to prove this supremacy in detail it is necessary to consider just what it is that constitutes a breeder’s ideal, a breeder a triumph. hirst, the animal must be as near perfect mechanically as it is possible to attain with reference to the function it is to perform. Second, it must have sufficient attractiveness in type and carriage to make it appeal to more interests of the breeder than his pocket-book. Third it must possess the ability almost infallibly to reproduce the good qualities for which it is noted. Most of tho Scotch l>r*xjs fuliii the first requirement, all of them fulfil the second, but only one of them, the Clydesdale. fulfils the third to a breed-wide degree. By this I do not mean that all Clydesdales are alike, but I do mean that there is less variability in balance throughout in the Clydesdale than in any other breed now in domestic service. . . It is in the second characteristic, however, that the Clydesdale particularly excels any other draught animal. It is, perhaps, difficult to make this question of beauty and its attendant interest something more than c arbitrary assertion among C'lydesd.,],, ,-s. because it is so thoroughly acii,.; among them as to require no proof. Yet other horsemen are not unanimous with them, and I think that such proofs as exist can well be cited. Have you ever considered bow few breeders of Clydesdales quit breeding their favourites so long as they are physically able to continue operations? With other breeds men quid if they lose a little money on their animals, and give up the production of drafters in disgust. Only financial ruin will separate a Clydesdale breeder from bis animals, and then if opportunity offers you find him back with them when conditions again become favourable. Unless the breed had an appeal more potent than the mere perfection of

function and efficient utility this loyalty Oould never result. It is because Clydesdales appeal to the finer sensibilities of the horseman that he finds it impossible to shake his interest in them. I am confident |fa*t there are fewer breeders of Clydoejsira who hare been discouraged by denrnesiT- markets, fluctuating demand, and power competition than can be found among

the supporters of any other draught kind. I am also confident that the percentage of “in-and-outers” in their ranks is less than that to be found among the supporters of other breeds. One of the most interesting facts that I learned while on the other side of the water was that men who had formerly been breeders of hot blooded horses, thoroughbreds, and hunters, in both Scotland and Irleand, were turning to the Clydesdale

because it alone of all the heavy breeds possessed the requisite charm of lineament and disposition to attract and hold their interest. In Ireland a few years ago the Irish hunter was recognised as one of the world’s peerless equine productions. To-day the change in attitude towards the perquisites of the owners of the big estates has turned these masters to the Clydesdale, since it is the breed that can satisfy thenexacting tastes. There must be some fundamental reason behind this growing attraction, and it is to Scotland that we must turn to find the answer. A few miles out of Ayr, on my way to Ochiltree, I saw an equivalent expression of intelligence. A pair of Clydesdale mares was hitched to a sulky plough, and a small gathering of the neighbourhood was apparently assembled to -watch this team turn a straight furrow without a driver. The teamster was at one end of the field and his son at the other, and each set the plough properly at the beginning of the furrow, and then left the mares to their own devices to proceed the length of the field, some 300 yards. I have never seen a straighter furrow turned in my life, and a few of the more enthusiastic of us gave the horses and teamster a bit of applause when the pair had finished one round of the field. When horses can do as intelligent a piece of work as this I consider them deserving _ of the heartiest support a breeder can give. But this is only one of the many sides of Scotland’s draught horse accomplishments. Nowhere have I seen so perfect a recognition of breeding type as in the selection of the animals to be mated. At Mr Kerr’s no stallion is kept, notwithstanding

the wonderful collection of mares he possessss, because he feels that there can be no stallion of a type so perfect as to give the best results with each of the mares that be owns. Hence he selects a stallion each season to be mated to each mare, and ships his mares to the proper farm. As a student of breeding J. recognise this system to be highly valuable in producing good individuals, show types, which Mr Kerr has been successful in doing; but it would seem that from the standpoint of the average breed it would be worth more to him to make some successful sire that he undoubtedly can produce responsible for the uniformity of his stock than to assume that responsibility himself. The method of such breeders as Mr Dunlop and Mr Kirkpatrick, whose places I also visited, are more likely to affect breeders as a whole. Each of these breeders L carrying on the Baron o’ Buchlyvie heritage, Mr Dunlop through the world-ltnown Dunure Footprint and Mr Kirkpatrick through the almost equally well-known Bonnie Buchlyvie. These are the two leading sires in Scotland as judged by the showyard performance of their progeny, the former excelling the latter to a slight degree by this standard. Both animals have a sufficiently wide demand among outside breeders to give equal opportunity to study their progeny from closely and more distantly related animals. I think it highly important to note that the standard of improvement and increased uniformity is carried forward by more of their progeny out of related than of unrelated animals. Then, most important of all, we find that the commingling of their bloods is giving even greater potency than any other combination, if type of young colts be any criterion. Certainly the Scot has come nearer to solving the question of pedigree matings in a satisfactory manner than the breeders of any other nationality. To me the real secret of their success lies in three things; first,

their unfaltering honesty, which makes it possible to accept their statements as to parentage of a colt, and build further matings on the bloodlines thus blended ; second, their masterly combining of these bloodlines ; and, third, a most rigid selection on the basis of individual merit in these animals of concentrated bloods by the acceptance of the showyard verdict as to the utility and perfection of their moulds. Such breeders as Mr Dunlop and Mr Kirkpatrick are able to achieve the broadest ft-sults from their studs through the leasing of the best sons of their pre-eminent sires, and their observance of the breeding performance of each in the hands of leasing associations. It is thus possible for them to bring back to their own studs their best colts from the breeding and type standpoints. after thev have bad an opportunity to prove themselves elsewhere. Thus Mr Kirkpatrick’s Cawdor Cup colt Craigie Litigant has proved himself sufficiently to make it advisable for him to give Litigant his opportunity at the Mains this season on Craigie mares. Not enough attention in the past has been devoted to the showing of good draught geldings. The ultimate test of the worth of a sire is his ability to beget geldings capable of winning in the showyard. No more exacting a standard can be found. In the mare and. less often, in the stallion, we can excuse little defects which it is possible for the other parent to overcome in transmission, but with the gelding winner the acid test of efficient and prolonged work ability applies, and no excuse ig acceptable. Unless a stallion can sire firstclass ge’dings he is not worthy of being placed at the head of any stud, large or small, and it Is to the advantage of every breeder to apply this test early in each stallion’s career. Fortunately the record of the shows demonstrates the utility of the Clydesdale to sire gelding winners, but it is up to each breeder to demonstrate that

he is doing as well by the breed as the breed does by him. That has been one secret of Clydesdale achievement. The breeders of the past have wrought for the breed rather, than forced the breed to win them fame and fortune regardless of consequences. Hence the breeders of to-day owe it to their horses to demonstrate by gelding production and exhibition that they are not letting the breed deteriorate, but are adding to its heritage.

After studying the horse-breeding of France, Belgium, and western Germany, I am convinced that the only great permanence in draught horse production will come from an animal like the Clydesdale, which is a breeder’s rather than a dealer’s product, and which is guaranteed to transmit the qualities of real draught power from one generation to the next. The measure of success in breeding, once typo is established, is its procreation, turning out progeny of the same mould as that in which the parents are cast; and in this the Clydesdale is pre-eminently successful. I have looked at colts from horses of the Continental breeds, and have been able to say intelligentlv that they had a share of draught blood, but from the same sires I have seen animals that ranged in type and size almost from cow ponies to ton draughters. The Clydesdale, on the other hand, sires first, foremost, and always a draughter; its mission is fixed. Where its blood is used one mav say unhestitatingly, not “It has some Clydesdale blood.” but “Its sire was a Clydesdale.” This is due in its entirety to the integrity, fidelity, artistry, and skill of the Scotch breeder. — An A.E.F. officer in the Breeder’s Gazette.