Deterioration of Light Hordes.

Southland Times, Issue 15056, 27 September 1901, Page 4

Deterioration of Light Hordes.

Mr F. Tuppy, an Indian Horse-buyer, writea to :he Wellington Post :— ln reading the report of the Inspectors, etc., of the Agricultural Department 1 was struck with the uniformity of the opinion re the daterio« ration of the light horses in New Zealand, in which I hearifiy concur. la&pector Ciifton, in hia repcrr, point i oat the fact that active harness horses are almost extinct. The reason of that, to my mind, ia simply stinting J well-bred mares to draught horses to get coaohers and harness borseg, which is a fallacy. It should be by all roles of breeding a thoroughbred horse to a heavy m«re ; then you get that activity and cleao-oteppir g of the trap horss without the rolling of the draught horse. Being in the Waiia apa district on the look out tor some harness hors< s for an outside market, I was struck with the arock that, I was told was by a Traducer horse oalled Maire, which was stated to have left the district, and whose services were now unobtainable, but -when the hoiee was standing in the dhtrict were not appreciated. But if they oould only get some ' more slock like those that he had It ft; they would be satisfied to send their mares a long instance to buoh a horse. Since ooming to Wellington I have been shown some more by this horse at Johnsonville and elsewhere, and I must Bay that after tiavelling New Zealand north and and south I have not seen any ho mess horses to equal those left by this sire, whom 1 have never eeeo, but I believo i» turned oat in one of the valleye aboat the Hatt. In Australia it has been the experience of Btveral districts— the Hawkeebury and Ooulbarn, for instancenot, to appreciate Matador nntil too late. Now his stock cannot be purchased, I ahonld have thought that any breeder of a horse would not have passed the Traducer blood for trap and narnesß horses, knowing what good feet and legs they generally lift ; but the !ate Mr Michie said before I left for Australia last year, in speaking about the Australian and New Zealand harness hois j s, i hat he oould take me on the wharf in Wellington and show me horses working in coal carts, etc., and horses workiug in grocerY carta, all by the one eire — Black Mai re ; and yet he said that he would bet me a new hat that the same lire would not serve a dozen mare»that eeoson, for the simple reason that the farmers did not know enough about their requirements in the horsa line to appreciate anything that was not liked in the district. Should a trotting horse, said Mr Michie, go into a district in a *eason be would oust S. Leger or Carbine ; and as to brepdiog harms 9 horses, to look at what they sat behind would tell any judge of ahorse that they bad not anything to forget, as they had earnt nothing, and I entirely soncur with him.