“We can only draw conclusions from established facts in reference to these questions, for we do not think they can be answered otherwise, as the original ancestry of our best saddle families is more or less clouded in obscurity. It is an established fact, demonstrated by experience, that in order to get a saddle horse, the quickest and most successful way is to get in the pacing blood; it matters not how good or bad the other blood may be, a strong dash of pacing blood will almost invariably improve the animal for saddle purposes, and never, under any circumstances, does a pacing cross detract from an animal’s qualities for the saddle. Judging from these facts, we conclude that all our saddle families are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry. On the other hand, all our best saddle families have a strong infusion of thoroughbred running blood. This blood, however, is valuable only for the courage, bone, and finish it gives the animal, for it imparts none of the saddle gaits; and while we have secured the best results in breeding the saddle horse by mixing the running and pacing blood, we have observed that too much running blood in the stallion detracts from his success as a sire of saddle stock. As a rule, no trainer’s skill can make a good saddle horse out of a thoroughbred runner, whereas if you mix two or more strong pacing crosses on top of the running blood, a child can gait the produce to the saddle. We have sometimes seen good saddle horses that were thoroughbreds, but have never seen a perfect one. Our observation and experience lead us to the conclusion that the natural saddle gaits come from the pacers, but to the runner we are indebted for the size, style, bone and finish of our saddle stock.” In this reply, when the author says “all of our saddle families are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry,” and when he adds to this that “running blood imparts none of the saddle gaits,” he has answered both questions very fully and very satisfactorily. The argument that running blood gives bone and finish, and all that, is very well as a theory of breeding, but it has nothing to do with the questions propounded. As all families of saddle horses have pacing blood, and as there is no family without it, it may be taken as settled that the saddle gaits come from the pacer.