544 CONTINENTAL HORSES. 



trotters are of no distinctive type, and are divided into 

 heavy and light trotters. The majority of them indicate 

 the possession of vulgar relations, by their large and hairy 

 fetlocks, fiddle heads and goose rumps. As usual, the cart 

 strain comes out in the head, legs and setting-on of the 

 tail ; and the Eastern blood, in the body. Fig. 540, 

 shows an Orlov trotter of fair harness type, though not of 

 high class. With inherited trotting faculty, long legs, 

 and light and short body, many of them can trot at a 

 great pace, but they are poor stayers. They admirably 

 suit the requirements of fashionable Russians, who love 

 to go as fast as their coachman can drive them, even over 

 the roughest cobble stone pavement, which of course does 

 not suit the big fetlocks. They rarely stand more than 

 a couple of years of this kind of work, and then they 

 gradually descend towards the cab rank. As a rule 

 ordinary carriage horses of this blood stand over 15.3, 

 are black, and are probably allied to the funeral horses 

 which are imported into England (p. 515). 



Match trotting is greatly patronised by the Russian 

 public, who, in St. Petersburg, assemble on the stands 

 of the famous trotting ground of the Semenovsky Platz 

 in large crowds, every vSunday and on other occasions 

 throughout the winter, to witness the races that are run 

 there. Some of the match trotters are very fast from a 

 European point of view, and have got inside 2 minutes 

 20 seconds for a mile. Russian trotting men are bitterly 

 jealous of the American professionals who have settled 

 in their midst, and who make a good living out of the 

 game. For this, the Yankees deserve an immense amount 

 of credit, because Russians are staunch Tories and are 

 devoted supporters of protected interests. Almost all the 

 horses which compete in these races, have been bred in 

 Russia, and show more or less admixture of American 

 and English blood (Figs. 541 and 542). Foreign horses 

 are admitted to very few events, and then only under 

 severe restrictions. The old type of Orlov match trotter 



