THE NATIONAL HORSE OF AMERICA. 
By Lesiig E. MAcLEop, Associate Editor of Wallace's Monthly. 
In essaying to write of the national American horse, in order to 
the better establish an understanding between the reader and the 
writer it is essential to outline the ground to be covered, the phases 
of the subject to be touched upon, and the extent to which each can 
be considered. In attempting to deal, in the space of a few pages, 
with a subject that could only be adequately and comprehensively 
discussed in a large volume, we must first choose certain divisions of 
the subject to which our attention will be directed, for it is patent 
that we can not here discuss so large a topic in all its aspects. Then, 
when we have determined our divisions, we must again prescribe 
further limits of detail. With these remarks atthe outset, the reader 
will understand why [ shall not attempt to treat any single point 
with fullness or minuteness, but shall rather discuss each division 
of the subject in its leading features alone, and with that degree of 
generalization necessarily involved in considering a large subject in 
small compass. And I must explain, too, by way of preface, that I 
write for the general reader, not for the professional breeder, to 
whom probably all I shall say will prove familiar. 
The division that is the simplest will best suit the purpose. The 
subject will then be divided and considered something in this order: 
(1) Definition. (2) Origin and history. (3) Principles of breeding, 
characteristics, value, and uses of the distinctively American horse. 
The thoroughbred race-horse may with propriety be called the na- 
tional horse of Great Britain. There he has reached his highest de- 
velopment, and if the race-horses of other countries have excelled it 
has been through liberal draughts of English blood. In like manner, 
but in greater degree, the trotting horse isthe national horse of Amer- 
ica. He is distinctively and peculiarly an American production. 
The evolution of the trotting breed has been but an incident in the 
development of the Republic. In no other land has the trotter been 
generally bred; in no other land has he been brought to high devel- 
opment as a breed; nor in any other land has he been accepted and 
utilized as specially and superiorly adapted to the every-day uses of 
the people. It is true that Russia has her Orloff trotters, that writ- 
ers speak of ‘‘ Norfolk trotters” in England a century ago, and that 
in France, Austria, and Australia native horses race at the trotting 
gait. Though vastly superior to any trotter of foreign origin—or 
perhaps it-would be more correct to call him the only trotter of for- 
eign origin—the Orloff does not hold the place in the affairs of the 
Russian people held by the American trotting-bred horse in the 
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