THE NATIONAL HORSE OF AMERICA. 693 
sity in studying the subject of breeding horses in which value de- 
pends on speed at a certain gait. The walk, the trot or the pace, 
and the gallop are gaits common toall breeds. The pace, or amble, is 
a gait kindred to the trot and is a faster gaitthan the trot. The order 
of movement in the trot is left fore foot, right hind foot, right fore 
foot, left hind foot. Thus the left fore and right hind foot move in 
unison, striking the ground together; then in turn right fore foot 
and left hind foot complete the revolution, and therefore the trot is 
properly called the ‘‘diagonal gait.” The pacer, like the trotter, 
moves two feet in the same direction simultaneously, then alternates 
with the other two, but in place of the fore leg and the hind leg of 
opposite sides, he moves in unison the fore and hind leg of one side, 
then the fore and hind leg of the other side. Thus we call the pace 
“the lateral gait.” The difference of the gaits is not great; the 
mechanism is practically the same. The fact that the same animals 
pace and trot fast, that pacing parents beget trotting progeny, and 
vice versa; and that both gaits seem natural to the same animal 
demonstrates that they are but variations of one gait, occupying 
in the economy of action a place between the walk and the gallop. 
The more closely one studies the relation of these variations of gait 
the less surprising to him will appear the part pac blood has 
played in establishing a breed of trotters. The fast gallop, or run, 
is an entirely different gait; each leg acts, as it were, independently. 
To begin the revolution the horse makes his bound with the left 
fore foot the last to leave the ground; then for a moment he is en- 
tirely in the air, with his four feet rather bunched, and when he 
strikes ground again it is first with his right hind foot; then a mo- 
ment more and he is poised on the left fore foot, as at the beginning 
of the revolution. It will be seen that this gait is wholly and radi- 
cally different from the pace and trot; that the order of action and 
necessarily the mental organization governing the method of loco- 
motion and use of the limbs are different. Hence no one horse is, or 
can be, possessed of great speed at the gallop and also great speed at 
the trot or pace. To possess great speed of either one of these two 
orders he must inherit speed of that order. 
As we are indebted to England principally for the nucleus of our 
breed of trotters, it will be of interest to note very briefly such trans- 
atlantic horse history as has a bearing upon the subject. 
The, origin of the Orloff, though his blood has not a part in our 
American breed, is of interest, that being the fastest of foreign trotting 
breeds. In 1772 Count Alexis Orloff, a commander in the Russian 
feet, obtained from a Turkish pasha a large, white Arab or Barb 
horse called Smetanka. From a Danish mare Smetanka got Polkan, 
and from a Dutch mare Polkan got Barss, the founder of the Orloft 
trotters. It will be noted that Barss was two removes from the ori- 
ental horse and carried one-quarter of his blood. The fact has been 
commented upon that Andrew Jackson, the founder of our Clay 
family of trotters, was similarly bred; that is, he was two removes 
from the imported Barb, Grand Bashaw, and, like Barss, out of a 
mare of unnamed blood. Count Orloff, it appears, bred the Barss 
blood upon itself, and a writer, speaking with the apparent assurance 
of one who knows, tells us that ‘‘ the race became a distinct type in 
about thirty years, and since that period all attempts to improve the 
breed by fresh blood, whether Arab, English, French, or Dutch, have 
failed.” This can readily be believed, for in our own horse history 
we find its corroborationandanalogy. Count Orloff died in 1808, but 
