80 Dynamic Evolution 



ever, that the mere fact that a horse is able 

 to trot a mile in 2 : 10 is not, of itself, evidence 

 that he has more energy than his parents or 

 grandparents. Still we may be certain that 

 2 : 10 trotters, as a class, are much superior, 

 in the possession of energy, to their grand- 

 parents. 



This will be evident from the fact that 

 prior to 1884 no horse in the world had suf- 

 ficient energy to carry him at the trot for a 

 mile in 2 : 10, and the grandparents of horses 

 born before 1898 lived in this earlier period. 

 If we carry the pedigrees back five genera- 

 tions, we span the larger part of the nine- 

 teenth century and come to a time when 

 there was no such thing as a 2 : 30 trotter. 

 Yet it is from these early animals that our 

 present trotters came, and in a majority of 

 cases we can trace the main lines of descent. 

 In this connection it should be remembered 

 that while trotting is a natural gait for horses, 

 high speed at the trot is an artificial gait 

 requiring an extreme amount of energy, and 

 one entirely developed within the last century. 



