THE LIGHT-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 95 



instances, in roadsters noted for their ability to cover long 

 distances at the trot, and to continue it day after day. 

 The Morgan horse, however, was soon recognized as the 

 strain possessing the highest type of roadster characteris- 

 tics, chiefly because of its indomitable perseverance and 

 endurance, its willingness, and the style and buoyance 

 with which it stood the strain of continuous road riding. 

 The roadster, in addition to having style, action and dur- 

 able individuality, must be in type in harmony with the 

 light harness and light, easy-running road rigs now popu- 

 lar. A heavy, slow, but maybe stylish-moving horse is 

 as much out of place before a road rig as a slim racer-like 

 horse would be in heavy harness. While there are many 

 speedy trotters that are far from pleasurable road horses, 

 because the ability to go fast for a short distance is not 

 the chief requirement of a road horse, yet the result of 

 the continuous racing which the trotter has undergone, 

 undoubtedly has given it the durability and the "do or 

 die " spirit that is a valuable attribute of the roadster. At 

 this day some speed is required of the roadster. 



104. Use as heavy-harness horse. Of more recent 

 years, attention has been drawn to the fact that some 

 families of the American Standardbred horse have shown 

 marked excellence for heavy-harness use. During the 

 time when the horse-shows were perhaps most popular, 

 about 1890, the breeding of the trotting horse was under 

 a depression. For that reason, many stallions, well bred 

 in trotting lines but of heavy-harness conformation and 

 action, were purchased at gelding prices and shown in 

 heavy harness classes at the leading horse-shows. Un- 

 doubtedly they may properly be called freaks, for they 

 were not bred for this purpose, but that does not dispose 

 of the worth of the acquisition. The trotting-bred heavy- 



