THE LIGHT-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 99 



Percheron, reduced in size by the more rigorous conditions 

 of climate. This seems to the writer the most untenable 

 of all the theories. Long observation of the more com- 

 mon types prevalent among the French-Canadian people, 

 and attendance at their winter ice-racing, where the 

 most of those with speed would congregate, substan- 

 tiate the writer's opinion. In all its characteristics the 

 French-Canadian comes nearer the Morgan in some traits 

 and nearer the Thoroughbred in others, than those of any 

 other breed or family. While like the Morgan in type 

 and style of going when trotting, yet it must be admitted 

 there are very few pacers among the Morgans. Also, not 

 many of the Thoroughbreds pace unless there is a strain 

 of pacing through the dam's side. The French-Canadian 

 families, especially those showing inclinations to pace, 

 although most of them were double-gaited, have in time 

 become submerged in the foundation of other families 

 which are now of most prominence. Among the Canadian 

 families of early origin, the most noted spring from Copper- 

 bottom, Pilot, Daniel Boone, Drennon, Davy Crockett, 

 Corbeau, St. Lawrence, St. Clair. Of those of more dis- 

 tinctly Thoroughbred origin, might be mentioned Smug- 

 gler, Clear Grit, Uwharie and Hiatogas, while perhaps the 

 two most noted of all, the Hals, springing from Tom Hal 

 in Tennessee and Blue Bull in Indiana, had their origin 

 so shrouded in misty legend that it is not even advisable 

 to speculate on it. From all that we know, it may be safe 

 to assume that the Thoroughbred horse has had as much 

 to do with the evolution of the pacer as any other up to 

 the time of the introduction of the standards, although 

 we have to admit that there seems to have been an original 

 stock on which the Thoroughbred, as a scion, was grafted 

 with more or less success. 



