THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 503 



are more dissatisfied than before. Rude snatching and sawing of 

 the mouth by the bit make matters worse but the man who 

 always makes his horse break up, always punishes the horse for 

 doing it ; and particularly is this true when some other horse is 

 out-footing his. He then imagines that his horse is not doing as 

 much as he could, if he were disposed to ; the whip is brought 

 into passionate use, and the bit is cruelly made an instrument of 

 torture to counteract the effect of the whip. This kind of driving 

 teaches a young horse that trotting is to always end in a break, 

 and the break in a painful and alarming punishment. These 

 unskilful, ungentlemanly drivers find a remedy for the horse's too 

 much willingness in fatiguing him by a long drive at speed, after 

 which the poor creature may stick to his trot from sheer exhaus- 

 tion. A more skilful driver would get all the speed the horse was 

 capable of while he was fresh and strong, and without injury to 

 his health or disposition. A high-strung young horse may need 

 to have the wire-edge taken off sometimes before he will go 

 steadily; and it should be done by a long jog-trot, with a few 

 short brushes of speed occasionally, which will work off his exu- 

 berance of spirits without injury. 



No trotter attains his greatest speed before maturity ; and the 

 best of them continue to improve up to fifteen and eighteen years 

 of age. To do this a horse must have a good constitution ; one 

 that will carry him to a great age without disease, and will stand 

 the hard work necessary to develop his powers. Breeding from 

 such horses will therefore improve the stock of the country not 

 only in speed, but also in stamina. The cultivation of thorough- 

 breds, for running races, has been of immense benefit to the road 

 stock of the country, by improving its speed and stamina, and by 

 giving it better form and style. The American trotter gets more 

 of his peculiar excellence from the thorough-breds, than from all 

 other sources. But a thorough-bred of acknowledged excellence 

 as the sire of racers, might be utterly worthless to improve the 

 road stock. Lexington, the sire of more winners than any other 

 horse now in this country, is blind; his sire, Boston, was blind; 

 and many of the Lexington colts go blind at an early age. 1 n 

 1868 two of his get were foaled blind. Yet the best thorough- 

 bred mares are bred to him, because the progeny will probably 

 keep good sight until five years old, before which age nearly all 

 the racing is done. If he were a' trotting stallion breeders would 

 not use him, because his colts would go blind before they had 

 attained their greatest usefulness. 



We may, therefore, reasonably expect the breeding of trotting 

 horses to improve the road stock of the country, even far more 

 than was done by the thorough-breds. A thorough-bred that fails 

 as a racer, may be only a middling kind of a horse for any other 



