RELATIONS OF THE AMERICAN PACER TO THE TROTTER. 183 



rapidly on the croup, and his carriage was low, with nothing of 

 elegance or style in his appearance. His mane and tail were 

 heavy, his hind legs were crooked, his limbs and feet were of the 

 very best, but aside from his great speed and the smoothness of 

 his movements under the saddle, there was nothing very desira- 

 ble or attractive about him. In a contest with a type of the har- 

 ness horse, at least one hand higher, of high carriage and elegant 

 appearance, there could only be one result, and that soon decided. 



As in England, so in this country, the blood of the running 

 horse soon worked the extermination of the pacer; not because it 

 was stronger in reproducing itself, perhaps, but because it had 

 the skill and fancy of the breeder enlisted in selecting and mat- 

 ing so as to make the expunging process complete. Only a few 

 years ago a pacing horse could hardly be found in any of the 

 older settled portions of the country, especially where running 

 blood had become fashionable. He was literally banished to the 

 frontiers of Canada, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 

 and especially in the latter two States, where his blood is still 

 appreciated and preserved for the luxurious saddle gaits which 

 it alone transmits. In many individual cases he has shown won- 

 derful power in meeting and overcoming antagonistic elements, 

 but with the tide of running blood all against him, it was only a 

 question of time as to how soon he would be totally submerged. 



It is only a quarter of a century ago that the first volume of 

 ''Wallace's American Trotting Register" was published, and then 

 began the great task of bringing order out of chaos. In a his- 

 torical introduction to that work, I inserted the following: 



" So many pacing horses have got fast trotters, so many pacing mares have 

 produced fast trotters, and so many pacers have themselves become fast trotters, 

 and little or nothing known of their breeding, that I confess to a degree of 

 embarrassment, from which no philosophy relieves me. If the facts were 

 limited to a few individual cases we could ignore the phenomena altogether, 

 but, while they are by no means universal, they are too common and apparent 

 to be thus easily disposed of. I am not aware that any writer has ever brought 

 this question to the attention of the public; much less, attempted its discussion 

 and explanation. Indeed, it is possible that the observations of others may not 

 sustain me in the prominence given these phenomena, but all will concede 

 there are some cases coming under this head that are unexplained, and per- 

 haps unexplainable. It is probable trotters from this pacing origin, and that 

 appear to trot, only because their progenitors paced, will not prove reliable 

 producers of trotters. Sucli an animal being in a great degree phenomenal, 

 should not be too highly prized in the stud, till he has proved himself a trot- 

 ting sire as well as a trotter." 



