RELATIONS OF THE AMERICAN PACER TO THE TROTTER. 185 



this gait and that of all other gaits in the action of the horse, we 

 must conclude that the pace and the trot are one and the same 

 gait. 



Another evidence of the unity of the two forms of the trot is 

 to be found in the great numbers of pacers that have been 

 changed over to trotters and the astonishing readiness with which 

 they took to the new form of action. To go back no further 

 than the records sustain us, we find that the converted pacer 

 Pelham was the first horse that ever trotted in 2:28. This was 

 in 1849, and four years later the converted pacer Highland 

 Maid trotted in 2:27. Twenty years later, Occident, another, 

 trotted in 2:16f. These were champions of their day, and when 

 we come a little nearer we find that Maud S. was a pacer and 

 :Sunol was a pacer, although neither of them ever paced in public, 

 .and the fact that they ever paced at all was held as a kind of 

 "home secret." Since the days of Pelham, literally thousands 

 of horses have been changed from pacers to trotters, and some 

 hundreds have been changed from trotters to pacers successfully. 

 Then there are quite a number, like Jay-Eye-See, 2:10 trotting 

 .and 2:06i pacing, that have made fast records at both gaits. 



At one time the pacing horse Blue Bull stood at the head of 

 ftll sires of trotters in this country, and it is not known or be- 

 lieved that he possessed a single drop of trotting blood. He was 

 a very fast pacer and could do nothing else, and a large percent- 

 age of the mares bred to him were pacers, and practically all the 

 others had more or less pacing blood, but his great roll of trot- 

 ters in the 2:30 list was the wonder of all horsemen of that 

 period. Certainly the average of the elements in his inheritance 

 would place him very low in theory, but in practice he struck 

 T^ack to some ancestor that was strongly prepotent. The trouble 

 in his case is practically the same as in all other pacing stallions 

 the inheritance traces back to a period more remote than any 

 of the fast trotting stallions, but at intervals it has been neglected 

 and not developed until it has become weak and uncertain from 

 lack of use. The same may be said of the Copperbottoms, 

 Corbeaus, Flaxtails, Hiatogas, Davy Crockets, Pilots, Rainbows, 

 Redbucks, St. Clairs, Tippoos, and Tom Hals, as well as other 

 heads of minor families that will be considered in their proper 

 places. 



The changes that have been wrought in the status of the pacer 

 have been truly wonderful. Instead of being hidden away as an 



