CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER, AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.. 



Orloffs the only foreign trotters of merit Count Alexis Orloff, founder of the 

 breed Origin of the Orloff Count Orloff began breeding in 1770 Sme- 

 tanka, Polkan, and Polkan'sson, Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire 

 The Russian pacers Their great speed Imported Bellfounder His history 

 and characteristics Got little speed His descendants The English 

 Hackney Not a breed, but a mere type The old Norfolk trotters Hack- 

 ney experiments in America Superiority of the trotting-bred horse 

 demonstrated in show-ring contests. 



IT may be a little outside of the field of our discussion to in- 

 clude the Orloff Trotter, but as a few of them have been brought 

 to this country, and as that is the only organized and recognized 

 breed of trotters in all the world beside our own, it seems to be 

 necessary to give a brief synopsis of the origin and history of 

 that breed, so far as we may be able. An additional and proba- 

 bly a more cogent reason for making this foreign detour is the 

 fact that there are now many American trotters on the turf in 

 Europe, and practically their only competitors, whether on the; 

 turf or in the breeding studs, are the Orloffs of Russia. 



"Wallace's American Trotting Register," the first volume of 

 which was issued in 1871, was an individual enterprise. Two 

 years afterward the director-in-chief of the Russian Imperial 

 Studs submitted a series of questions to different scientific gentle- 

 men, whose studies were in the right direction, soliciting their views 

 on the practicability and advisability of establishing a govern- 

 mental standard by which the Orloff trotters should be classed and 

 officially registered. The report was favorable and the Russian 

 trotting register was established under governmental direction. 

 This was the second movement toward establishing a breed; not 

 merely by writing a lot of names in a book, but by writing those 

 names on the turf of two continents. A delegation from France 

 once visited me to consult about establishing a Register in that 

 country, and to learn how to commence such an enterprise. 

 When I asked them what strains of blood they had that could 



