THE ORLOFF TROTTER. 395 



ter of wonder or surprise that with two animals from the same 

 parents one of them should be a fast trotter and the ether 

 a fast pacer. Neither is it any longer remarkable that a fast 

 trotter with a very fast record should turn around and make just 

 as fast a record at the pace. The American people are just be- 

 ginning to realize, in its full force, the declaration of more than 

 twenty years ago; that the trot and the pace are simply two forms 

 of the same gait, in the economy of motion. The only differ- 

 ence that has been observed as between two brothers, the one a 

 pacer and the other a trotter, is that with the same skill in han- 

 dling the pacer will come to his speed much quicker than the 

 trotter, which is of itself a strong suggestion at least that the 

 pace is the more natural and easier form of the one gait. 



Xow, in view of the fact that Smetanka was of Saracenic origin 

 a strain of blood that has always been antagonistic to the pacer, 

 and never produced a pacer or a trotter; and in view of the fact 

 that his grandson, Barss, is accepted as the first of all Orloff 

 trotters; and in view of the further fact that in thousands of 

 American experiences the trotter has come from the pacer, it 

 seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the "Dutch Mare' 7 that 

 produced Barss had a strong pacing inheritance, and possibly 

 had her speed fully developed, as the Bitugue in the count's own 

 team. 



Among all the pleasures which Count Orloff derived from his 

 experiments in breeding, whether of gamecocks, or race horses, 

 or saddlers, or trotters, Barss was his greatest favorite because he 

 was his highest achievement in the art of breeding. This judg- 

 ment of his master has been confirmed in the experiences and 

 history of all succeeding generations for a hundred years, and the 

 name of Barss will be known through the coming centuries as 

 the founder of a mighty breed of trotters. I once possessed a 

 line picture of Barss hitched to a sleigh and driven by his 

 breeder, Count Orloff, himself; and I have seen it stated some- 

 where that this picture was a copy of a bronze statue erected to 

 the memory of the Count Orloff and the greatest horse of Russia. 

 It has been stated by some writers, but with what measure of 

 authority I do not know, that for about thirty years after the 

 appearance of Barss his daughters were bred to English thor- 

 oughbreds, to Arabs, to Anglo- Arabs, and, indeed, to all the 

 highly bred crosses that the great establishment was able to 

 furnish, and there was no improvement in either the quality or 



