CHAPTER XXXI. 



HOW THE TROTTING HOESE IS BRED. 



Early trotting and pacing races Strains of blood in the first known trotters 

 The lesson of Maud S. The genesis of trotting-horse literature The 

 simple study of inheritance The different forms of heredity The famous 

 quagga story not sustained Illustrations in dogs Heredity of acquired 

 characters and instincts Development of successive generations necessary 

 Unequaled collections of statistics Acquired injuries and unsoundnes* 

 transmitted. 



As preparatory to taking up the consideration of the breeding 

 problem, it may be well to look back a little and see what had 

 transpired in the trotting-horse world, leading up to the serious 

 consideration of how he was bred. It has been generally ac- 

 cepted as true that there were no trotting contests in this coun- 

 try till about the second decade of the present century, but this 

 impression has grown out of the fact that the newspapers, down 

 to that period, failed to report such contests. It is historically 

 true that pacing races were a common amusement among the 

 people of different portions of the colonies nearly two hundred 

 years ago. This is established by the legislative action of some 

 of the colonies, in the first half of the last century, in suppress- 

 ing all "pacing and trotting races." It is well to note, in pass- 

 ing, that pacers and trotters of that early period were commin- 

 gled, just as they are to-day, with the former the more prominent, 

 and the more highly prized. Of that hundred years of silence 

 we have no details and but few historical references that were 

 contemporaneous with the events. Hence we are practically de- 

 pendent upon the legislative action of the colonies to establish 

 the truth beyond question. 



When we reach the period when the newspapers began to re- 

 port some of the more conspicuous and important trotting events 

 about Philadelphia and New York, we find a condition of things 

 for which we are hardly prepared. The pacer has lost his prom- 

 inence and is but little in evidence, and all the best trotters seem 



