THE HORSE. 



THE AMERICAN TROTTER. 



Having, as ii .s believed, described and accounted for the successive modifications 

 and general improvement of the English horse, from many of the best of which ours 

 have been bred and for the excellence especially of their high-bred courser and 

 hunter; and having adverted incidentally to the high national importance to be 

 attached to maintaining the horse in all his capabilities, as giving elasticity and 

 vigour to one great arm of national defence cavalry the use of which has sometimes 

 decided the issue of battles and the fate of empires, we pass now to contemplate 

 this interesting animal in a form in which Nimrod (Mr. Apperly) himself, one of the 

 most voluminous and authentic writers on these subjects, and one not prone to make 

 admissions of English inferiority in anything, does admit that we excel, to wit, in 

 our TROTTING HORSES. 



Instances which will hereafter be given of the performance of American trotters, 

 such as have been trained to that pace and timed with exactness, in trials instituted 

 for that purpose by numerous trotting clubs, will leave no doubt of our having well 

 established our claim for the excellence conceded to us in that class of horses and 

 as speed in that gait, combined with lastirigness, is a desideratum in public stages, 

 and for all kinds of light harness and quick travelling, it becomes an interesting 

 inquii y, and is deemed to be well worthy of the space here assigned it whence ha 

 resulted the superiority illustrated by these examples ? Is it that we possess a particula 1 

 strain of horses not to be found in other countries, not thorough-bred, but yet of 3 

 specific breed, which has been found or made in America, and which may be kepf 

 separate and distinct from all others, the root whereof is not necessarily to be looked 

 for, like that of our thorough-bred stock, in the English Stud-Book, or in the blood of 

 some Eastern ancestor a breed to which, in a word, recourse may be had as a stock 

 of horses sui generis, and one that may be relied upon to supply fast goers in thin 

 pace 1 ? Or is it that we owe the number that can go their mile under 2-30, to 

 the higher estimate which is placed on excellence in that way, in this country ; and 

 to the greater pains taken and skill exercised in educating and training horses to gc 

 ahead in the trot ] We confess that reflection and all the lights we possess, lead us 

 to the adoption of this latter theory. 



There are various reasons why this property in the horse should be more attended 

 to in this, than perhaps any other country. May it not be referred in some measure, 

 to our political institutions, as we have already seen, in the review which has been 

 taken of the progressive improvement of horses in England, how their qualities have, 

 from time to time, been influenced and modified by their field-sports, the state of theii 

 roads, the form of their coaches, and changes in their warlike and agricultural habits 

 and implements. Under the effect of our political institutions, which create fre- 

 quent division of estates, it is next to impossible that there should exist in America 

 a class of men with sufficient and extended wealth, either hereditary or acquired, 

 to maintain the costly and magnificent arrangements for the sports of the turf and the 

 chase such as have for centuries existed in England. Yet men must have amuse- 

 ments, and those which are found a-field are at once the most attractive and salutary. 

 If one may be allowed to quote himself, we may repeat from the introduction to the 

 Sporting Magazine, the ideas there expressed that " the knowledge of mankind sc 

 essential in every practical pursuit, nay the yet more essential knowledge of ourselves, 

 s not to be found alone in solitary labour, nor in solitary meditation ; neither is it in a 

 state of isolation from society that the heart most quickly learns to answer to the calls 

 of benevolence ; sympathy springs from habits of association, and a sense of mu- 

 tual dependence on each other ; and the true estimate of character, and friendly and 

 generous dispositions, are under no circumstances more certainly acquired, nor more 

 assuredly improved and quickened, than by often meeting each 'other in the friendly 

 c intentions and rivalries that characterize field-sports." 



Recurring to the influence of political institutions and national amusements, it may 

 foe very safely affirmed, that while there can exist in this country no permanent class 

 if men possessing the wealth which affords the time, and cherishes the taste for tlw 

 5 o 



