142 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



fifty-five minutes, and fifty-three seconds. Several 

 other horses have done this distance in less than ten 

 hours. Fifty miles were trotted at Providence, Rhode 

 Island, in 1835, by a horse called Black Joker, in 

 three hours and fifty-seven minutes. Several horses 

 have trotted twenty miles within an hour, the first to 

 do it being Trustee, a half-bred horse. One of the 

 few defeats that Flora Temple ever suffered was in a 

 match to trot twenty miles within an hour, harnessed 

 to a skeleton wagon; "that kind of going on in a 

 treadmill sort of way/' as Hiram Woodruff remarks, 

 " not being her strong point."' 



An American trotting horse, called Tom Thumb, 

 said to resemble a Canadian pony, and owned by Mr. 

 Osbaldestone, in England, covered one hundred miles 

 in ten hours and seven minutes, the vehicle weighing 

 nearly or quite one hnndred pounds. An English- 

 bred mare was afterward matched to accomplish the 

 same task. " She was," according to Youatt, " one of 

 those animals rare to be met with, that could do al- 

 most anything as a hack, a hunter, or in harness. On 

 one occasion, after having, in following the hounds 

 and travelling to and from cover, gone through at 

 least sixty miles of country, she fairly ran away with 

 her rider over several ploughed fields. She accom- 

 plished the match in ten hours and fourteen minutes. 

 . . . She was a little tired, and. being turned into a 

 loose box, lost no time in taking her rest. On the 

 following day she was as full of life and spirit as 

 ever. This is a match," Mr. Youatt continues, "which 

 it is pleasant to record : for the owner had given 

 positive orders to the driver to stop at once on her 

 showing decided symptoms of distress, as he valued 



