40 THE TROTTlNG-IlOnSE OF AMERICA. 



to be the best among a few than the best among many ; for 

 the reason that among the many the mark necessary to be 

 attained will generally be higher and more difficult. The 

 improvement in the time of our trotters is, then, to be laid 

 to the account of several causes ; which include improvement 

 in courses, vehicles, methods of training, style of driving, 

 and in the trotting-horse himself. 



The system of teaching, training, driving, and riding the 

 trotting-horse of this country has long been an art of itself, 

 quite different, as far as I have heard, from that pursued in 

 other countries. I look upon the English as a nation of 

 horsemen, and their success with hunters and racers has 

 been very great : but, ever since I can remember, we have 

 been as much superior to them in handling the fast trotter 

 as we are now. When Rattler was taken over there, twen- 

 ty-five years ago, the gentleman who had the horse took 

 good care to take William Whelan along to steer him ; and, 

 when the party got above themselves, and challenged the 

 world, it was not resolved to buy Dutchman, and carry him 

 across the water to clip their combs, until, after much press- 

 ing, I had agreed to go, too, to drive him. A difference of 

 only three hundred dollars in the price of Dutchman pre- 

 vented our voyage to England. The gentleman he was 

 English, but had lived some years in this country offered 

 twenty-seven hundred dollars, and a black mare I then had 

 in charge, for the horse. The Philadelphia party wanted 

 three thousand dollars and the black mare ; and so the deal 

 fell through. If it had been consummated, the challengers 

 in England, with Whelan and E-attler, would soon have 

 found Woodruff and the Dutchman in the little island, come 

 to take it up. So there we should have been, a real 

 American party, disputing across the Atlantic, in the 

 land of our ancestors, for pre-eminence in the sport our own 

 country had already exalted and dignified at home. The 

 handling of the English trotting-horses at that time was as 

 much inferior to the American system as their horses were 



