80 THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 



His improvement was as rapid as that of Pelham and Pilot, 

 perhaps more so ; for in 1840 he trotted his first race at 

 Centreville, and did two miles in five minutes and fifteen 

 seconds. 



Tip was another fast pacer that saw the error of his way 

 of going, and took to trotting. He helonged to Rochester, 

 and was afterwards sold to a gentleman in Jersey. As a 

 pacer he was very fast. After he had hegun to trot, Spicer 

 got him, and he trotted in puhlic low down in the thirties. 

 As a general rule, those horses that have been pacers have 

 been very steady, and, when trotting fast, have seemed 

 afraid to break. But some of them have caused a good 

 deal of disappointment and some profanity by taking to 

 pacing again all of a sudden, in the middle of a race, or 

 even in the middle of a heat. There was a roan horse 

 called Dart, that had been a pacer, but had struck a trot, 

 and he was in my charge. He could go like a bullet ; for I 

 have driven him a quarter of a mile to a wagon in thirty- 

 four seconds, with my watch in my hand. Finally he was 

 matched, and we thought we had a good thing of it ; and so 

 we should if the brute hadn't kicked over the milk-pail. 

 He won the first heat easily ; but in the next, when quite 

 within himself, he suddenly struck a pace, just as if he was 

 determined to show the company that he could go both 

 ways. All my efforts to get him down to a trot were fruit- 

 less. Dart wouldn't trot ; and so, when we came to the gate, 

 I just made him dart out of the course, without going near 

 the judges. Still, I should not be afraid of this in a pacer 

 that had taken up a trot and gone- that gait a reasonable 

 time with steadiness. A trotting-horse is so much more 

 valuable than a pacer, that, if I had one of the latter that 

 could go in 2.20, I should watch carefully for the chance to 

 make a trotter out of him. 



Any pacing-horse can be made to trot by putting rails 

 down, and making him move over them. His fore-feet will 

 get over clean ; but he cannot shuffle his hind-feet ov *r at a 



