THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 275 



prising man, known East and West. In the spring, Jack 

 had met and defeated Know-Nothing, who was now called 

 Lancet, in a race at Boston, under saddle. There were four 

 heats in it, and two of them were trotted in 2.27^. 



The match between Flora Temple and Jack was mile 

 heats, three in five, for $1,000 ; he under saddle, and she in 

 harness. When a horse is clever under the saddle, it is a 

 better and faster way of going than in harness ; yet there 

 are many horses as fast in harness as they are under the 

 saddle, and some a good deal faster. There are, however, 

 but few that would not have been faster under saddle than 

 in harness, provided they had had a good share of saddle- 

 work during that period of breaking and formation which 

 is necessarily extended in the trotting-horse. We very 

 often, now-a-days, see horses trot fast in harness and to 

 wagon, that never have a saddle on their backs, and that are 

 never ridden, except at walking-exercise or to the black- 

 smith-shop. The presumption is, that these horses would 

 have been faster under saddle than they are in harness, if 

 they had been accustomed to trot under the saddle. At the 

 same time, there are horses whose make and character is 

 such that saddle-work does not suit them. They have, com- 

 monly, weak backs and bad shoulders ; arid the weight on 

 their backs tires them behind, and runs them into the 

 ground forward. 



There may, however, be a perfectly-shaped horse so far as 

 the eye can perceive, and yet he will not trot as well under 

 the saddle as in harness. A great want of steadiness is 

 sometimes found in horses under the saddle, whose speed in 

 that way of going is very great ; and the reason is, I 

 believe, that the horse is not ridden sufficiently to become 

 thoroughly at home in that way of going. Of late years 

 the great, almost the only, object of desire, in regard to a 

 trotter, has been that he should be fast in harness. The 

 saddle has been neglected, but it is now coming into its use 

 again. Dan Mace, John Murphy, and Budd Doble have 



