THE TROTTING-nORSE OF AMERICA. 279 



I was doing. I could have pulled her back, as a matter of 

 course, unless the bit or the reins had given way ; but it 

 was my judgment then, and is now, that, if I had done so, 

 it would have been at great risk of tangling her all up, and 

 perhaps causing her to- hit herself. The mare was so full 

 of resolution, and pulling so hard, that the only safe plan 

 was to let her go, in a fair degree. I did so ; and the conse- 

 quence was, that she trotted the heat in 2m. 24^s., and Tac- 

 ony was outside the distance-flag by a long way. 



I have not entered into this explanation, years after the 

 matter occurred, and when it has been by the public almost 

 if not entirely forgotten, with a view to defend myself, but 

 for another purpose, or rather two purposes. One of them is, 

 to show that Flora Temple could then, upon that second day 

 of September, 1856, have trotted a mile as fast as she ever 

 afterwards trotted one on that course, which was 2m. 21s. 

 I am quite confident that I could have driven her that day 

 in that time. If I had made up my mind to drive her so 

 as to expose all she knew, it is hardly credible that I should 

 have held her back to the rate of 2m. 28s. to the mile for 

 the first quarter, and 2rn. 26s. to the mile for the first half. 

 The truth is, that the mare was always under a good, strong 

 pull from first to last ; and there never was a rood, even in 

 the last half-mile in 1m. 11 ^s., when she was at her best. 

 She was, as a matter of course, as near her best as she could 

 get with the strain I had upon her. But her mouth was 

 wide-open all the way ; and, if her ears were at any time laid 

 flat back, it was because she was pulling with all her power, 

 and not because she was trotting with all the speed of which 

 she was capable. 



As I have before intimated, I fully believe that I could 

 have driven her that day in 2m. 21s. ; and I think it probable 

 that she might even have got home in 2m. 20s. The other 

 purpose of this explanation was, a caution to young drivers 

 against pulling trotters out of their stride when they are 

 trotting very fast, and going up to the bit with uncommon 



