512 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Early Records of Trotting. As early as 1791 we 

 read of a brown mare, eighteen years old, that trotted on the 

 Essex road sixteen miles in fifty-eight minutes. In 1779 a 

 trial of speed and endurance was made between two geldings 

 on Sunbury Common, England. 



We are told that trotting matches at an early day were for 

 distance rather than speed. In 1796 a pair was driven tandem 

 sixteen miles in less than an hour. The celebrated English 

 trotter, Archer, carried two hundred and ten pounds, sixteen 

 miles in fifty -five minutes. About this time, Edward Astley's 

 phenomenon mare trotted seventeen miles in fifty-six minutes, 

 when twelve years old, and her owner offered to trot her nine- 

 teen and a half miles in an hour. About 1825 an American 

 horse, called Tom Thumb, trotted one hundred miles in ten 

 hours and seven minutes, in England, including thirty-seven 

 minutes for feed, or actual time, nine hours and thirty minutes. 



Whether because of the too heavy vehicles, or of the want 

 of skill among English jockeys in handling trotters, we can not 

 say, but the fact remains that England has not produced trotters 

 worthy of note. 



First Trot for Money in America. Porter's Spirit of 

 The Times, of December 20th, 1856, says: "The first time 

 ever a horse trotted in public for a stake was in 1818, and that 

 was a match against time, for one thousand dollars. The horse 

 was Boston Blue, which won by trotting his mile in three 

 minutes. He was purchased by the tragedian, Cooper, who 

 drove him between New York and Philadelphia, enabling him to 

 perform engagements in either city on alternate nights. The 

 horse was taken to England, and there trotted eight miles in 

 twenty-eight minutes and fifty-five seconds, winning a hundred 

 sovereigns. He was a rat-tailed gray gelding, sixteen hands 

 high ; of unknown pedigree. 



Trotting Clubs Organize. About 1820 the descendants 

 of Messenger began to attract attention about Philadelphia and 

 New York. In 1825 the New York Trotting Club was organ- 

 ized. In 1828 Hunting Park Association was established in 

 Philadelphia, " for the encouragement of the breed of fine 



