514 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



and in a slashing trot dashed off up the street, with two strong 

 grooms holding him back with might and main. 



Here is the vigor and stamina which impressed his descend- 

 ants, and made him the sire of some of the best running-horses 

 of his day, and the illustrious founder of a family of trotters 

 which the world has not equaled. His illustrious sons, to 

 which nearly all noted trotters trace, are Plato, Engineer, Com- 

 mander, Why-not, Mount Holly, Mambrino, and Hambletonian. 



The Light Vehicle a New Factor. The thorough- 

 breds of his get were trained to running, and not used as road 

 horses. In fact, at that day road-wagons had not been made. 

 Good roads were scarce and light vehicles scarcer, nearly all 

 travel being on horseback. Prof. W. H. Brewer in his paper 

 on the evolution of the trotting-horse, shows how important 

 a bearing the improvement and use of light vehicles had on 

 the developement of the trotter. 



Messenger blood is not the only element that gave an im- 

 petus to the development of speed among trotters about the 

 first of this century. Carriage builders of New Haven say that 

 light buggies with steel springs only became common about 1840 

 to 1843. Prof. Brewer aptly says : " The introduction of light, 

 one-horse wagons, with steel springs, is coincident with the for- 

 mation of the first organizations for the breeding, training, and 

 speeding of trotters, and such wagons only began to be common 

 just at the time when we had developed the first '2.30 trotters. 

 Fast trotters had to develop in a country where there was a pas- 

 sion and taste for the animal, and something to make a trotting 

 sulky of; and America is the native land of the hickory as of 

 the trotter. Without hickory to make wheels of, could we have 

 trotters with such low records as we now have? The develop- 

 ment of trotters and of vehicles has gone on together. We did 

 not need the fast trotter for driving until we had suitable 

 wagons." With the old, lumbering chariots of Rome, and the 

 clumsy carts of Old England, there was no place for the lively 

 roadster, and no means for track handling and training colts to 

 trot. The creation of light vehicles has helped to develop the 

 Americon trotter. 



