BREEDS OF HORSES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. 131 



trotting families, so much the better. In fact, in the United States, as 

 has for many years been the rule in England, the road horses of the bet- 

 ter class, a:re strongly imbued with thorough blood. Such were the 

 Morgans, and such are the Gold Dusts, while many gentlemen's driving 

 horses now-a-days are closely bred to the blood of Hambletonian, Bell- 

 founder, Abdallah and other famous getters of horses for the trotting 

 course. In another part of this work will be found portraits of the 

 American type of trotting horses, among them Goldsmith's Maid, and 

 the highly-bred roadsters. The road horse should not only be a horse of 

 good substance in l)one and muscle, but he should also be an animal of 

 fine style, a quality which is not always found in the trotting horse of the 

 race course. If he can go fast and safely ^^^th high action, it is better ; 

 but style he should have, and his temper must be without fault. His 

 head must be light and held well up, the limbs strong and clean, the 

 shoulders and pasterns oblique, and having that springy, nervous action 

 characteristic only of high breeding. 



VIII. Trotting Horses. 

 "The trotting horse" of the turf has appropriated the name because he 

 is par excellence the fleetest and most highly- valued of trotters. The 

 road horse, though having the samG gait, falls short of l)eing a "trotting 

 iiorse," only in that he cannot make speed with the wheel-and-harness 

 kings of the turf. If a trotter have great speed the lack of style in him 

 is overlooked. If he is stylish and fast enough for line driving he will 

 bring a good price as a roadster, even though he do not possess great 

 speed. A trotter which lacks both style and speed degenerates into a 

 mere hack. 



IX. Hunting Horses. 



Another valuable class of horses, especially in the South, are what 

 would be denominated in England, light hunting horses. The light hunt- 

 ing horse must be well-bred, able to gallop at speed, and to leap ordinary 

 obstacles, as hedges, ditches and fences ; in this country he should be 

 taught to swim easily and take to the water promptly, especially when 

 deer is the game hunted. Thoroughbreds, that are not fast enough for 

 the turf, make capital hunting horses, for foxes, and, in open, smooth 

 country, for deer and prairie wolves ; but they are not capable of carry- 

 ing heavy weights in a rough country, or over serious obstacles, and 

 under such conditions necessarily soon come to grief. No matter what may 

 be the blood of a horse, if he do not take kindly to the water and to 

 leaping, he would be dangerous in the extreme to ride to hounds, or at 

 least would soon fall behind the chase, which is but little less mortifying 

 to the true huntsman than to he landed in a ditch. The hunter of to-dav 



