CHAPTER VIII. 

 ABOUT TROTTING HORSES. 



1 THE BREEDING OF TROTTERS. II. PROGENITORS OF F.\ST TROTTERS- 

 MESSENGER III. IMPORTED BELLFOUNDER. IV. THE MODERN TROTTER. 



V. WH.\T GOLDSMITH MAID WAS LIKE. VI. THE MOVEMENT IN 



TROTTING. VII, DISTJSE OF THE TROTTING FACULTY. VIII. HIGHLY BRED 



HORSES. IX. STRAINS OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



I. The Breeding of Trotters. 



The production of trotting horses, like that of racers, has come to be 

 a distinct branch of breeding, and is pursued as a specialty, with a 

 view to developing, in the highest possible form, the best trotting action 

 in the horse. Hence , any person undertaking this branch of the breeder's 

 profession needs to understand the peculiar form to be attained, and also 

 to know the families from which the best trotters have been bred. 



The Morgans. — Twenty years ago the trotting form was thought by 

 many to l)e most strongly developed in the Morgans ; at least it was 

 hoped that this breed might be found to possess the qualifications nec- 

 essary to develop the highest degree of trotting speed. The Morgans, 

 however, disappointed the expectations placed upon them. The records 

 of the turf have proved that fast trotters owe their speed to thorough 

 breeding ; and that their speed is directly in proportion to the degree of 

 blood of thoroughbreds of trotting peculiarities that is in their veins, 



Ethan Allen. — Ethan Allen, one of the most celebrated of ths Mor- 

 gans, was a good trotter for his day, and yet he was never able to beat 

 Flora Temple. At three years old he trotted a mile, three heats, in 

 2 : 42 ; 2 : 39 and 2 :30 minutes, which was the fastest time then record- 

 ed for that age . The false estimate placed upon Morgan horses up to 

 twenty years ago, not only kept back the development of really excellent 

 trotters, but was a positive and incalculable damage to the horses of the 

 country generally, in that it caused the size of the farm ani- 

 mals to be reduced. For the farmers especially went zealously into the 

 rage for possessing Morgan horses. 



Development of the Trotting Horse. — The trotting horse of America 

 has been entirely developed within the last forty years. He is not an 

 animal of a separate and distinct breed ; for first-rate trotters have come 

 of Canadian or Nonnan-French blood, from the horses of the middle 

 States of mixed blood, from the Morgans and other New England 

 breeds, and from Western horses of mixed blood. 



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