C32 THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



are more dissatisfied than before. Rude snatching and sawing of 

 the mouth by the bit make matters worse — but the man who 

 always makes his horse break up, always punishes the horse for 

 doing it ; and particularly is this true when some other horse is 

 out-looting his. He then imagines that his horse is not doing as 

 much as he could if he were disposed to ; the whip is brought 

 into passionate use, and the bit is cruelly made an instrument of 

 torture to counteract the effect of the whip. This kind of driving 

 teaches a young horse that trotting is to always end in a break, 

 and the break in a painful and alarming punishment. These 

 unskillful, ungentlemanly drivers find a remedy for the horse's too 

 much willingness in fatiguing him by a long drive at speed, after 

 which the poor creature may stick to his trot from sheer exhaus- 

 tion. A more skillful driver would get all the speed the horse was 

 capable of while he was fresh and strong, and without injury to his 

 health or disposition. A high-strung young horse may need to 

 have the wire-edge taken off sometimes before he will go steadily ; 

 and it should be done by a long jog-trot, with a few short brushes 

 of speed occasionally, which will work off his exuberance of spirits 

 without injury. 



No trotter attains his greatest speed before maturity; and the 

 best of them continue to improve up to fifteen and eighteen years 

 of age. To do this a horse must have a good constitution — one 

 that will carry him to a great age without disease, and will stand 

 the hard work necessary to develop his powers. Breeding from 

 such horses will therefore improve the stock of the country — not 

 only in speed, but also in stamina. 



IMany breeders have the notion that trotters may be produced 

 by breeding common farm and road mares to a thorough-bred stal- 

 lion ; and, in response to that belief, we find stallions of that class 

 all over the country, with tremendous pedigrees, curly or spavined 

 hocks, sprung knees, cocked ankles, broken wind, and blind eyes. 

 They are the "weeds" of racing stables that have gone amiss 

 from defective constitutions, could not stand training and racing, 

 or had not speed enough to win anything. Beside the certainty of 

 propagating their infirmities if they beget foals, these are not the 

 breed of stallions to beget trotters if they were sound. They and 

 their ancestors for a hundred and fifty years have been trained and 

 used to another way of going. There is not one of them that 

 could be trained to trot a mile in three minutes, and most of them 

 could never do it in five. And then it should be considered that 

 thorough-breds are not sufiiciently docile to be safe and useful 

 harness horses. They are broken to saddle when two years old, 

 are raced a few months in each year until they are four or five, 

 and the marcs are then turned into a breeding-stud, where they 



