36 THE AMERICAN HORSE. 



of the Norman and pure English blood, while the ordinary 

 road-horse of the United States is perhaps a combination of 

 several distinct English families, with French, Spanish, and 

 Flemish crovsses, besides an infusion of thorough-blood. 



Of trotters, there is certainly no distinctive breed or family, 

 or mode of breeding. The power, the style, the action, the 

 mode of going, are the points regarded ; and it is most prO' 

 bable, that the speed and the endurance, both of weight and 

 distance, depend, more or less, on the greater or inferior 

 degree of blood in the animal. 



Indeed, the wonderful superiority of the American roadster 

 is attributable to the great popularity of trotting in this 

 country, to the great excellence of the trotting-trainers, drivers, 

 and riders, arising from that popularity, and to the employ- 

 ment of all the very best half and three-quarter-part bred 

 horses in the land for trotting purposes, none being turned 

 from that use for the hunting-field or park-riding. 



The general American horse, as compared with the English 

 horse, is inferior in height of the forehand, in the loftiness and 

 thinness of the withers, and in the setting-on and carriage of 

 the neck and crest; while he is superior in the general develop- 

 ment of his quarters, in the let-down of his hams, and in his 

 height behind ; and further remarkable for his formation, ap- 

 proaching what is often seen in the Irish horse, and known as 

 the goose-rump. Even the American racer stands very much 

 higher behind and lower before than his English fellow. 



Another point in which the American horse of all conditions 

 differs extremely and most advantageously from the European 

 animal, is his greater sure-footedness and freedom from the 

 dangerous vice of stumbling. Any one can satisfactorily con- 



