56 niiLOSoPHr of trotting. 



habit, both of mind and body; and this habit of mind and liody leads 

 to growth of each by exercise; and the growth of habit in mind and 

 body leads also to the growth and further development of the form 

 that is most adapted to the Avay of going thus chosen and practiced. 

 The above principle should be kept clearly in mind, as we shall have 

 occasion to recur to it frequently, and from it the connection between 

 form and instinct in the trotter becomes apparent. In this manner 

 qualities both of mind and form have originated and been developed. 

 A restless and nervous breed of cattle are difficult to fatten. The 

 best way to fatten such a breed is to confine and quiet them. The 

 best way to quiet them is to make them fat; and as you proceed in 

 breeding, quieting and fattening, from age to age and generation to 

 generation, you reduce the lean native Texan to the gentle and beefy 

 Short-horn — the fattest of all cattle, and the most quiet and docile of 

 all animals. His quiet temper leads him to fatten readily, and his 

 tendency to become gross and beefy increases the serenity of his 

 disposition. Thus it is that two distinct elements reciprocally lead to 

 the growth and development of each other. 



The horse, like all other domestic animals, has acquired many 

 instincts and qualities that originated in the wants and conveniences of 

 man, his owner, and whose purposes he has for so many ages most 

 faithfully subserved. The race-horse, the pacer, the trotter and the 

 draft horse have each acqviired his distinctive qualities and characters 

 res})ectively from the local and predominating demands of his master. 

 His mental traits may be thus said to have been borrowed in each 

 case from man. The race-horse originated in the taste or demand of 

 the rider for speed under the saddle; and the pacer, likewise, from the 

 preference of the rider for that as a saddle gait. 



The trotting horse originated in a locality where trotting in harness 

 was the favorite way of using the horse. Under our civilization it is 

 and will forever remain the chief and popular method of appropri- 

 ating the services and companionship of this noble animal by his 

 owner. The intelligence of the latter leads him to select the class 

 and breed of the animal best adapted to his use; and these two 

 elements, adaptation and use, hand in hand, have led us to our present 

 advanced state with the great American trotter. Habits of mind and 

 body have been acquired, and are acquirable by use. . It is often said 

 that experience is the best of schools; it undoubtedly is in all that 

 pertains to the mental traits of the horse. Long usage and constant 

 requisition upon the animal for the highest exercise of the qualities of 



