62 PHILOSOPHY OF TROTTING. 



taught to disregard every condition except that of speed ; and the 

 results of the error are apparent in all the breeding plans of the 

 continent. 



We have fallen largely into the habit of looking more to the 

 reputation of a trotting stallion or family for speed than to their way 

 of going. And having seen fast horses of every conceivable variety 

 in shape and conformation made, for a time, steady trotters, by the 

 use of all sorts of weights, boots, pads, and other appliances, we 

 have overlooked the importance of so breeding our trotters that 

 Nature shall supply them with a conformation that obviates all resorts 

 to such foreign appHances; and have also forgotten, or disregarded^ 

 the fact, that a gait and poise of body naturally pure and perfect, 

 go so far toward securing a perfect trotter as to relieve our art 

 from the necessity of making up for the lack of form, and enabling 

 it, as has been well expressed, to work for a sui-plus, rather than 

 to cover a deficiency. 



The first point to which I shall call attention, in the matter of 

 physical organism, is the necessity for an ample and facile breathing 

 apparatus. Many otherwise valuable horses have the jaws so close 

 together, and a neck so thick that the windpipe and its appurtenant 

 apparatus are so far crowded and hampered as to render it difficult or 

 impossible for the animal to secure the full and easy supplies of 

 oxygen rendered necessary by the violent exertion of which he is 

 other\vise capable. Nerve force can only be kept up by a ready 

 supply of oxygenated blood. This can only be secured by lungs and 

 air-passages in the most perfect health and of the most ample ca- 

 pacity. In some animals the defect lies in a deficiency of healthy 

 lung power, and in others, of the most perfect health and stamina, 

 the neck is so thick, and the throat so restrained by the mass of 

 muscular surroundings, that a free and easy passage of air for the 

 increased demands of the circulatory system is rendered impossible. 

 In this respect, the Pilot and other native Canadian families are often 

 verj' deficient, while the Abdallah and the descendants of Messenger 

 generally, and others nearly connected with the high-bred horse, 

 excel. Superiority of these organs usually accompanies high breeding. 



Obviously, the relative proportions of the limbs of the trotter must 

 rank high in importance as affecting his gait, or way of going, and, 

 consequently, the perfection of his motion, upon which his value as a 

 trotter depends. While motion may be instinctive, and does originate 

 in an impulse of the mind, and while that impulse may operate largely^ 



