APPENDIX. 666 



\)iicing parents beget trotting progeny, and vice versa, and that both 

 gaits frequently seem natural to the same animal demonstrates that 

 they are but variations of the same gait, occupying in the economy 

 of action a place between the walk and the gallop. The fast gallop, 

 •or run, is an entirely different gait; each leg acts, as it were, inde- 

 pendently. To begin the revolution the horse makes his bound with 

 the left fore foot the last to leave the ground; then for a moment 

 he is entirely in the air, with his four feet rather bunched, and 

 when he strikes ground again it is first with his right hind foot; then 

 ii moment more, and he is poised on the left fore foot, as at the 

 beginning of the revolution. It will be seen that this gait is wholly 

 -and radically different from the pace and trot; that the order of 

 action, and, necessarily, the mental organization governing the 

 method of locomotion and use of the limbs are different. Hence no 

 one horse is, or can be, possessed of great speed at the gallop, and 

 also great speed at the trot or pace. To possess great speed of 

 either one of these two orders he must inherit speed of that order. 



Let us consider for a moment the original sources ot trotting 

 speed at home and abroad. 



The Orloff trotters are the fastest of foreign breeds, and their 

 history is therefore of interest. In 1772, Count Alexis Orloff, a com- 

 mander in the Kussian fleet, obtained from a Turkish pasha a large 

 white Arab or Barb horse called Smetanka. From a Danish mare 

 Smetanka got Polkan, and from a Dutch mare Polkan got Barss, the 

 founder of the Orloff trotters. It will be noted that Barss was two 

 removes from the Oriental horse, and carried one-quarter of his 

 blood. The fact has been commented upon that Andrew Jackson, 

 the founder of our Clay family of trotters, was similarly bred ; 

 that is, he was two removes from the imported Barb, Grand Bashaw , 

 and, like Barss, out of a mare of unnamed blood. Count Orloff, it 

 appears, bred the Barss blood upon itself, and a writer, speaking 

 with the apparent assurance of one who knows, tells us that "the 

 race became a distinct type in about thirty years, and since that 

 period all attempts to improve the breed by fresh blood, whether 

 Arab, English, French or Dutch have failed." This can readily be 

 believed, for in our own horse history we find its corroboration and 

 analogy. Count Orloff died in 1808, but his stud was kept intact 

 until 1845, when it was broken up, the Russian Imperial Govern- 

 ment becoming the owner of the greater part. The blood and per- 

 formance of these horses have been carefully recorded. The 



