342 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



England, I think it is beyond question tliat in these importations 

 came the ancestors of the American and Canadian pacer. The horses 

 of Rhode Island, known as '' Narragansett pacers," attained wide 

 celebrity in the seventeenth century, and the pacer was the race- 

 horse of the Rhode Islanders and Virginians of the olden times. They 

 were one of the great staple products of Rhode Island at that day, 

 and were largely exported. But in time, as the colonies grew in 

 wealth, the pacer was scattered and crowded out by larger, better 

 horses, a race more acceptably suiting the requirements of the people. 



The names of the families of pacing origin most frequently en- 

 countered in the choice blood-lines of our modern trotters are the 

 Pilots, the Blue Bulls, the Columbuses, the Hiatogas, the Copper- 

 bottoms, etc. 



The originator of the Pilot family was a black pacing-horse that, 

 according to tradition and tradition only, came from Canada, and was 

 probably foaled in 1826. He is famous as the sire of Pilot Jr., a grey 

 horse of much merit as a trotter and sire of trotters. The blood of 

 his dam is unknown. He evinced the rare power to get trotters out 

 of running-mares, and two of his fastest and best were out of mares 

 so bred. Though he sired nine trotters with records ranging from 

 2:24 to 2.30, and although some of his sons, notably Bayard and 

 Tattler, have proved successful sires, it is through the triumphs of 

 his daughters as brood-mares that he is most esteemed. They are 

 great speed-producers, among the produce of Pilot Jr. mares being 

 Maud S., 2.08f, and Jay-Eye- See, 2:10. 



The marvelous pacing-horse Blue Bull is the phenomenon of trot- 

 ting-horse history. " A plebeian of the plebeians," got by a horse on 

 whom the atrocious name the family bears was bestowed as a mark 

 of opprobium, a cripple with not a line of distinguished blood to 

 lend him worth, from ignominious uses he rose in his day, by sheer 

 force of merit, to the front rank of trotting-sires. This remarkable 

 horse was foaled in Switzerland County, Indiana, in 1854, and died at 

 Rushville, Indiana, in 1880. He was wonderfully fast at the pacing- 

 gait, and even after being crippled could show great flights of speed. 

 For several recent years he has figured as the sire of more trotters 

 than any horse that ever lived, and it was only during 1887 that that 

 honor passed from him to George Wilkes. Over fifty of his get have 

 records mnging from 2 17i to 2:30, At present, while we can rank 

 Blue 3uil as a ^ery great sire of speed, I am not very sanguine that 

 the future will rank him a great progenitor. His own lack of breed- 



