212 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING 



ancestors was materially increased. And so by 

 selecting from generation to generation from 

 such families as have shown a tendency to im- 

 provement in this quality we have made great 

 progress toward founding a breed of trotting 

 horses. 



So generally is the attention of the breeders 

 of trotting horses directed to the "bright par- 

 ticular stars" that blaze out in the trotting 

 firmament each succeeding year that we lose 

 sight of the immense number of horses that 

 trot in 2:30 to 2:50 a gait that twenty-five, and 

 even fifteen, years ago was fast enough to enti- 

 tle a horse to rank as a creditable performer on 

 the turf, and in our admiration for these great 

 performers we have failed to note the extent to 

 which the average speed of the American trot- 

 ter has been improved and the certainty with 

 which trotters, possessing what a few years ago 

 would .have been classed as more than ordinary 

 speed, are now being bred. What horseman 

 who has reached the age of fifty years cannot 

 remember how very rare three-minute trotters 

 were when he was a boy! And yet what a 

 large proportion of our Hambletonians, Clays, 

 Bashaws, and Mambrinos now trot faster than 

 three minutes ! 



The progress made by American trotters dur- 

 ing the past twenty-five years, as demonstrated 

 by the average speed of the animals which com- 



