THE BREEDS OF HOKSES. 219 



equine excellence," as arguments in favor of 

 breeding from thoroughbreds to produce trot- 

 ters, voluntarily shuts his eyes to the experi- 

 ence of the world in stock-breeding. The in- 

 telligent gentleman who breeds horses for the 

 running turf selects his breeding-stock from 

 the choicest- developed running strains the 

 families that can show upon their escutcheon 

 the longest roll of mighty performers and by 

 pursuing this course he steadily improves his 

 stock; and so the intelligent breeder of trot- 

 ting horses will select from families in which 

 speed at the trotting gait has become an in- 

 herent and transmissible quality. 



I can see no reason why this great principle, 

 which forms the correct basis of all good stock- 

 breeding, should not apply to the breeding of 

 trotting horses as well as to setter dogs. The 

 get of a bulldog out of a setter bitch would 

 probably possess more courage than a purely- 

 bred setter, and a puppy so bred might possibly 

 act well in the field; but no man accustomed 

 to the business would back a litter so bred, in 

 a field trial, against a litter of pure setters! 

 And so, if it is a trotting horse we are after, it 

 has always been my advice that the breeder 

 should get as deeply into the trotting lines 

 of blood as possible. The exceptional cases 

 quoted by the advocates of the thoroughbred 

 prove nothing. We cannot go very far as yet 



