40 THE HORSE 



horses was a sinful pastime, and the gait, therefore, a 

 useless and a dangerous one, hence everything was 

 done to discourage the breeding of a horse which was 

 almost certain to be used largely for racing. The 

 trotting gait was useful and not so likely to lead 

 youths astray; so until quite recently running horses 

 were excluded from the tracks of the State and County 

 Agricultural Societies of the eastern and middle 

 states, while trotting horses were freely admitted. 

 Thus the Puritans unwittingly did much to encour- 

 age the improvement of the trotter. The South fol- 

 lowed more closely after English customs, hence ra- 

 cing in most of the southern states has always been 

 popular; while in the North the trotting gait in horses 

 has been more prized, and little attention has been 

 paid to the running horse until the last two decades. 

 He is now nearly as popular in the North as in the 

 South. 



From an admixture of the hot blood of the East 

 with the best specimens of the mixed blooded horses 

 of the North has come, when it has been judiciously 

 mingled, a large number of superior roadsters, horses 

 of courage, endurance and speed, such as no other 

 country possesses. These horses have had a very 

 marked effect on the style and construction of our 

 light wagons. They have also been the means by 

 which the American boy has become a superior horse 

 man. On the other hand, it is true that too often 

 the warm-blooded horses have been bred to inferior 

 nondescript mares, which resulted in progeny of di- 

 minished size and bone and undesirable temperament, 



