The Trotting Horse* 25 



These horses are particularly well adapted to pleasure driving 

 in light carriages. They are not large enough for purposes of 

 heavy draft, and rarely move in any other pace than a walk or a 

 trot The}^ do not make good saddle horses. 



THE TROTTING HORSE 



The trotting horse is bred and trained successfully only in the 

 United States. The English, with all their taste for the sports 

 of the turf, and their skill in breeding the race horse, have failed 

 to produce any trotters which in this country would rank higher 

 than second or third class animals. The best trotting ever done 

 in England or on the continent, has been performed by Ameri- 

 can horses, and these were not considered with us first class 

 animals. The French Emperor, who formally spent some time in 

 this country, seems well aware of their superiority, and keeps in 

 his stables some fifteen or twenty American horses. 



Strictly speaking, we have no distinct breed of trotting horses 

 in this country. In examining the besi trotters in the country, 

 we are struck with the great dissimilarity of form, temperament, 

 and general characteristics, and the little evidence of any rela- 

 tionship in blood. If, for example, we compare Lady Suffolk and 

 Lady Sutton, for the first class trotters ten years since, the dif- 

 ference in their form, temperament and style of movement and 

 general appearance will be very apparent ; indeed, they exhibit 

 scarcely any characteristics except speed, which were common to 

 both. So with the two animals confessedly at the head of 

 the list of trotters in the country at the present time. Flora Tem- 

 ple and Lancet. Scarcely any resemblance can be traced between 

 them except in their speed, and yet in this latter respect there is 

 little to choose between them. This dissimilarity in the form, 

 temperament, style of movement and general appearance of our 

 trotting horses would lead us to infer that they are descended 

 from breeds or families of horses of widely different characters. 

 Such is the fact, and there is scarcely a family or strain of horses 

 in the oountry which has not a trotting representative. But al- 

 though every family or strain of horses may have its trotters, 

 comparativly few are noted for producing what sporting men call 

 *' flying." The trot is an unnatural pace to the horse, and in his 

 wild state he moves only in a walk or gallop. Had it been im- 

 possible for man to teach him this pace, he would have proved a 

 far less useful servant than he is, and we should be compelled to 

 use him chiefly under the saddle. 



Careful training and constant use in harness for many genera- 

 itious so developes and improves and fixes this pace that the off- 



