SECRETARY'S REPORT. 185 



any means to select always the fastest stallion for getting road- 

 sters, as there are many other qualities more important than 

 great speed ; but, other things being equal, the horse which 

 can trot his mile the quickest, will be most likely to get fast- 

 travelling, valuable stock. 



With suitable preparation and management, not only does a 

 healthy horse suffer no distress from trotting a moderate dis- 

 tance at tlie top of his speed, but he enjoys it as highly as his 

 driver. The match trotter is peculiarly gifted with powers of 

 locomotion, and his wonderful mechanism can only be appi'c- 

 ciated when in full operation. To most persons, a closely con- 

 tested trot is a beautiful and attractive spectacle, and experience 

 proves that notliing affords a more delightful or harmless 

 amusement for the people, provided the superintendence and 

 associations are of the proper kind. The usual accompaniments 

 of the race course — quarrelling, profanity, intoxication, gam- 

 bling, and public betting — may and should be always and 

 everywhere forbidden and prevented. The morals of the com- 

 munity are of more consequence than the breeds of horses ; but 

 there is no more occasion for immorality in connection with a 

 trotting match, than in connection with an exhibition of skill 

 and swiftness in skating. 



But there is no apology for those barbarous matches, which, 

 from their excessive length, overtask the powers of the horse? 

 and often result in his destruction. In England, hunters, of 

 wiiich twenty thousand are said to be kept in the kingdom, are 

 not unfrequently ridden until they can go no further, and are 

 so exhausted that they either die upon the spot, or within a few 

 days, and nearly all are soon rendered unsound, and end their 

 miserable lives as hacks. In this country, fortunately, horses 

 are rarely forced to such unreasonable exertion, yet matches of 

 from ten to one hundred miles are sometimes made, and a suit- 

 able regard for the lives of our noblest and most willing servants 

 of the brute creation seems to demand a statute against them. 

 Frank Forester, in his valuable work, " The Horse and Ilorse- 

 manship of America," thus expresses his views upon this subject: 

 " All these long matches against time are useless, cruel, derog- 

 atory to the turf, disgraceful to humanity. They are never 

 accomplished — whether the horse be urged beyond its powers 

 by the torture of the whip, or only by the incitement of its own 



