94 LIGHT HORSES I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



CHAPTER V, 



THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



THIS handbook deals chiefly with English breeds of light 

 horses, but in view of the origin of the breed and the interest 

 that is taken concerning its performances, a chapter on the 

 American trotting horse will not be out of place. In his 

 valuable little work on " Horse Breeding," Mr. J. H. Sanders 

 says : " Our American horses are largely permeated with the 

 blood of the English thoroughbred. Many of the best stallions 

 and mares in England have been imported to this country, and 

 their influence is seen on every hand. It enters largely into 

 the ground work of all our trotting strains, and it is doubtful 

 if a single great road horse or trotter has been produced in 

 this country that did not possess a large share of this royal 

 blood as a foundation upon which the trotting superstructure 

 has been built." It is clear that in the eastern districts of 

 England trotting matches were quite common during the last 

 century. After quoting the performances of the celebrated 

 Hackney mare Phenomena, in 1800, Mr. Leslie E. Macleod, 

 in an exhaustive paper on the " National Horse of America " 

 (printed in the United States Report of the Department of 

 Agriculture, 1887), says " The conclusion is forced upon us 

 that the English had the material from which to build and 

 evolve a great breed of trotters." 



The fact seems to be that the Americans commenced the 

 sport of trotting at the point at which it was broken off in 

 England, and, using our materials and their own, they have 

 brought it, and the breed engaged in it, to great perfection. 



