SHOKT RACES. Ill 



inches above the fetlock, on the back side of the legs ; the rest 

 of his limbs were entirely free from it. His feet were small, 

 but well shaped ; and he was in every respect perfectly sound 

 and free from blemish. He was a very fast walker. In trotting 

 his gait was low and smooth, and his step short and nervous; 

 he was not what in these days would be called fast, and we 

 think it doubtful whether he could trot a mile much, if any, 

 within four minutes, though it is claimed by many that he could 

 trot in three.* 



" Although he raised his feet but little, he never stumbled. 

 His proud, bold, and fearless style of movement, and his vig- 

 orous untiring action have, perhaps, never been surpassed. 

 * * ■«• -j^ * * * * 



" He was a fleet runner at short distances. Running short 

 distances, for small stakes, was very common in Yermont fifty 

 years ago. Eighty rods was very generally the length of the 

 course, which usually commenced at a tavern or grocery, and 

 extended the distance agreed upon up or down the public road. 

 In these races, the horses were started from a ' scratch.' That 

 is, a mark was drawn across the road in the dirt, and the 

 horses, ranged in a row upon it, went off at the dropping of a 

 hat, or some other signal. 



" It will be observed that the form of the Justin Morgan 

 was not such as, in our days, is thought best calculated to give 

 the greatest speed for a short distance. Those who believe in 

 long-legged racers will think his legs, body, and stride, were all 

 too sliort, and to them it may, perhaps, seem surprising that he 

 should be successful, as he invariably was, in such contests." 



The last paragraph quoted is wholly erroneous, and is evi- 

 dently written by one personally unacquainted with racing, and 

 forming his idea of what judges consider the requirements of a 

 racer wholly from hearsay, or from a preconceived opinion — 

 which, I think, can be discovered running through every line 

 of Mr. Linsley's work — that all thoroughbreds are long, leggy, 

 weedy, loosely-coupled, light-boned brutes, with no qualification 

 beyond speed. 



* The claim is, of course, absurd. Such a thing as a horse trotting a mile in 

 three minutes was undreamed of, much more unheard of, in the days of this horse ; 

 as will appear, when I come to treat of trotting. 



