244 THE MORGAN HORSE 



happens that one horse naturally paces and another trots. A writer in " Wal- 

 lace's Monthly " with a good deal of force has said lately that the pacing 

 gait is artificial; that a horse paces because he is taught to pace, and that 

 any horse might be taught to pace. The writer claims that he has had much 

 experience in breaking saddle horses and teaching them to pace, and thinks 

 there is no certain inheritance of this gait, and that by disuse it will become ex- 

 tinct in any breed. To illustrate this last point he cites the Pilot, Blue Bull 

 and other families that were pacers, but have become trotters. This has 

 been ably answered in several journals, especially "Clark's Horse Review" 

 of Chicago, which claims that the pacing gait is as much a matter of inher- 

 itance as the trotting or running; that- it is perhaps' the most deeply seated 

 of all, handed down from the most remote generations, and so thoroughly 

 established that a colt at a day old, if of pacing family, will pace as easily as 

 he will walk. A prominent breeder says, with much force, that it will take 

 a lifetime to eradicate any pacing blood admitted into a family. 



It will be seen from the above that opinion varies as to the origin and 

 character of the pacing gait. That gaits are inherited there can be no doubt. 

 But it is evident that in ordinary or promiscuous breeding the laws that con- 

 trol gait are too complicated to be readily, if at all, understood. In promis- 

 cuous breeding no one can tell what the color may be, and yet often in 

 scientific breeding it becomes most firmly established. 



So, undoubtedly, the different gaits can be, and are, and if two ani- 

 mals that are confirmed pacers are bred together, the result will undoubt- 

 edly be a natural pacer. But suppose we cross pacing and trotting blood. 

 It is not probable that the produce will be both a natural pacer and a natural 

 trotter. Perhaps it will be neither ; but perhaps, too, it will be very pro- 

 nouncedly one or the other. It must be something, and it may be, for aught 

 we can foresee, anything. "Perhaps it may turn out a song, perhaps turn out a 

 sermon." But let us suppose in such a problem that both animals have speed, 

 that also has been handed down in a long line of inheritance. Then each 

 equally will beget speed ; for this quality of speed, is, we can well suppose, 

 distinct from the gait through which it is used. It is in part undoubtedly a 

 disposition ; an ambition to be at the front. It is the quality to get there. 

 This speed is begot, and however the gait is decided, it enters into it. Hence 

 we see frequently a very fast performer produced by the crossing of animals 

 of very different gaits, but both fast. In all discussion of breeding we may be 

 sure of one thing, that the law of inheritance will always act ; that law being 

 the tendency of every individual or thing to reproduce itself, it being re- 

 membered that this law is modified by, or includes, atavism. 



That a pacer, or progenitor of pacers, may be very largely trotting-bred, 

 and vice versa, is demonstrated by many prominent instances. Thus 

 Adrian Wilkes, which has no known pacing blood nearer to him than his 

 third dam, has got as many pacers as trotters, and these much the 

 fastest, including Lillian 2 -.14^, and Roy Wilkes 2 109. His brother, 

 Mike Wilkes, has paced in 2 :i$^. Alcantara, by George Wilkes (a trotter 



