104 HORSE-BKEAKIXG. 



early maturity and worked hard when they 

 ought to be in the nursery, the result being 

 that they are unable to last any time, but 

 become useless (except for stud purposes) 

 before they have attained horsehood. Early 

 maturity means early decay. 



The Americans break in their trotters, as a 

 rule, at three years of age. They then give 

 them ordinary road work, in the mean time 

 gradually teaching them to trot in form by 

 giving them occasionally a spurt for a quarter 

 of a mile or so. But they do not usually race 

 them until they are from five to seven years 

 old ; in fact, they do not consider a horse to 

 be at his best until he is from seven to nine 

 years of age. 



I will now give a few instances of famous 

 American trotters, who lasted well through not 

 having been worked too young. Topgallant 

 was foaled in 1808 ; when in his sixteenth 

 year, in 1823, he trotted twelve miles, in 

 harness, in 38 m. In 1829, when in his 

 twenty-second year, he trotted four heats of four 



