PACING HORSES 37 



be slower than the running limit, which has not been materially 

 reduced for 1 80 years, but it will be reduced very slowly from 

 now on. Whether it will ultimately be 1 .50 or less is problemat- 

 ical. 



Pacing Horses 



The pacing gait, where both right and both left feet strike the 

 ground in unison, has been recognized for centuries, and in older 

 times pacing horses were esteemed for the saddle, as attested by 

 this passage : " Upon an amblere esely sche sat." (Chaucer, 1 340- 

 1 400.) The pure pace was then varied with the rack and the 

 amble, or broken gaits, in which the fore and hind feet do not 

 strike the ground exactly in unison, but either the hind foot or the 

 fore foot strikes the ground an instant before its fellow. The old 

 Narragansett pacer was a notable example of a family of horses of 

 that gait, having becoming very popular for saddle purposes and 

 afterwards lost through disuse under changed conditions. 



The pacer as found in America is closely related to the trotter 

 and in breeding follows similar lines. It is true that certain families, 

 such as the Hals and Blue Bulls, are more inclined to the pace by 

 inheritance than horses bred in trotting lines, and that some trotting 

 sires are more prepotent in transmitting pure trotting action than 

 others ; but nearly all trotting sires beget a prominent percentage 

 of foals that pace. Not only does the same blood produce both 

 trotters and pacers, but both gaits are not infrequently met in the 

 same individual. There are notable examples of fast racers having 

 changed from one gait to the other. Heir-at-law was successfully 

 campaigned at the trot and afterwards at the pace. Jay-Eye-See, 

 once a trotting champion with a record of 2.10, afterwards obtained 

 a record of 2.06% as a pacer. I have observed that racers often 

 go slowly at the opposite gait from the one they use when extend- 

 ed. On the Charter Oak track in Hartford I noticed the cele- 

 brated trotting stallion. Walnut Hall, pace up the stretch before 



In feeding whole corn give it on the cob. 



