286 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



about by breeding. Tbe Trotter is es- 

 sentially an offshoot or variety of the 

 Thoroughbred produced from the latter 

 by breeding and selection for the pos- 

 session of a trotting gait. The first 

 known or definitely recorded sire of a 

 winner in a trotting race was Coriander, 

 son of imported Messenger. Several 

 other distinguished sires of Trotters de- 

 cended from the same Messenger. In 

 fact, not until 1837 did a noted Trotter 

 appear which did not come from Mes- 

 senger. The Morgan family came into 



oughbred mares and produced Sunol, 

 Palo Alto and Arion. 



Standard of registry — The first vol- 

 ume of Wallace's trotting register was 

 published in 1871 and the National 

 Association of Trotting Horse Breeders 

 was formed in 1876. (For secretary, see 

 appendix.) The number of registered 

 Trotters in the United States is 145,000, 

 and the number now living about 96,- 

 000. The rules for registry now pro- 

 vide that an animal shall be accepted as 

 a standard-bred Trotter if it is the prog- 



Fig. 198 — crdsceus 2:02^. the kixg of trotters 



existence in 1840, the Clay family in 

 1850 and Rysdyk's Hambletonian in 

 1860. Lady Suffolk in 1845 first brought 

 the trotting record inside of 2.30, and 

 later 2.30 was adopted as the time stand- 

 ard for the breed. For a long time horses 

 were admitted to registry in the Ameri- 

 can trotting register association even if 

 the sire was a pacer, but such is no 

 longer the case. The Thoroughbred, how- 

 ever, has frequently been crossed with 

 Trotters to lend courage and endurance 

 to the latter. Thus Stanford bred the 

 trotting stallion Electioneer to thor- 



eny of a registered standard trotting 

 stallion and mare. 



A stallion must have a record of 2.30 

 and must be the sire of three trotters 

 with records of 2.30 from different mares. 

 A mare must be sired by a registered 

 standard trotting horse and must be the 

 mother of two trotters, with records of 

 2.30. Rather strict rules were found 

 necessary to overcome the bad effects of 

 poor breeding, for with the advent of 

 fancy prices for trotting stock, all an- 

 imals were bred without regard to in- 

 dividual merit, provided they had a 



