188 TROTTING AN ARTIFICIAL RACE. 



been used in choice of crosses and blood likely to tell, 

 and how seldom anything extraordinary is produced ! 

 and when it is, it is often a produce from which the 

 breeder expected the least. It is of course always 

 wise to do that which is most likely to produce what 

 we want, and to breed from goi7ig blood ; but we all 

 know how very general is the disappointment Avhen all 

 this is done. A horse must be thorough-bred of course 

 to be anything like first-rate as a race-horse ; but if he 

 is thorough-hred, and the blood not radically had^ I 

 still must say I consider chance is not to be despised 

 as a friend, and is often found so. 



I think trotting in a general way is more perpetu- 

 ated in its breed than galloping ; for in breeding from 

 a certain strain on both sides we may pretty nearly in- 

 sure a trotter more or less ; and trotting being (at 

 least I consider it so) a more artificial pace than 

 galloping, if we get the action we can always in- 

 crease the pace of the trotter in a greater degree than 

 we can that of the race-horse. The speed of the 

 latter I consider to be increased by training more in 

 reference to speed as to a distance than for a few hun- 

 dred yards. This arises from improvement in wind 

 and condition. It is not impossible (though I am far 

 from saying it is the case) that a two-year-old in fair 

 state as to flesh might be able to go a quarter of a 

 mile as fast before he went into training as he could 

 afterwards, some perhaps faster; but even for that 

 distance the speed of the trotter may to all but a 

 certainty be veiy greatly increased ; in proof of which 

 all butchers' horses get faster than they were when 

 they bought them, not only for a distance but for 

 two hundred yards. A very fast thorough-bred hun- 

 ter in fine hunting condition Avill be made somewhat 



