610 
NATURE 
[April 26, 1883 
The influences which originally led to the starting of 
the breed were more social than economical ; a similar 
fact a century earlier marked the founding of that famous 
running breed, the English thoroughbred. The origin 
of the trotter, however, was not so simple as that, and 
several diverse social factors were involved, only the chief 
of which will here be noticed. 
Fromearly colonial times horses have been more generally 
owned by the masses of the people here than in any country 
of western Europe. They have had a more general use in 
agriculture and in business, their ownership or possession 
has had less social significance, and they have had less 
importance as instruments of gambling. The colonists 
who settled north of Delaware Bay, although of various 
nationalities, were largely those whose religious prejudices 
and social education was opposed to horse-racing. With 
the great majority of them it was considered a sort of 
aristocratic sport, and at best led to unthrifty ways, even 
if not open to the objection of positive immorality. Con- 
sequently but few race-horses were imported into this 
region in colonial times. The original horse stock of the 
northern colonies came from several European sources. 
England, Holland, France, and Spain certainly, and 
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and Italy probably, 
contributed to it. The blood from this variety of sources, 
variously mingled, formed the mongrel stock of the 
country. This was further modified by local conditions 
and local breeding assuming different characters in 
different places, and the hardships of horse life incident 
to a new country, with strange forage and a rough 
climate, caused deterioration in size and form. Early 
writers are unanimous on this point, but many add that 
what was lost in size and beauty was gained in hardiness 
and other useful qualities. 
After the war of independence there was an improve- 
ment in the live stock of the country. English thorough- 
bred horses were imported both for sporting and to 
improve the horse stock of the country, and horse-racing 
rapidly grew in favour as wealth and leisure increased. 
The export trade in horses to the West Indies increased, 
particularly from New England. Pacers were most 
sought for this trade, but sometimes trotters were adver- 
tised for. 
As horse-racing increased in the last years of the last 
century the opposition to it revived, and in the earlier 
years of the present century this became ascendant, and 
stringent laws forbidding the sport were passed in most 
of the northern States. The prohibition was sweeping 
and the penalties severe. 
Horse-racing was then a contest between running- 
horses, and during this repression of racing, trotting 
as a sport began, at first ina very unostentatious, irregular, 
and innocent sort of way. Probably no people or class 
of people have ever bred good horses which they prized 
and were proud of, who did not find pleasure in seeing 
them compete in speed or show their fleetness in some 
way, and during the repression of racing (which meant run- 
ning), trotting came in as a substitute, poor though it was 
at first. It had a sort of encouragement from very many 
thrifty people who were not sportsmen, and was ina measure 
considered a sort of democratic sport in which even plough- 
horses could take part. Racing of any kind in those 
days was a strife between two or more things, as it still is 
in most countries; no one thought that a single horse 
could run a race alone, but the instinctive inclination 
to see a spirited horse in action could be mildly gratified 
by letting him trot, even if single and alone, and testing 
by the watch how quickly a given distance could be 
covered. So “‘timing” animals came to be practised. 
We hear of it on the Harlem racecourse in 1806, four 
years after the laws forbidding horse-racing had been 
enacted, and again, a little later, near Boston, and it was 
reputed that certain horses could trot a mile in three 
minutes. This speed seemed so extraordinary that in 
1818 a bet of a thousand dollars was staked (and lost) 
that no horse could be found that could trot a mile in 
three minutes. Some authorities date the beginning of 
trotting as a sport with this event. Itis said that in the 
betting the odds against the successful performance of 
the feat were great, which shows, strikingly, the enormous 
progress since made in developing speed at this gait. 
In 1821, certain persons on Long Island were allowed 
by special statute to train, trot, etc., horses on a certain 
track, under certain restrictions, exempt from the penalties 
against horse-racing. Other organisations followed, and 
by 1830 the ‘‘training ” of trotters was going on at several 
points, and trotting may be said to have become estab- 
lished as a sport. During this decade the record had 
been successively lowered to 2.40, 2.34, and 2.32. The 
times of performance were carefully taken at these “ trials 
of speed,” as the statute called them, and ‘‘ records” 
became established by more formal sporting codes. 
The ostensible object of these associations was the 
“improvement of the breed of roadsters ; ” driving single 
horses to waggons became fashionable, and this led to the 
improvement of light one-horse waggons for business and 
pleasure. Those with steel springs were rare luxuries in 
1830; by 1843, when the record of mile heats dropped to 
below 2.30, they were already common. During this 
thirteen years, the record had been lowered only half 
a second on mile heats, but three-minute horses were no 
longer rare. 
The fashion of wealthy men driving a single fast 
trotter for pleasure was for a long time a peculiarly 
American one, and played an important part in the 
development of this breed. But, as stated earlier, many 
influences have contributed: changes in the modes of 
travel, changes in the methods of war, sentiments regard- 
ing horse-racing, the incentives of the course, the general 
improvement of roads, improvement in carriages, the 
needs of modern business requiring quick roadsters, 
these and other influences have all been at work.! 
The material out of which this new breed is made is a 
liberal infusion of English thoroughbred blood (usually 
more than two generations removed), with the mongrel 
country stock, previously described. There is a volumi- 
nous literature relating to special pedigrees, and much 
speculation as to the comparative merits of the several 
ingredients of this composite blood. 
Regarding the ideal trotter there is as yet a difference 
of opinion as to what the form should be, and it is too 
early to decide from actual results. That the gait is now 
hereditary, that it is the instinctive fast gait with some 
animals is certain, but whether this is due to inherited 
habit, inherited training, or to mere adventitious variation 
and selection, I will not discuss. 
The gain in speed is given in the following table, which 
is the best records at mile heats, omitting the names of 
the special performers : 
Best | Best 
Date. Record. | Date. Record. 
1818, 3 1865, 2.184 
1824, 2.40 1866, 2.18 
5 2.34 1867, 2.174 
1830, 2.32 1871, 2.17 
- 1834, 2.314 1872, 2.163 
1843, 2.28 1874, 2.14 
1844, 2.264 1878, 2.135 
1852, 2.26 1879, 2.123 
1853, 2.25% 1880, 2.10} 
1856, 2.244 1881, 2.10} 
1859, 2.194 
A sporting paper published in 1873 a list of three 
hundred and twenty-three horses, with their best records, 
down to the close of the preceding year. This first list 
* For more details regarding the history of this development and the 
factors involved, see the paper already cited, Ref. Conn. Bd. Agr. for 
1882, p. 215. 
