118 THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



twenty-three sires of eighty-seven trotters and seventeen dams 

 of twenty-three trotters, and to whom some of our best trotters 

 of the present day trace mainly through their dams. 



With occasional selections from the best thoroughbreds and 

 from the French Canadian horse, whose blood has commingled 

 through the above families, we have to-day a breed of Ameri- 

 can horses of a strictly American production, of which every 

 true American may justly feel proud. 



And now the time is upon us when we, as breeders of the 

 American Trotter, can prosecute and advance our business 

 successfully, I think, by judicious selections in breeding from 

 our own acquired material without any further out-crosses. 



In fact, to step outside in crossing for the production of the 

 American Trotter, is taking a backward step. I think we have 

 now reached — quite recently, perhaps — the period in Ameri- 

 can trotting horse breeding when foreign blood is no longer 

 needed in the trotter, any more than by the thoroughbred 

 runner. 



What we should now aim to establish is a national thor- 

 oughbred trotting horse. As American breeders, ,we should, 

 by wise selections and careful breeding, establish a breed of 

 American horses the most desirable and most valuable of any 

 breed of horses in the whole world. We certainly have the 

 foundation elements for such a breed, and the results rest alone 

 with the skill of the American breeder. 



Admitting that the American Trotter owes everything of 

 value — excepting the trotting gait — to the thoroughbred and 

 his ancestors, the Arabian and the Barb (for from these sources 

 are derived courage, speed, and endurance), the great question 

 of the day among horse breeders is whether we already have 

 enough of this in our American Trotter, or whether it is policy 

 to add more. 



My own opinion, based upon observation and experience, is 

 that we should now stop experimenting with outside issues and 

 attend strictly to the business of prosecuting this great work of 

 thoroughly establishing this national horse, the American 



