182 BREEDING THE AMERICAN TROTTER. 



ficed to speed alone ; and the breeder making these sacrifices 

 will as surely " get left " as the sun is sure to rise in the east 

 or the moon to get full once every month. 



Color is merely an individual fancy ; but in fixing the type 

 of the American trotting horse perhaps this matter should re- 

 ceive due attention. In selecting foundation stock for breed- 

 ing choose the best individual animals obtainable from the best 

 trotting-bred families and of good trotting action. As to the 

 brood mares being registered as standard I care little ; I prefer 

 good individual trotting-bred mares that can trot, to standard- 

 bred and registered weeds that cannot. 



For the sire or dam of a colt to make a trotter of I prefer 

 a 2.30 animal that is a natural, level-headed trotter, and that 

 can trot fairly and squarely off-handed without weights or 

 boots, and can continue to do this, to any animal requiring such 

 an amount of extra harness and trapping that its best acquaint- 

 ances will fail to recognize it when fitted for the race, even if 

 by these artificial appliances they can be made to trot in 2.04. 



I may be called an old fogy for advocating such notions, in 

 this, the 19th century, but such opinions will, I am confident, 

 bear the strictest investigations, and in the long run will prove 

 themselves true every time when applied to the breeding of our 

 fastest and best trotters. Give me natural, not artificial, trot- 

 ters from which to breed trotters, is the whole thing in a nut- 

 shell. 



The trotting horse should not be bred simply for racing 

 alone or for wealthy gentlemen to drive on the road, singly or 

 in pairs ; but he raises the general standard of the horse for all 

 work and because of his quick stride and great endurance is 

 both profitable and serviceable for general use. The breeder 

 of the trotting horse of to-day should ever bear in mind that 

 of all the trotting-bred animals bred and raised but a small 

 proportion will ever become sensational trotters, and the great 

 majority must find employment elsewhere than on the trotting- 

 course; consequently the importance of breeding only such 



