THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 63 



years old, for eight, nine, ten, or eleven thousand dollars, 

 by being able to show great speed and ability to repeat, 

 it is an object worth some risk and trouble. It is by no 

 means certain that the colt will ever attain to the rank of 

 a. first-rate trotter, even though he be very fast at three or 

 four years old, and the training by which his precocious 

 speed was developed has not hurt his stamina, his temper, 

 or his legs. I think that the first class of trotting-horses 

 will still be very select ; though, other things being equal, 

 a fast four-year-old is more likely to reach it than one not 

 so fast. 



The instances we have had, however, of wonderful trot- 

 ters that never exhibited any extraordinary speed imtil they 

 were from six to ten years old, cannot be disregarded. I shall 

 have occasion to particularize them hereafter, when we come 

 to speak of the training of the matured trotter. Mean- 

 time, I need only mention Flora Temple, Mr. Bonner's 

 mares Peerless and Lady Palmer, and the late little horse 

 Prince. But as long as customers are to be found for fast 

 three and four year olds at very high rates, they will cer- 

 tainly be trained; and my object is to induce the owners 

 and handlers to guard against the forcing severity and the 

 heart-breaking dogging with which the process is too often 

 accompanied. There is another reason likely to be sufficient 

 to induce gentlemen to train three-year olds ; which is, that it 

 is often desirable to show the produce of staUions at as early 

 a period as possible. This has no doubt operated quite as 

 strongly with the Kentucky breeders as the desire of get- 

 ting high prices for the colts they trotted. All the fast 

 colts that they have shown there have not, however, been 

 equally fortunate with Cora. Ericsson, who made the best 

 four-year-old time, and another that went with him, have 

 not improved upon their colt form. The gray colts raised 

 by Mr. Alexander, and recently sold at high figures to gen- 

 tlemen in this vicinity, may have better luck. 



Another gray that showed much speed and cleverness at 



