THE TROTTINO.IIORSE OF AMERICA. 183 



I have recapitulated these facts for the purpose of using 

 them to enforce the theory I have laid down, to the effect 

 that the trotter, if he is going to be a superior one, needs a 

 long time to mature. It vrill be recollected, that, when I 

 first trotted Ripton two-mile heats under saddle against 

 Don Juan, he died away to nothing in my hands in the last 

 mile of the second heat, when the race seemed to be all his 

 own. But, with three years more of work and practice, he 

 Lad acquired stamina to make such a season as I have ■ re- 

 lated, and to put a fitting climax to it by beating Americus 

 in a race of three three-mile heats, winning the second and 

 third heats after the odds of twenty to one had been current 

 against him. He had been all the time " a-coming," as we 

 horsemen say ,- and it was only now that he could be said to 

 have reached maturity as a trotting-horse. Yet he was fast 

 when young and green ; for, as I have said, when he was 

 brought here at five years old, never having been on a track 

 in all probability, he trotted a mile in harness in a trial 

 driven by Joel Conkling, in 2m. 46s. That does not sound 

 so fast now ; but this was just thirty years ago, and it was a 

 very great performance for the young horse, under all the 

 circumstances. It was seven years from that time before 

 he made the season of 1842, the trotting of which I have 

 related. He was then twelve years old, and had only then 

 come to his best and greatest stoutness as a trotter. In 

 fact, it was this continual increase of staying power that 

 made him so formidable, and enabled him to win three-mile 

 heats against such a bottom horse as Americus, when it was 

 deemed by the great majority that he had no chance, and a 

 hundred to five was the current odds against him. 



Eipton also aifords a fine example of another thing I 

 have endeavored to impress upon the mind of the reader, 

 viz., the great difiference there is in the amount of work and 

 general treatment required by different horses. Any man 

 who pretends to lay down fixed rules for work and feed in 

 training is either a fool or an impostor, and very likely 



