26 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
ULTIMATE TROTTING SPEED. 
To what rate of speed will the trotter finally attain? Many theories 
have been advanced upon this question. One mathematical professor has 
calculated from a law of progression that, taking the period from the time 
that the trotter became distinctly recognized to the present as the base, and 
the average reduction in speed from that time to the present as the ratio, the 
extreme limit will be about 1:31 to the mile. Absurd as this may seem, 
Mr. Wallace thinks that when horses are bred so that they become as 
natural at the trot as they now are at the run, so that they may be urged 
without fear of breaking, and not be hampered by the restraint of the 
bit or clogged with toe-weights, it may be possible for them to rival the 
runner in both speed and endurance. The Spzrit of the Times says that, 
taking the extreme rate of speed for short distances as a base, with the 
natural improvements that time will bring to forward the continuance of 
that rate, considering also the fact that trotters and pacers have been known 
to goa quarter or even half a mile at a better rate than a mile in two 
minutes, a mile in two minutes or better will be made. The trotting horse 
Frank and his running mate J. O. Nay have a record that way of going 
of 2:08%. John Murphy, their driver, in order to satify himself as to the 
influence the runner actually had in assisting the trotter, harnessed him to 
a sulky, and with full trotting weights up drove him a mile as fast as he 
could run, and he could just make it it 2:0114; the first quarter, 311/ sec- 
onds; half, 1:0114; three-quarters, 1:311%4. From this it would seem, the 
conditions being equal, that the trotter is now the equal of the thoroughbred 
runner, though it is claimed that a horse has run a mile to a sulky in 1:52, 
or thereabouts. Those who have seen the pacer Mattie Hunter get away 
from the score will agree that it would take a good runner to head her. 
THE ORIGIN OF THE TROTTER. 
What is the origin of the trotter, and how can he best be cultivated? 
Three distinct methods of producing the trotter are just now under 
discussion among the breeding public. The first is that of breeding a 
trotter with the trotting faculty to others with the same faculty, expecting 
that by this means a trotting breed of horses will in time become as stand- 
ard as the breed of running horses is now. The second is by the intro- 
duction of thoroughbred blood into our present trotting strains, and thus 
giving them more refinement and speed, as these qualities are transcendent 
in the thoroughbred and Arab, care being necessary not to use so much as 
to destroy the trotting action or steadiness, qualities which the thorough- 
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