28 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
bred and Arab do not possess at the trot. The third theory is that alk 
trotting is derived from modifying the pacing gait or faculty, shown by 
some examples only among horses. 
The first theory is the one most desirable to arrive at, but in considering 
its probabilities we see that time will be required to form a breed of 
trotters by selection of the best examples possessing the qualities of speed, 
steadiness and game-endurance, as well as the power of reliably reproduc- 
ing these characteristics in their progeny. The running horse shows but 
little improvement upon those examples which originated the breed, as. 
Eclipse and Flying Childers. Except for the improvement of methods, it 
is doubtful whether out of the great numbers of race horses any could 
be found to have the natural qualities of speed and endurance much, if any, 
superior to those two horses. Running is a natural gait, and, so far as 
history shows, may always have existed as such. Is not it possible to make 
trotting just as natural a gait by carefully eliminating the running tendency? 
How long this may take, and whether the same object might not be accom- 
plished differently, time will determine. 
The second theory, the engrafting process by the union of examples. 
already found to possess the trotting faculty with the more quickening im- 
pulse of the thoroughbred, is not reliable. Observation has led us to con- 
clude that neither speed nor endurance of any kind is possible without the 
aid of Arab blood or its équivalent. The difficulty with this method is its 
uncertainty and consequent want of value to the average breeder, although 
individual examples of the highest class may now and then crop out. 
In drawing special attention to the third theory of producing the trot- 
ting quality, the writer will try to first show how the pacers originated, 
according to his idea. That they are a distinct species is impossible, because 
they are fertile with other horses, and therefore belong to the same species. 
If they were a breed caused by circumstances, the outgrowth of a demand 
for that gait by some people in the remote past, and if those pacers now 
found reverted to some such ancestor, we should be able to trace them; but 
when we attempt to do so, we find that they trace back to two distinct 
breeds in every case where their breeding is known, and we are confronted 
on the one hand by the Arab horse, and on the other by the native Euro- 
pean horse, neither of which furnishes as many pacing examples as when 
the two are combined. This brings us to the idea previously alluded to, 
namely, that all of our strains have arisen from the union of animals which 
present antagonistic characteristics, mental or physical, or both. Of such 
unions one result was the marked tendency to excessive growth, as found 
in the draught horse. By crossing two opposite temperaments both 
were neutralized and a third temperament was produced. The idea is now 
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