62 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
Running horses furnish a spirited and beautiful sport, 
but the runner can never be domesticated; whereas 
any man who owns a single horse may find himself 
in the possession of a trotter, or at least of an animal 
which he considers to be such,—and this comes to 
nearly the same thing. The very beast who drags 
a family carryall may, lke the milkman’s or the 
baker’s nag, prove worthy of a better fate. It must 
be remembered that few horses trot fast naturally. . 
They require skilful driving and training ; often, also, 
the judicious application of weights, boots, rollers, 
and the like, in order to lengthen their stride or to 
correct other imperfections in their gait. It is pos- 
sible, therefore, for a horse to have “the making of 
a trotter in him” during an indefinite period; and 
so long as the owner refrains from putting his in- 
choate racer to the test, his opportunity for boasting 
about the animal’s latent speed is almost unlimited. 
Scoffers may throw cold water upon his pretensions, 
but no man can assert absolutely that he is wrung. 
What, then, does a trotter look like? That is a 
question very hard to answer. Trotting horses range 
in size and shape from Great Eastern, —a big, long- 
legged horse, standing seventeen hands, who holds 
the best saddle record, namely, 2.153, —to Little 
Dot, a pony of Morgan extraction, weighing six hun- 
dred and seventy-five pounds, who was raised in New 
Brunswick about twenty-five years ago, grew up with 
a flock of sheep, was knocked about by a drunken 
sailor, and finally, coming into the hands of a horse- 
man, made a record of 2.264. Nevertheless, there 
are two or three trotting types. Frank Forester re- 
marked that American trotting horses reminded him 
