TROTTING RACES. 91 
The famous Smuggler, a noble brown stallion with 
a white blaze in his face, a heavy and powerful an- 
imal, was originally a pacer, and in his races he wore 
shoes on his fore feet weighing two pounds each; 
in fact, he is said to have carried at one time three 
pounds on each fore foot. His great strength and 
courage enabled him to bear this burden, but event- 
ually it disabled him. Smuggler was once sold for 
$40,000, the highest price at that time ever paid 
in this country for a horse; and though he was 
capable of very high speed, he is regarded as on 
the whole a failure. If he made a single break in 
a race, he lost so much ground that he was nearly 
sure to be distanced. This peculiarity is explained 
_by Mr. H. T. Helm, who says that Smuggler’s stride 
with his fore legs is not long enough to correspond 
with the tremendous stroke of his hind legs, and 
consequently that he is apt to lose his balance. If 
he does so, one of two things must occur: he will 
either fall headlong and prostrate on the ground,— 
which of course does not happen,—or he will throw 
out both fore feet together ; in other words, gallop 
instead of trot. But Smuggler gallops very high in 
front, and therefore it is not easy for him to change 
quickly back again from the gallop to the trot: his 
speed has to be very much reduced before he can 
pass from one gait to the other, and in this way he 
loses so much ground that the other horses in the 
race are very likely to distance him. That a horse 
so severely handicapped by heavy shoes could trot 
such races as Smuggler did is a good illustration 
of equine strength and pluck. 
The last factor in the development of the trotting 
