THE LIGHT-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 95 
instances, in roadsters noted for their ability to cover long 
distances at the trot, and to continue it day after day. 
The Morgan horse, however, was soon recognized as the 
strain possessing the highest type of roadster characteris- 
tics, chiefly because of its indomitable perseverance and 
endurance, its willingness, and the style and buoyance 
with which it stood the strain of continuous road riding. 
The roadster, in addition to having style, action and dur- 
able individuality, must be in type in harmony with the 
light harness and light, easy-running road rigs now popu- 
lar. A heavy, slow, but maybe stylish-moving horse is 
as much out of place before a road rig as a slim racer-like 
horse would be in heavy harness. While there are many 
speedy trotters that are far from pleasurable road horses, 
because the ability to go fast for a short distance is not 
the chief requirement of a road horse, yet the result of 
the continuous racing which the trotter has undergone, 
undoubtedly has given it the durability and the “do or 
die” spirit that is a valuable attribute of the roadster. At 
this day some speed is required of the roadster. 
104. Use as heavy-harness horse. — Of more recent 
years, attention has been drawn to the fact that some 
families of the American Standardbred horse have shown 
marked excellence for heavy-harness use. During the 
time when the horse-shows were perhaps most popular, 
about 1890, the breeding of the trotting horse was under 
a depression. For that reason, many stallions, well bred 
in trotting lines but of heavy-harness conformation and 
action, were purchased at gelding prices and shown in 
heavy harness classes at the leading horse-shows. Un- 
doubtedly they may properly be called freaks, for they 
were not bred for this purpose, but that does not dispose 
of the worth of the acquisition. The trotting-bred heavy- 
