THE 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



The trotting gait has been brought to such a degree of excel- 

 lence in this country, and the breeding, training, and driving of 

 trotting horses claims so large a share of attention, both in town and 

 country, that a book on horses would be incomplete if it did not 

 treat more fully of these subjects than any foreign work could be 

 expected to do. 



This Essay is therefore intended to give some account of the 

 history of American trotting and of trotters of distinction, together 

 with a few suggestions on breeding and training of this class of 

 horses. 



Though trotting has been greatly cultivated here, and enters 

 more largely into the business and pleasure of Americans than of any 

 other people, it would be an error to suppose that no attention has 

 been given to it in any other country, or that the matching of 

 trotters in races had its origin here. The trot is a natural gait to 

 the horse, as it is to many other quadrupeds, and wherever horses 

 are driven in harness their trotting is likely to be improved. A 

 horseback rider finds the gallop and the canter easier to him, and 

 horses are chiefly trained to those gaits in countries where light 

 vehicles and good roads are unknown ; as in Asia. Africa, the 

 eastern part of Europe, and all of America except the United States 

 and Canada. 



Trotting, as a sport, began in England as early as 1791, in which 

 year we find an account of a brown mare, eighteen years old, that 

 trotted on the Essex road 16 miles in 58 minutes. On the 13th of 

 October, 1799, a trotting match was decided on Sunbury Common, 

 England, between Mr. Dixon's brown gelding and Mr. Bishop's 

 gray gelding, each carrying 168 pounds, which was won in 27m. 

 lOs. The distance is not stated, but the time shows that it was a 

 trial of endurance as well as speed. Nearly all of the English 

 trotting matches of that early period were of great distance. A 

 Mr. Stevens drove a pair of his own horses tandem, in 1796, from 

 40 ' (469) 



