ELEMENTS OF HIPPOLOGY. 7 



In the United States there have been developed three strains 

 of horses that are worthy of special notice on account of the in- 

 fluence each has had on the quality of the horses of the nation. 

 These strains are the American standard trotter, the Amer- 

 ican or Kentucky saddle-horse, and the Morgan horse. 



The trotter is the result of an effort to produce the best an- 

 imal for racing under harness. The first horse to trot a mile in 

 harness in less than three minutes was Yankee, who performed 

 that feat at Harlem, N. Y., in 1806. It took a hundred years of 

 the most careful breeding to pass the two-minute mark, and 

 breeders are still trying to reduce the present record of 1 :58J, 

 made by Lou Dillon in 1903. 



The influence of remarkable individuals is singularly shown 

 in the breeding of American trotters of record. In 1884 there 

 were in the neighborhood of 6,000 horses in the United States 

 that had trotted in races that were of enough moment to be re- 

 corded. "Of these, a little over 1,700 are Hambletonians; there 

 are 657 other Messengers, making a total of 2,369 that trace in 

 male line to Messenger. There are 762 Black Hawks, and 453 

 other Morgans, or a total of 1,215 that trace in male line to Justin 

 Morgan. There are about 700 that trace in male line to Canadian 

 sires, and the same number of Bashaws, with something over 300 

 which trace to thoroughbred sires other than those mentioned, 

 and about 1,000 whose tracing is not certain."* 



In other words, in 1884, seven of every twelve trotting 

 horses of record traced back directly to Messenger or Justin 

 Morgan, and the same proportion is probably still true. The 

 greatest of Messenger's descendants was Rysdyk's Hamble- 

 tonian. He was not a thoroughbred. 



The standard American trotter is a horse that has been 

 bred for racing under harness. It is of comparatively recent 

 date that any care has been taken in registering these horses. 



*From an article in "Spirit of the Times," February 14, 1885. 



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