TIIE AMERICAN TROTTING IIORSE. 477 



mutiy others of good repute for speed. His colts were in great 

 demand, particularly in the West and South, where hundreds were 

 Bold at very high prices. As many of his eons were kept as stal- 

 lions, his descendants are very numerous; and he undoubtedly has 

 done much to improve the stock of American horses. 



There is another class of trotters that deserve especial notice. 

 Some of the fastest are horses that were originally fast pacers and 

 had their gait changed to trotting. The origin of these pacers is 

 yet unknown. Mr. J. H. Wallace, the editor of Wallace's Monthly, 

 in New York, and the author of the American Trotting Register, 

 has traced them hack to a breed known in New England during 

 the earlier periods of our country's history as Narragansett Pacers. 

 The pacers are often roans and duns to this day, although these 

 are the least common colors among horses, which is strongly 

 corroborative of Mr. Wallace's theory that they were originally a 

 distinct breed, and that the pacing gait is not a mere chance occur- 

 rence among all the different breeds. 



Mr. Wallace has done more to put the breeding of trotters on a 

 sound basis than any other person whatever, and probably more 

 than all others together. It is due to him to state that most of 

 the facts of history and pedigree contained in this essay were 

 derived from his Trotting Register. 



These pacers, whatever may' have been their origin, not only 

 pace very fast, as compared with trotters, and trot fast when con- 

 verted, but they have endurance equal to any others, thorough-breds 

 not excepted. They cross well with trotters, and when a horse of 

 pacing descent on one side inherits the trotting gait from the 

 other side, the pacing speed often goes into the trotting gait. 



It has sometimes happened that the fastest get of trotting sires 

 have been out of pacing mares of moderate speed. In such a case 

 the colt seems to breed back to some speedy pacing ancestor. It 

 is a little puzzling to account for some of such facta. With our 

 present knowledge on the subject we cannot well understand why a 

 trotting sire should beget faster colts out of a slow pacer than out 

 of a fast trotter, but such facts pretty frequently turn up. There 

 must have been great speed in some of the old-time Narragansett 

 pacers before trotting speed was cultivated anywhere. 



Many horses both trot and pace, and of those that have both 

 gaits, some go faster in one and some in the other. To teach a 

 trotter to pace is somewhat difficult, unless the horse naturallj 

 inclines to it, but it may be done sometimes by riding with a severe 

 curb-bit and spurs. Of course it requires good horsemanship, as 

 well as means and appliances, to urge the movement desired, and 

 to restrain the animal from the steps he is most accustomed to 

 take. When the saddle was more in use than now, pacing was a 



