Trotter

“ A very great merit of the trotter is his sense and kindness. His education is happier than that of the thoroughbred. As a harness-horse, he is nearer to everyday use than the thoroughbred. He is raced at a more mature age, and he does not receive the cruel treatment of the thoroughbred. Whip and spur seem to be inseparable from running races. But a trotter may break if he is whipped severely, although one sometimes sees the whip laid on pretty well in a trotting-race. ”

“ The trotter is steadily improving not only in speed, but in beauty, and it is only a matter of shoeing and education to make him step high for heavy harness use. Photographs show that all trotters at speed, step high at some point in their stride, and shoeing and bitting will so change the stride that it develops a more circular form, and the grit and instinct to trot enables them to go fast, high, and far, as compared to any other high stepper. ”

“ In harness there can be no question that the trotter is the better. For use under saddle there is no doubt also that the American preference is for the trotter. But we have seen that the thoroughbred has his points of superiority as a saddle-horse. We should preserve the thoroughbred, improve him, if one likes, eliminate his undesirable qualities, but still preserve him. The saddle-horse of the future will combine the good qualities of the thoroughbred with those of the trotter. ”

“ There is plenty of brains and progressive spirit yet left among the managers of American trotting associations, and these gentlemen prefer rather to increase than to diminish the interest in the light harness horse. The pacer and the trotter are indissolubly linked together—in interest, destiny and blood. They have, too, much of the same breeding, too many kindred ties. Joined, as they are, by so many common ancestors, united as they are by so many great horses, no number of society asses can now pull them asunder. ”

“ To Raise a Trotter so that He will Last a Long Time.—A horse that is going to display great excellence as a trotter will not attain his speed at four years, nor at five, but will reach his highest excellence when the well-bred horse of seven years has been long gone from the turf. Nothing in nature, soon matured, lasts long.
In fitting a running horse, the case is different, as his constitution is not the same; the colts of blooded horses are inclined to mature earlier than any others, and, being of leaner and wiry build, they can stand more feed at an early period than a lower-bred horse. ”

“ The qualifying points for a good trotter, are by no means precisely the same as those requisite to form a speedy and successful racer: the action in trotting greatly depends upon the bend of the knee, and the pliability of the joint above, and the joint below: racing is regulated by the geometrical expansion of the limbs, more materially dependent upon the shoulder, which is the perceptible fulcrum from whence the velocity of the animal is known to proceed. ”

“ It sometimes happens that a fast trotter, during the four steps of a stride, will have all his feet clear of the ground for a distance exceeding one-half of the length of the entire stride. Upon landing, a fore foot almost always precedes its diagonal hind.
It will be observed in the illustrations that while during the fast trot the fore feet are lifted so high that they frequently strike the breast, the hind feet are raised but little above the surface of the ground. The trot is common to all the single-toed and to nearly all the cloven-footed and soft-footed animals. ”

“ A few days' experimenting and about a dozen negatives, with a celebrated fast trotter—"Occident"—as a model, while trotting at the rate of a mile in two minutes and sixteen seconds, laterally in front of the camera, decided the argument for once and for all time in favor of those disputants who held the opinion that a horse while trotting was for a portion of his stride entirely free from contact with the ground. ”

“ At the same time I wish to insist that the breeding and training of these phenomenal animals should be left to the very rich, just, for instance, as yacht racing is. The breeding of trotters is far from an exact science, as the trotter, as such, is not a reproducing type, and only two or three in a hundred of the standard breeds ever go very fast, while more of the fast horses among them pace than trot. They are not a type in conformation, in action or in gait; they come in all sizes and all shapes, and are not to be judged by the two or three per cent that develop speed. ”

“ Now, a fast trotter from the States costs more than the class of men who go in for trotting in England cared to pay, so pacers, which could go in three minutes or a little better, were got over instead, and as the difference between trotting and pacing is not understood in England, they got to be called trotters, and raced as trotters. As a proof of their not understanding pacers, a big dealer in horses saw a friend of the writer’s driving an American pacer and said, ‘There, that is what I call trotting in good form!’ The other country the English import trotters from is Russia. ”

“ Improved times have doubtless been the result of improved methods, as well as of care in the breeding of the trotter. Some very severe training rules used to be sedulously observed; about 1870, for instance, a horse never had water the night before a race, and the system generally appears to have overtaxed the animal’s strength. A prominent consideration in trotting races is the adjustment of toe-weights, which are fastened on to the horses’ feet to equalize their action, and it is found that horses improve their time to the extent of several seconds when properly shod. ”

“ If it has been attempted to train her as a trotter, you will have harder work to do this. But there is a little vibrating movement of the hands, sometimes called "lifting," which tends to keep a horse cantering, just as a steady pull keeps him trotting. ”

“ Now just compare the racer with the trotter for a moment. The racer is incidentally useful, but essentially something to bet upon, as much as the thimble-rigger's "little joker." The trotter is essentially and daily useful, and only incidentally a tool for sporting men. ”

“ The trot is the most comfortable for the driver and the easiest gait for the horse in harness, and then too the New England Puritan conscience could be quieted with the explanation that light harness racing was in reality an attempt to improve the breed of trotters. Races at local fair grounds gave breeders a chance to see their home-grown stock in action and competition with the “experts” on tour. A prize-winning performance on the track always influenced prices, and many a farmer dreamed of raising a trotter that would one day bring him real fame. ”

“ Benjamin F. Tracy said in a letter to the Turf, Field and Farm, February 15, 1901, that the greater proportion of fast Standard Bred Trotters are not trotters at all, but pacers. There has been no one to dispute this statement, which was not one merely of opinion, but of compilation.
130The trotting men, however, avoid this by saying that trotting and pacing are the same gait, because many horses both trot and pace and because a pacer can be converted into a trotter. This theory is beyond my intelligence. I know that the natural gaits of a natural horse are walk, trot, and gallop. ”

“ The great majority of the Hamlin horses bear the imprint of that grand horse Mambrino King, who for several years called forth spontaneous cheers, and applause, at Madison Square Garden, captivating the audience by his distinguished gait and bearing.
In conformation, the trotter has two distinctive differences from the runner, in that the trotter is longer in the body, than he is high, and is higher at the coupling, or rump, than at the withers. These differences, no doubt, are to accommodate the structure to the rotary gait rather than to the series of jumps of the runner. ”

“ It is a long-standing remark, that "a butcher always rides a trotter;" and why is it? because they invariably make them so: they in general ride them no other pace: they all know they have the credit of "making trotters," and they are incessantly alive to the preservation of their professional reputation. That horses may be taught, by time and patience, to exceed their original trotting, two or three miles an hour, is as certain, as that blood horses exceed their former speed a full distance in four miles by training. ”

“ One night Peter suggested that I should walk away with him from the ball and try an American trotter which had been lent to him by a friend. As it was a glorious night, I thought it might be rather fun, so we walked down Grosvenor Street into Park Lane; and there stood the buggy under a lamp. American trotters always appear to be misshapen; they are like coloured prints that are not quite in drawing and have never attracted me. ”

“ How else could the fact that every great family of trotters is continually throwing pacers be explained by any other theory? The fact that the trotting breeders have been careless in breeding to mares of strong pacing instinct or breeding, we admit; but the fact remains the same that the pacing blood in the pedigree of such trotters does not appear to have acted as a brake in their way of going, but, on the contrary, has given to them a smoothness of action and an elasticity of stride which has carried them to the foremost rank at their gait ”

“ I don't hold out to be no trotter myself, though I am free to say I had hopes that way—onct. But I do say, fer I 've seen 'em trained, that a trotter don't trot with his feet: he trots with his head; an' he does more work—ef you know what that is—in a week than you er your sire ever done in all your lives. He 's everlastingly at it, a trotter is; an' when he is n't, he 's studyin' haow. ”

“ The reason why a front foot should not be left highest on the outside, of a trotter or pacer, unless he is a paddler, is this; supposing the front legs at the chest or where the upper arm joint is connected with the chest is ten, twelve or fifteen inches apart, I mean the distance the two front legs are from one another where connected with the body. Now when this horse is at speed and can go fast at the trot or pace, like most all fast horses at speed, his foot prints will be straight in a line one after the other on the track. ”

“ MAHLI. A fine type of Kentucky saddle-horse. Owned by Mrs. Thomas J. Regan.
Thoroughbreds and hackneys, being, as families, older than trotters, hold their qualities more intensely and are more capable of reproducing them. In the matter of speed, however, you cannot breed a Derby winner any more certainly than you can breed a two-minute trotter. But the trotter’s inability to reproduce himself with certainty is not altogether without its advantages. One would be sorry to lose the variety in types thrown off by the trotter, which is a result of this inability. ”

“ But the perfection of horses in this country are those trained for trotting: their speed is almost incredible. I have been whirled along in a light-built carriage by a pair of famous professed trotters, who certainly got over the ground at the rate of a moderate-going steam-engine, and this without ever for a moment breaking into a gallop. The fondness of the Americans for this sort of horses, however, is one reason why one can so rarely obtain a well-mouthed riding-horse. These trotters are absolutely carried on the bit, and require only a snaffle, and an arm of iron to hold them up. ”

“ The trotting horse has been developed in the United States until now we have the best trotters in the world. In the British islands, as you may know, the racing horses are made to run, or gallop, quite a different pace from the trot. ”

“ A Typical Pacer from Finland, Russia. Used by the Peasants for Farm Work—14 Hands High.
“There is no native trotter in England,” writes Mr. Winans. “That is to [138] say, there is no breed of horse that can beat the very low standard of 3:30. The so-called Norfolk trotter is too slow and is never used for racing purposes in England. To supply this dearth of trotters, they had to import from Russia and the United States. ”

“ This will show him little except that, as a rule, a good walker is usually a good trotter; however, many of the best polo ponies are poor trotters, and often will not trot at all. In my opinion, little is learnt from a polo pony trotting except the fact as to whether it is sound or not. Next the ponies will canter round. ”

“ Trotting, in short, is the sport of that and the lower classes, and they trot cheap horses in consequence."
"Unfortunately," said Mackrell, with a slightly heightened colour, for he got fearfully chaffed among his own set for his bizarre taste, "the upper classes take no interest in Trotting in England. It will take time to prove to them that a trotter is not necessarily a butcher's horse, but can vie with a hackney and swell carriage horse, and is almost as fast as a motor car as well, thus combining the horse and motor in one animal. ”

“ I cannot help feeling the most lively regret that trotting-contests should have taken no hold upon the fancy of my countrymen, who would find in their magnificent roads an opportunity for the demonstration of the practical, every-day value of a good trotter far more favorable than any possessed by America. ”

“ It requires a very level-headed horse to keep evenly to his trot, with a runner tearing away at sweeping pace beside him, and the trial is regarded as simply one of skill, and is rarely successful. A trotter who can coolly and evenly maintain his trot when hitched with a racer, can command for his owner any amount of money, even though he be in all other respects comparatively worthless. ”