Trotting

“ For a lady the canter is generally easier with the right shoulder leading, and some horses are much easier with one than the other lead. In fact, on the trot, many horses are easier when you rise with the off than when you rise with the near foot, or vice versa; and some writers have said that a horse leads with one or other foot in trotting. But as the trot should be a square and even gait, the peculiarity in question is owing to excess of muscular action in one leg and not to anything approaching the lead in the canter or the gallop. ”

“ If, when at the walk, the horse is urged to go faster, it breaks into the trot. The trot is like the walk, except that the diagonal action is more pronounced and more apparent, and that the feet are kept a shorter portion of the time on the ground. In trotting, the horse's spine at the haunches delivers a succession of shocks to the seat of the rider, who neutralizes them by rising from the saddle an instant before each blow. ”

“ It is not clear to the layman that a flying machine that can do a mile in a minute and a half is the ideal parent for this form of horse. On the other hand, the famous trotting-horses of America are just the kind of animal that is wanted for the ordinary uses of life. Moreover, the trot is the civilised or artificial gait as opposed to the wild and natural gallop. There are 1,500 trotting-tracks in the United States, owned by as many associations, besides those at all county and State fairs as well as many private tracks at brood-farms and elsewhere. ”

“ The Trot.—There are three kinds of trot: the jog-trot or jig-jog, the true trot, and the flying-trot. The jog-trot is a most uncomfortable [70] pace, and is not faster than a walk; the flying-trot is that indulged in by the Americans, and by our own countrymen in trotting-matches, but as the true trot is the only one used by the bulk of the people in this country, I shall confine myself to describing the method of teaching the colt the proper mode of progressing in that pace. The jog-trot is a modification of the true trot, whilst the flying-trot is an exaggeration of it ”

“ On the road, especially when they are hard, walking and trotting should be the pace, the pupil riding equally on snaffle and curb reins; the pace free and active; the trot about eight to eight and a half the hour.
Cantering should never be practised on hard ground, as it is certain, sooner or later, to cause mischief to the horse's legs. Where there is a good broad sward by the roadside, as in the Midland counties, a good stretching canter for miles may always be had where the ground is good going. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While it has taken nearly a century to reduce the trotting record a minute, and while this reduction has been helped by improved tracks, sulkies, methods of training and shoeing, no one will question that the percentage of horses who can trot fast has increased to such an extent that a horse to trot in 2.20 is easier to find to-day than a three-minute horse thirty years ago. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In every use, other than draught-horse work, the trotter stands alone as a general utility horse. The intelligence and nervous restraint which makes the two-minute trotter a possibility also makes him, when used as a carriage horse, safer than any other, even when surrounded by the many hideous objects and noises he must face in the city streets of to-day. Prominent coaching men say that no horse in the world can draw a loaded coach at the same speed, and stand the work so well, as the American trotting-bred horse. ”

“ If the horse do not advance with sufficient speed, or do not bring up his haunches well, the animations used at starting him are to be repeated. When the horse proceeds to the trot, the lady must endeavour to preserve her balance, steadiness and pliancy, as in the walk. The rise in trotting is to be acquired by practice. When the horse, in his action, raises the rider from her seat, she should advance her body, and rest a considerable portion of her weight on the right knee ”

“ 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. ”

“ If, in the rise, she does not find herself embarrassed by the third pommel, she may know that the stirrup-leather is of the correct length for this trot. The more rapid and regular the trot, the easier and shorter will be the rise, and the less noticeable the movements of the rider, because, when trotting fast, the rise will be effected with but very little effort on her part, and will be almost entirely due to the rapid action of the horse. To rise when trotting slowly, will be neither easy nor pleasant for the rider, and in this gait she will not appear to much advantage. ”

“ The slight inclination of the body permitted in road riding must not occasion any roundness in the back, which is invariably to be hollow, not only for appearance sake but for safety. The action of the body likewise must not cause the legs to move or press the horse, which might cause him to gallop. In trotting, the rider must pay the greatest attention to correct every propensity to lift, hitch, overrate, or gallop; and, whenever he feels these propensities, he must check them with the greatest nicety, in order not to retard the horse’s speed. ”

“ The great difficulty in trotting is to keep this leg absolutely steady, and to prevent it from working backwards and forwards with the motion of the body, which can be done only by maintaining a steady pressure against the upper crutch with the right knee. ”

“ The trot should be slow at first, until the rider is secure in her seat, when it may be increased gradually to its fullest limit. The faster a horse trots, the stronger bearing should we have on the reins, but when we find the pace degenerating into a rocking movement, the animal should be steadied and collected, because he is exceeding the limit of his speed, and is probably trotting with his fore and cantering with his hind legs, as we may frequently see with horses which are being overdriven in harness. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The most certain sign of a horse’s trotting well is, that when, in his trot, the rider presses him a little, he offers to gallop. If the horse gallop when he ought not, the waist should be pushed forwards toward the pommel of the saddle, and a bend or hollow at the same time be made in the loins. ”

“ In the flying trot the horse leaps a considerable distance through the air at each stride—evidently a mode of progression unsuited for ladies, who must attain speed in trotting by quickening the step without undue lengthening of the stride. ”

“ But apart from racing, the fact is, your roads are not made for trotters and pacers, and if you want something showy, you prefer a hackney. In short, you run to dogcarts, not road wagons; you're a sociable people—and in my opinion nothing will ever establish Trotting as a favourite sport in England. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the trot, according to Bishop, the legs move in pairs diagonally. The same leg moves rather oftener during the same period in trotting than in walking, or as six to five. The velocity acquired by moving the legs in pairs, instead of consecutively, depends on the circumstance that in the trot each leg rests on the ground during a short interval, and swings during a long one; whilst in walking each leg swings a short, and rests a long period. The undulations arising from the projection of the trunk in the trot are chiefly in the vertical plane; in the walk they are more in the horizontal. ”

“ There was a lull in trotting during the Civil War, just as there was in racing, but after the war the trotting tracks became even more popular than the running courses—not the most fashionable, but the most popular. Fashion has never forsaken the running horse, and probably never will ”

“ The importance given to the time tests and the public records and the disregard of pure and similar blood has detracted, in my opinion, most seriously from the success of the experiments and the effort to create a type of fast trotting horses. Why, the Standard Bred Trotter is not a type at all. They come in all sizes and shapes, they have no fixed gait, and not more than three per cent of them can trot fast enough to be considered even a good roadster. The visitors to the Speedway in New York have opportunities to see the best and fastest trotters in the world. ”

“ Marey says (freely translated from the French) . “Examples of a pacing gait are here accurately represented. It is of all gaits the easiest to observe, and therefore to draw, on account of the symmetry of movement.... Trotting, which is so often represented in modern works, seems rarely to figure in that of the ancients.”
I noticed lately in one of your contemporaries, which goes in for “society,” a suggestion that pacing races should not be held on days that trotting is indulged in, so as not to offend road riders (a long list of which it gives) , who dislike to see a pacer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Under certain circumstances, it will also enable a lady to ride a man's horse, which will be very apt to have this trot in perfection, and but little knowledge of, or training in, any other gaits. In the country a regular and sure trotting horse may often be readily obtained, while it will be much more difficult to procure one with a light, easy canter or gallop. This trot, when well cadenced and in perfect time, is very captivating, as the rider escapes all jolting, and feels more as if she were flying through the air than riding upon a horse. ”

“ When we see an effort to trot with a stiff left leg swinging along the horse’s shoulder, we may safely conclude that the rider has her stirrup too long, and knows nothing about the art of trotting, or that the leaping-head of her saddle is placed so low down on the near side that she is unable to ride in it, and has to stick on as best she can. ”

“ Old Dutchman was transferred from between the shafts of a cart to become a champion of the American trotters in his time.
“Old Blue,” a famous Boston horse of the early decades of this century, was said to trot a mile in less than three minutes, but I do not find any exact record of his achievements.
Those who have followed the history of the American trotting horse are aware of the wonderful development of speed attained in these last years. ”