TROTTING
—is one of the natural paces of a horse, which, in respect to speed, is wonderfully to be improved by constant practice; and it being a favourite pace with almost every horse of common description for the purposes of the road, they are observed to enjoy it, in proportion as they excel their companions or opponents, seemingly conscious of their own improvements. 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.
Although trotting is admitted one of the natural paces of a horse, yet it will admit of great improvement, by the persevering exertions of art. 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. It is within the memory of many, that fourteen miles within an hour was thought excellent trotting, and fifteen was considered a wonderful performance, all which is long since buried in oblivion, by the almost incredible exploits of the last few years.
Famous trotters have undoubtedly been produced from different parts of the kingdom; but Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, are said to have exceeded all others in their proportion; and this may probably with justice be attributed to those famous trotting stallions, "Old Shields," "Useful Cub," and "Hue and Cry," who principally covered that scope of country. The celebrated trotter Archer was descended from Old Shields; he was a remarkably strong horse, master of fifteen stone, and the fastest trotting horse of his time; but was cruelly destroyed, by being inhumanly matched to trot upon the road sixteen miles within the hour in the midst of a very severe frost: the poor persevering animal performed it in less than fifty five minutes; but the violent concussions sustained by the body, and the battering upon the feet by the dreadfully hard state of the road, produced symptoms which soon put a period to his existence.
A brown mare, the last proprietor of whom was Mr. Bishop, trotted upon the Epsom road, sixteen miles in fifty-eight minutes and a half, carrying twelve stone; and it was then said to have been the first time that distance had ever been trotted within the hour. In 1791, being eighteen years old, she trotted on the Essex road, sixteen miles in fifty-eight minutes and some seconds, beating a famous trotter of Mr. Green's for fifty pounds; and it was the opinion of the sporting parties concerned, that she would have trotted thirty miles within two hours; a distance which was actually trotted in two hours and ten minutes, by the celebrated chesnut mare of Mr. Ogden's. A grey mare, called the Locksmith's, trotted seventy-two miles in six hours. In 1793, a grey mare, of Mr. Crocket's, trotted one hundred miles in twelve hours, and had twenty minutes to spare. A five year old, son of young Pretender, (who was got by Hue and Cry,) trotted in Lincolnshire, sixteen miles in fifty-nine minutes, carrying fifteen stone.
In April, 1792, a bay gelding, called Spider, and an old chesnut gelding, called Cartwright, near thirty years old, trotted thirty-two miles in two hours between Stilton and Cambridge. Spider trotted the first twenty-four miles in one hour twenty-eight minutes and a half, and the old horse the remainder. It was supposed they could have trotted thirty-four miles within the time agreed on. In 1797, Mr. Dyson made a bet of 100 guineas with Mr. Fagg, that he would produce a mare which should trot upon the road between Cambridge and Huntingdon seventeen miles within the hour: the experiment was made on the 7th of August in that year, and the mare lost by one minute and four seconds only. On the 13th of June, 1799, a trotting match was decided over Sunbury Common, between Mr. Dixon's brown gelding and Mr. Bishop's grey gelding, carrying twelve stone each, which was won by the former, having trotted the eight miles in twenty-seven minutes and ten seconds. Extraordinary as these performances have been, no less entitled to recital, is a bet made by Mr. Stevens, which was decided on the 5th of October, 1796, that he would produce a pair of horses, his own property, that should trot in a tandem from Windsor to Hampton Court, a distance of sixteen miles, within the hour: notwithstanding the cross country road, and great number of turnings, they performed it with ease in fifty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds.