Trotting in those early days was mostly under saddle, and some of the races were even three miles in length. Since about 1850 trotting-races have been over a mile stretch, best three in five heats.
It is noted as a curious fact in the history of the trotting-horse that Messenger, who served a number of thoroughbred mares, served a far larger number of cold-blooded mares, and it was in these latter that the trotting instinct was almost invariably developed. This is repeated through the trotting register—almost no thoroughbreds have been trotting dams. Palo Alto is about the only half-breed that was a successful trotter, and one campaign finished him. Messenger was imported in 1792 and was at stud in New York and in Philadelphia for many years.
The first known importation of a thoroughbred to America was that of a horse called Bully Rock, by the Darley Arabian, out of a mare by the Byerly Turk, brought over to Virginia in 1730. A number of Derby winners were imported to America before 1800, including Diomed, the winner of the first Derby in 1780, Saltram, John Bull, Spread Eagle, Sir Harry, and others.
It must not be forgotten in dealing with the subject of driving that not only the history of the harness-horse in America is all very modern history, but that the condition of the roads and the state of the carriage-building trade prevented any great progress until lately.
Carriages, indeed, were hardly an ordinary article of manufacture until late in the reign of Charles II., or about 1675. It is maintained that a rough coach or wagon ran as a public conveyance between Edinburgh and Leith as early as 1610, but little is known on the subject. The in-little-things-omniscient Pepys writes in his diary under date of 1665 of springs on certain carriages. But coach and carriage-building had not progressed very far till later than this. The state coach of George III., 1762, weighed four tons, was 24 feet long, 8 feet 3 inches wide, 12 feet high, and had a pole 12 feet long. "Hansom's Patent Safety Cab" did not appear until 1834.
In the spring of 1669, a coach, described as the "Flying Coach," went from Oxford to London in one day, a distance now covered in an hour and three-quarters by rail. This Flying Coach departed on its first trip from Oxford surrounded by the dignitaries of the town and the university, and was welcomed in London by no less imposing official personages.
With this coach and others to follow, began all sorts of objections to conveyances going at this rate of speed. It was contended that they would spoil the roads, ruin the inns along the route by not stopping at them, and do great harm to the breed of horses by promoting speed at the expense of bone and weight.
It is curious to think that even the first mail-coach was criticised on much the same grounds as the first railroad trains. There was little danger either in England or in America of unduly fast travel with horses and vehicles in their then condition.
Even now in the United States the condition of the roads, except in and around the wealthier cities, is deplorable. In the last quarter of a century in this country we have built 132,865 miles of steam railway and we now have 203,133 miles of railroad. During the past fifteen years we have built some 23,000 miles of trolley road; we have spent in ten years $176,226,934 for the improvement of rivers and harbors, but for the inland farmer almost nothing has been done to give him good wagon roads. There are 74,097 miles of public highway in the state of New York alone.
It is calculated that $1.15 will haul a ton—