“3. A mare whose sire is a registered standard pacing horse, and whose dam and grandam were sired by registered standard pacing horses, provided she herself has a pacing record of 2.25, or is the dam of one pacer with a record of 2.25.
“4. A mare sired by a registered standard pacing horse, provided she is the dam of two pacers with records of 2.25.
“5. A mare sired by a registered standard pacing horse, provided her first, second, and third dams are each sired by a registered pacing horse.
“6. The progeny of a registered standard trotting horse out of a registered standard pacing mare, or of a registered standard trotting mare.”
And these are the rules that obtain to-day in keeping a register of which the rat-tailed semi-Conestoga Abdallah is No. 1.
It will be seen by the rules certain features of the great breeding principle: “Like begets like” are followed, and there is no doubt that some intelligent breeders have tried most sincerely to embrace in the mating of stallions and mares all of the principles; but, as a rule, the speed test alone was considered instead of similarity of blood, similarity of conformation (for nature abhors great contrasts), and also performance. 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. There are certainly some fine animals shown there, a few that are splendid. But they are of all sorts in conformation and method of going. It cannot be a reproducing type under such circumstances. When a hundred colts and fillies are bred we want many more than three of that number to be able to accomplish the purpose of their creation. At least half of the progeny of the Standard Bred Trotters should be trotters themselves and more than half of the remainder should be good general utility horses. That is the case with the Morgans and the Denmarks, the two true American types, for these types have substance and character, besides a systematic method of breeding is pursued where lineage and conformation rather than performance count. And even with the Standard Bred Trotters that go fast—the three per cent of them—quite half of them are pacers rather than trotters. Gen. 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.
The 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. Many that do these gaits, as in the case of the Denmarks, can do several others besides—the rack and the running walk, for instance. Yet no one will say that these gaits are all the same. It is too preposterous to discuss. Besides, the pace is not a fit gait for a gentleman’s roadster. It may be well enough for butchers, barkeepers and gamblers, but a gentleman should have a gentleman’s horse.
It has not been a pleasure to say these things of what some call the great light harness horse of America; but when breeders, through false principles, go a wrong road it ought not to be considered an unkindness to call their attention to the fact. A few years ago in a magazine article I told the truth about Hambletonian’s breeding, and received many indignant letters of protest. One kind gentleman up in Massachusetts, asked me to visit him, saying he should like to have the pleasure of kicking me across the state. I requested him to have a survey made so that I might know how far I would have to be propelled by the toe of his boot, as I did not care to put him to an undue amount of trouble. He has not replied, so, I presume the survey is not yet completed. But breeders in Kentucky, in Vermont, and in Illinois wrote in complimentary terms, saying that they had paid dearly for their belief in false pedigrees and false principles of breeding. I am thoroughly persuaded that these false notions have cost the breeders of America millions and millions of dollars, for a Standard Bred Trotter that does not go fast is a pretty poor specimen of a horse and worth very little, while the amounts spent in trying to develop speed which does not exist are colossal.
But the records have unquestionably been lowered until the horse that can trot a mile in two minutes is one of the wonders of the world. Look at the record of progression.
| Boston Blue, black gelding | 1818 | 3.00 |
| Bull Calf, bay gelding | 1830 | 2.47¾ |
| Edwin Forrest, black gelding | 1838 | 2.36½ |
| Dutchman, bay gelding | 1839 | 2.32 |
| Lady Suffolk, gray mare | 1845 | 2.29½ |
| Pelham (converted pacer), bay gelding | 1849 | 2.28 |
| Highland Maid (converted pacer), bay mare | 1853 | 2.27 |
| Flora Temple, bay mare | 1856 | 2.24½ |
| Flora Temple, bay mare | 1859 | 2.19¾ |
| Dexter, brown gelding | 1867 | 2.17¼ |
| Goldsmith Maid, bay mare | 1871 | 2.17 |
| Goldsmith Maid, bay mare | 1874 | 2.14 |
| Rarus, bay gelding | 1878 | 2.13¼ |
| St. Julien, bay gelding | 1879 | 2.12¾ |
| Maud S., chestnut mare | 1880 | 2.10¾ |
| Maud S., chestnut mare | 1881 | 2.10¼ |
| Jay-eye-See, black gelding | 1884 | 2.10 |
| Maud S., chestnut mare | 1884 | 2.09¼ |
| Maud S., chestnut mare | 1885 | 2.08¾ |
| Sunol, bay mare | 1891 | 2.08¼ |
| Nancy Hanks, brown mare | 1892 | 2.04 |
| Alix, bay mare | 1894 | 2.03¾ |
| The Abbot, bay gelding | 1900 | 2.03¼ |
| Cresceus, chestnut horse | 1901 | 2.02¼ |
| Lou Dillon, chestnut mare | 1903 | 1.58½ |