The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

As the true source from which the Russian trotters have drawn their ability to trot fast has not been developed nor determined by history, we must consider the problem in the light of the surrounding conditions, and possibly our American experiences may lead to its solution. In 1873 Prof. Von Mittendorf, at the request of the director-in-chief of the imperial stud, prepared a very able paper on the scientific questions involved in the establishment of a Government Register for the Orloff trotters. In this paper he discusses the pace and the trot as both original and natural gaits and insists that there are no outward indications in form or shape by which the animal, when at rest, can be decided to be a pacer or a trotter. In his own words he says:

“In answer to the question whether, from the form of a horse at rest, it can be ascertained what gait would be easiest assumed by it, viz., trotting or pacing, I must confess that I have never seen, read or heard of such marks, and, indeed, there never are any symptoms or signs of inclination for pacing in the proportions of any horse with the single negative exception, viz., that great speed in one-sided motion does not agree with a large frame, which is more adapted to leaping, and hence fast pacers are never found among large horses.”

This is the view as taken by a Russian scientist of the distinction, or rather lack of distinction, between the trotter and the pacer. I have not quoted this paragraph from Prof. Mittendorf because it contained anything new in the economy of breeding, but to prove that there were pacers in Russia and that their relation to the trotter was considered in the formation of the rules of admission to the Orloff trotting register. A very intelligent writer, evidently a Russian and one who knew what he was talking about, contributed an interesting article to the New York Sun of July 9, 1877, from which we get a clear and strong light on the practical side of the Russian pacer, and I will here again quote:

“Up to the middle of the last century horses in Russia were not scientifically bred; they ran wild in many parts of the country. Those caught on the steppes of the river Don, and in the wilderness of the district of Viatka, obtained early celebrity, which they still maintain. The Don horses are those famous Cossack steeds about which so much has been written of late. The Viatka horses, or Bitugues, as they are called are the genuine trotters of Russia. They are all pacers, equally remarkable for their speed and their endurance. But since the Orloff breed has been introduced, the Bitugues have been excluded from all matches, on the ground that their pacing is not orthodox.

“It is with these Bitugues that the peculiar troika team, of which a specimen was shown in Fleetwood Park, on Saturday, originated. A fast, sturdy Bitugue is put in shafts, and a light running horse from the steppes harnessed on each side of him. A good Bitugue trots so fast that the wild steppe runners have to be whipped all the time to force them to keep up with him. The idea of putting an Orloff trotter in the place of a Bitugue is very queer, as no square trotter can equal the speed of those famous pacers of Viatka, and keep abreast with side runners.”

From these three several sources we learn a number of facts that may have a more or less important bearing upon the true origin of the Orloff trotter. (1) That there are now, and have been for generations past, plenty of pacers in Russia. (2) That these pacers have a common habitat, north and east of the Don. (3) That they are a very old race, running back in the centuries away beyond the knowledge of man or the records of history. (4) That they are a very fast and very enduring race, and that they have been trained for generations as the shaft horses of the troika and their speed so well developed as to require good running horses to keep abreast with them. (5) That they are of smaller size than the average and lack symmetry, and thus, notwithstanding their great speed and bottom, they and their blood are excluded from registration with the Orloffs. (6) That they are also excluded from competing for any prizes that may be offered, and no other reason is suggested than that they would be sure to win.

Russia and America both have pacers and they are both carrying forward the breeding and development of the trotter with great intelligence and success. No other nation has been able to make even a beginning in this field of animal economy except by the introduction of the foundation stock from one or other of these two countries. It may be taken as historically true, and as applying to every nation on the face of the earth, that where there are no pacers there are no trotters. Hundreds of unmistakable experiences in this country go to show that the pacer is a great source of trotting speed. At one time a pacing stallion of obscure pacing origin stood at the head of the list of all stallions as the sire of the greatest number of trotters with fast records. A great multitude of our fastest trotters at maturity were foaled pacers from trotting parents. It is no longer a matter of wonder or surprise that with two animals from the same parents one of them should be a fast trotter and the other a fast pacer. Neither is it any longer remarkable that a fast trotter with a very fast record should turn around and make just as fast a record at the pace. The American people are just beginning to realize, in its full force, the declaration of more than twenty years ago; that the trot and the pace are simply two forms of the same gait, in the economy of motion. The only difference that has been observed as between two brothers, the one a pacer and the other a trotter, is that with the same skill in handling the pacer will come to his speed much quicker than the trotter, which is of itself a strong suggestion at least that the pace is the more natural and easier form of the one gait.

Now, in view of the fact that Smetanka was of Saracenic origin—a strain of blood that has always been antagonistic to the pacer, and never produced a pacer or a trotter; and in view of the fact that his grandson, Barss, is accepted as the first of all Orloff trotters; and in view of the further fact that in thousands of American experiences the trotter has come from the pacer, it seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the “Dutch Mare” that produced Barss had a strong pacing inheritance, and possibly had her speed fully developed, as the Bitugue in the count’s own team.

Among all the pleasures which Count Orloff derived from his experiments in breeding, whether of gamecocks, or race horses, or saddlers, or trotters, Barss was his greatest favorite because he was his highest achievement in the art of breeding. This judgment of his master has been confirmed in the experiences and history of all succeeding generations for a hundred years, and the name of Barss will be known through the coming centuries as the founder of a mighty breed of trotters. I once possessed a fine picture of Barss hitched to a sleigh and driven by his breeder, Count Orloff, himself; and I have seen it stated somewhere that this picture was a copy of a bronze statue erected to the memory of the Count Orloff and the greatest horse of Russia.

It has been stated by some writers, but with what measure of authority I do not know, that for about thirty years after the appearance of Barss his daughters were bred to English thoroughbreds, to Arabs, to Anglo-Arabs, and, indeed, to all the highly bred crosses that the great establishment was able to furnish, and there was no improvement in either the quality or the speed of the produce. From this it is evident that the count and his managers were at that period entangled in the same foolish notions that befogged the minds of so many very worthy gentlemen in this country some years ago, viz., that the way to improve the trotter was to go to the runner—the horse that never could trot. This foolish notion, that never had a spark of reason in it, naturally and necessarily weakened the trotting instinct of the descendants of Barss, and would have wiped it all out if it had been followed persistently, and there would have been no Orloff trotters to-day.