Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-30
Form in the Trottsr.

Form is OF more importance than
nero action. The car.horse is able to
fold tho knee, but you cannot train him
to get over tho ground rapidly or to
last through q race of broken heats.
He bends the knee but cannot reach and
gather quickly. is overtcpped with
weight, aud therefore falls in struggle
which is decided BY speed and courage /;
and the cause of failure is lack Of form.
One of the best writer's on the horse
has furnished Ms with rules for the Sc
lection of thoroughbred. We are ad-
vised to choose an animal with deep
and wide back and loin with chest to
afford sufficient room for the heart
and lungs" but not too vide, for an
open bosom is regarded az q sure sign
Of want Of pace;" "the back ribs
should be long, or, as such formation
lie generally called, deep SO as not
only to give protection to the contents
OF the belly, but t. afford strong at
tachment to the muscles which connect
the chest to the hips the ribs must
be set wide apart, and not huddled up
together ;" for fast road work where
the failure of the legs is generally the
limit to the amount of work, q very
heavy carcass is an objection, as it in
creases the weight upon them and an
overtopped horse-that is, one with q
body too big for his legs is most worth
less brute :" q projecting neck, moder.
ately long and proportionately thin,
wide jaws, and intelligent head, broad
above the eyes, thin nostrils, which
should open under exercise and show
the red lining membrane shoulders
obliquely placed and broad blade, we'll
clothed with muscles long thighs ap-
preaching almost to the proportions OF
the greyhound necks full size and
clean, and all the points proportion to
one another. The authority from which
we have condensed these points is
Stonehenge." The fastest trotter in
the world to-day, Edwin Forrest, comes
up to the standard named by the Eng
lish critic. He has none of the charac-
teristics of the cart-horse, and all of the
points of the substantial thoroughbred.
Maud s., the great four-year-old, also
has the form of thoroughbred. The
prepotent blood in both is that OF the
running horse. Without form neither
would have shown 80 much speed as to
attract public attention. The trotting
elements in the pedigree of each have,
with the assistance OF toe weights, sim
ply given new impulse to speed. They
have Influenced the motion, the folding
of the knee and the action OF the stitlo,
and thus enabled the two to startle the
country with their deeds. If sire of
cart-like form and excessive knee
action is so strongly prepotent as 10
stamp both his form and his action upon
his progeny, you may keep breeding
him from now until doomsday without
getting q trotter, of more than average
merit. Admit that he simply repro
duces himself and allow no margin for
improvement. Edwin Forrest, like
Maud S., is wonderfully speedy as q
trotter, because he has the speedy for
nation OF the thoroughbred, without
which formation lie would be merely
commonplace, in spite of the trotting
elements in his ancestral tree. Toe
weights, with brains behind them, have
i'll recent years played an important part
in the development of the trotting
horse. Take an animal in which the
thoroughbred triumphs over the Can
muck" at the rate OF seven to two, and
put him in the hands OF Gilden who
understands the use Of weights, and he
will make q trotter Of him, not able
merely to go the distance, but to do his
miles in the quickest time. The horses
which win the majority Of hard fought
races in these days Of progress, possess
not only the form, but large percent
apa NJ tina h1OO1 NJ tha EpUIiah racar
-1&yr, Field and Farm.