The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-02-27
HORSES FOR DRIVING
Trotters Are Out and High steppers Are
In Fashion.

Horses with high, showy action have
superseded the trotter for carriage, T
cart, dog cart and similar purposes.
There are almost as many breeds of
high steppers as there are styles of
vehicles. For fast road work and for
buggy driving the trotter is still the
popular fayorite. It is only as a carri.
age horse that he Is no longer fashion,
able.
Competing for public tavors to-day.
as harness horses are animals to trott-
ing pedigree, thoroughbreds, hatbreds,
Cleveland bays, Yorkshire, French and
German coachers, Canadian stock,
blooded ponies and hackneys. They
may be broadly classified as high step
pers and long steppers.
The long steppers are the American
type of roadsters The high steppers
are of imported strains or else cross
between imported stock and the Ameri-
can horse.
The carriage and harness stock I'M
ported are always horses of high leg
action, OF snowy head carriage, with
plenty of substance. The trotting type
and the thoroughbred are both built, to
use yachting term, on speed lines,
but the imported carriage animal has
no suggestion of speed in his bearing
His action is grand, but slow.
In choosing harness horse pick out
the type best adapted for the use you
intend TO give him. For riding on the
ordinary sandy roads OF the country IN
a buggy, road wagon or rockawaY The
best horse is the American type, either
| trotter or a haIfbred. For fast road
work for pleasure the trotter, of course,
has the call. For city and park driving,
to carriage or snowy trap, the high
steppers are the best.
What Is termed by dealers the Amer
lean horse mems an animal with
straight back, rather narrow body,
long step in trotting and a straight neck
1t is the ordinary harness horse
of the United States and is unsurpassed
for many purposes. This horse is
usually well bred, stralning back to
established trotting families or to the
thoroughbred. The shape of the head
and neck usually shows the infusion OF
thoroughbred blood. The thorough
bred was the foundation OF almost all
of the old trotting lines. RysdYk' 5
Hambletonian was sired by Old Abdal
lab, by Mambtiuo, and the dam was
by imported Belfounder, and the
Messenger, Diomed, Black Hawk and
Morgan lines are strong in thorough
bred blood.
The descendants of the old trotting
families, crossed with the thoroughbred
or with the half thoroughbred standard
sires, produced the fast trotters of the
day and the average roadster is bred
on the same lines. Sunol an AXtel' S
pedigrees are rich in blood lines and
the same Is true of almost all the record
makers. For out of almost every five
roadsters seen in Central park are hall
or three quarters thoroughbred.
The best type of American harness
horse is raised in Kentucky; but Nir-
ginia, Ohio, Indiana and New York
also produce excellent specimens.
For tandem, dog cart pbe:on, I cart
and light carriages the Canadian horses
and hackneys are the best types. They
range in height from IS hands to I5Iz
possess high action, symmetrical form
fine muscular development, sinewl
limbs, fine heads, glossy coats ant
proud bearing. The Canadian horse
is a descendant of the Norman horse
imported into Canada by the early set
tiers and bred from many generations
entirely unmixed, crossed with thorough
bred stock. The hackney IS the ma
tive harness horse Of England, a breeC
that was distinct before the Arabian
horses were brought to the country
and which has been preserved in it
purity by the farmers Of Yorkshire.
t The har'nev orse Fashion, ownet
, by W, EFT QUITS, has twice wor
t the light harness hors