An Introduction on Harness Horse Racing (Trotting)

In the United States, harness racing began early in the 1800s as a pastime on country roads, village main streets, and prominent city avenues. Later in the 19^th century Americans began to think of it as a sport, known as “trotting.” Trotting was considered the great national pastime, and the names of both horses and horsemen become household words. The term “harness racing” came at the end of the century, when turf writers sometimes used it.

History

John H.Wallace is credited with establishing the breed of the trotting horse known as the Standardbred. His Trotting Supplement to the American Stud Book in 1867 was the first step in that direction.Horses of all breeds were admitted, but Wallace soon cut off all doubtful pedigree lines. The founding father of today’s Standardbreds is Messenger, who arrived in the United States five years after the Revolution and sired at least 600 foals. The trotters he produced became known for their trotting action, speed, and gameness that placed them in a class by themselves.

Originally, trotters and pacers were ridden to saddle. But their gaits lent themselves to being hitched to wagons and racing carts known as sulkies, light twowheeled carriages constructed for a single person. For most of the 19^th century, sulkies were made with high wheels. In 1892, the new bike-wheel sulkies quickly replaced the high wheelers; they were faster, negotiated the runs better, and placed the driver behind the horse, reducing wind resistance. The 1939 establishment of the U.S. Trotting Association 1939 unified harness racing, but the real revolution occurred in 1940, when artificially lighted night races were introduced at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York. The raceway lost a considerable amount of money in its first two years, but as attendance and pari-mutuel handle (the total amount of money wagered) increased, new tracks opened and old tracks reopened.The Western Harness Racing Association was organized in 1946 and developed harness racing on the West Coast.

Rules and Play

Today’s standard sulky is based on a single-shaft design created by aeronautical engineer Joe King. It featured an arched shaft over the horse’s back connected to the back pad of the harness. A small crossbar on the shaft provided foot support.

A harness horse either trots or paces. If he trots, his legs move in diagonal pairs—front right and rear left together, front left and rear right together.A pacer does the opposite: the right front and right rear legs move at the same time, followed by the front and rear legs on the left side of his body. These gaits, the trot and the pace, are inherited by most Standardbreds. Training produces the ability to maintain them at high speed over long distances. Rarely are both gaits found in the same field of horses, and generally—especially where money is involved—trotters compete against trotters and pacers do battle with their own kind.

A pacer is readily identified by his side-swaying motion.Where the trotter’s body is usually balanced in the center, the pacer is constantly shifting his weight from side to side, which creates the rocking motion that inspired their nickname, “side-wheelers.” Most pacers racing today wear hopples (or hobbles)—leather or plastic straps that are designed to go around a horse’s legs on each side of its body and keep the horse on gait.

Drivers need strength and the ability to make splitsecond decisions; they must control their tempers, fears, and nervousness since horses sense a driver’s indecisiveness and respond accordingly. Driver and a harness horse must race as a unit, understanding each other, responding through the senses, by touch and by word.

Harness racing used to be known as an old man’s sport. Today the average driver is around 40.As long as a driver stays in good physical condition he can compete actively for many years longer than athletes in other sports.