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Harness Racing - USTA Racing - United States Trotting Association. The USTA's Internet-based computer database is your source for complete and official data on Standardbred racing, breeding, and data on the individuals who drive, train, own, and breed Standardbreds.
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Sep 17, 2023 · Harness racing is a type of horse racing where a horse pulls a vehicle called a sulky. The person controlling the horse is known as a driver, not a jockey. Racing takes place on a track and the horses compete at a trot or a pace. A sulky is a lightweight two-wheeled vehicle that is designed to seat just one person.
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harness racing, sport of driving at speed a Standardbred (q.v.) horse pulling a light two-wheeled vehicle called a sulky. Harness racing horses are of two kinds, differentiated by gait: the pacing horse, or pacer, moves both legs on one side of its body at the same time; the trotting horse, or trotter, strides with its left front and right rear leg...
Early records of the antecedents of harness racing are ancient. Assyrian kings of 1500 bc maintained elaborate stables, and professional trainers for horses used to draw chariots, originally used in war but soon also used in the sport of hunting. Homer’s account of the chariot race in the Iliad is later. There were four-horse hitch chariot races in the Olympic Games of the 7th century bc and races with two-horse hitches earlier. Horses were locally bred with others from Asia Minor and northern Africa.
Chariot racing came into great prominence as a sport after its transfer to Rome. Public records were kept of the bloodlines of horses; exceptional horses were buried with stelae giving their records (one had 1,300 first place victories, 88 second places, and 37 third places). A perfect site for chariot racing was found between the Palatine and Aventine hills, where the Circus Maximus was built. By the 4th century ad this hippodrome’s permanent stands could hold 200,000 spectators. In Greece chariot racing had been a sport of rich men, but in Rome the sport involved companies, distinguished by their colours: white, red, blue, and green. In the reign of Augustus (27 bc–ad 14), there were 12 races a day; by Flavius’ reign (69–96), the number rose to 100, from daybreak until sundown, the length of races being shortened to accommodate the larger number. The sport had professional racing officials, starting chutes, disputes at law, accusations of doping horses, widespread gambling (spectators wore their favourite company’s colour), and riots. The chariot disappeared as a military vehicle and chariot racing ended with the fall of Rome in the 4th century; modern harness racing did not begin to evolve until early in the 19th century.
As early as 1554 the fastest of 3,000 horses at a horse fair in Valkenburg in Holland competed in trotting matches. The Golden Whip, Holland’s most famous trotting event, was first run in 1777 at Soestdijk. About the same time Aleksey, Count Orlov, began to develop a powerful trotting strain at his stud farm in Russia. From his stallion Barss came the Orlov trotter that became the foundation of Russian trotting stock.
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England’s Norfolk Trotter, which emerged as a breed around 1750, was purely a road horse, but its speed led to its being used for road racing as a diversion for its owners. Most of its matches were trotting a given distance within a specified time.
Trotting in North America also had its heritage in road racing, but in the early 19th century there were trotting tracks in the United States. Yankee trotted a mile over the track at Harlem, New York, in 1806 in 2:59. This time was lowered to 2:48 1/2 by an unnamed trotting gelding from Boston at the Hunting Park track in Philadelphia in 1810. By midcentury harness racing also thrived at county fairs in the United States and agricultural fairs in eastern and central Canada.
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Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky , spider, or chariot occupied by a driver.
May 26, 2023 · Views: 181,617. A horse harness allows the horse to pull either a cart or carriages. To harness a horse, first put the collar around the horse's head or the breast strap around the chest. Put the saddle and breeching around the horse's body, and fasten...
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What is a harness racing horse?
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A horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a horse-drawn vehicle or another type of load to pull. There are two main designs of horse harness: (1) the breast collar or breaststrap, and (2) the full collar or collar-and-hames.
A Standardbred is a breed of horse that originated in the United States of America. This breed is most commonly known for its pacing and trotting abilities and has been a popular harness racing horse for over two centuries.
