1910s

30 min read

The first French king

He was a war foal who rose to the top of the French elite in the 1920. The first and only horse to be disqualified from a win in...

American

15 min read

The first pride of Hanover

He was the world’s first 1:56 trotter and a prized possession of Lawrence Sheppard’s fledging Hanover Shoe Farms...

American

19 min read

The little big champion

He was a slight two-year-old who was sold off in the belief that he had no future. However, the 15 hands/152 cm trotter grew to...

American

10 min read

The horse who was sunk

J Malcolm Forbes was one of the biggest owners and breeders of standardbreds from 1890 until his death in 1904. Forbes shelled...

American

19 min read

The vicious superstar

The only horse in history to set world records at 1, 2, 3 and 4 before eventually becoming one of the great stallions in history...

American, European

9 min read

The choking horse

The Norwegian Trotting association started to keep stallion records in 1928, and every year until 1936 the Kentucky-born chestnut...

The first great Franco-American

European

9 min read

The Franco-American cross is more popular than ever, and many in the US have also recognized the benefits of such a breeding. It’s often said the cross created a new breed (figuratively, not literally) in the 80s and 90s. Though there is some truth to that, the Franco-American cross was very popular much earlier than that. In fact, more than 100 years ago the French trotter (Trotteur Francais) could not compete with neither the American standardbreds nor the Russian orlov trotters. Then came a French-American cross to establish himself as the first French international star.