French Trotter

French Trotter : The French Trotter is one of the famous and toughest harness racers in the world. The country of origin of the French Trotter horse is France in which it is considered to be the most important breed stock.

It is developed from the sports horses that were existing in the Normandy region in France, thus the alternative name of the breed is Norman Trotter. The beginnings are dating back to the early 1800s when Harness racing was gaining great popularity. To develop this breed, the Normandy breeders brought Thoroughbred horses and added as well bloodlines of Norfolk Roadsters in order to crossbreed them with the native Norman Horses and produce lighter offspring.

The breeding was done on small studs, but the inspection standards are very rigorous and serious for a horse to be registered in the studbook because these animals are literally bred to trot. They also have to pass a qualification test of time. The results were five important trotter bloodlines, of whom the modern French Trotter traces.

Later on, bloodlines of American Standardbred was also added, to increase the speed qualities of the breed, but it didn`t affect the toughness of the French breed. One of the most admired trotting lines is the Fuchsia.

It sired approximately 400 trotters, of whom hundreds were sires of winners. The other four stallions are Conquerant, Lavater, Normand, and Phaeton. The most influential stallion from the 19th century was Young Rattler. The French Trotter Stud Book was closed in 1937 but reopened recently to register crossbreeds between French Trotters and Standardbreds.