Orlov Trotter - Orlov Trotters in The 19th Century

Orlov Trotters in The 19th Century

In 1809, the Khrenovsky stud-farm was inherited by Orlov's daughter Anna. Until 1831 Orlov's disciple, the former serf Vasily Shishkin, continued to develop the breed. However, in 1831, he left the Khrenovsky stud-farm and founded his own. Orlov's daughter lacked her father's competence in horse-breeding and the Khrenovsky stud-farm went downhill. Trotters were intensively crossed with various European breeds in order to increase their dimensions and their quality fell. In 1845, the stud-farm passed into the hands of the Crown, but for some time this only made matters worse. It was able to regain its fame only some decades later. In 1881, the Khrenovsky stud-farm stopped raising all breeds except for Orlov trotters. The best Orlov trotters were now raised in private stud-farms such as the Shishkin's.

In 1834, a Trotting Society was established in Moscow, and regular races began. Orlov trotters had already proved to be the best racing horses in Russia and soon they proved to be the best in Europe. In 1867, Orlov trotter Beduin made headlines when, at World's Fair in Paris, it covered 3500 feet in 1 minute 32 seconds – 4 seconds ahead the fastest Standardbred mare, Flora Temple. Since then many trotters have been sold abroad where they greatly contributed to the creation of local trotting breeds. Meanwhile, in the USA, Standardbreds were gradually improved until they were able to outrace Orlov trotters. In 1877, harness racing totalisator emerged in Russia and this led to crucial changes in breeding Orlovs. Many stud-farmers turned to raising racing horses who were not as large and hard-working or as beautiful and elegant as traditional Orlov trotters. Since Standardbreds were, in general, faster than Orlov trotters, these breeds were intensively crossed. The resulting breed was called Russian trotters and they lacked many distinctive features of Orlov trotters. They were smaller and lighter and were not capable of doing as much work as Orlov trotters. In order to prevent Orlov trotters from disappearing through mixing with Standardbreds, the government introduced separate races for Orlov trotters and Standardbreds. Finally Russian stud-farmers managed to improve the racing performance of Orlov trotters. Stallion Krepysh born in 1904 won 55 races and covered 1 mile for 2 minutes 8.5 seconds. He was the fastest trotter in pre-revolutionary Russia. Krepysh and most of his issue died during the Russian civil war.