2-995-717 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Paris Hippodrome: seventeen horses driven by M. Marin, 1860. 'After numerous attempts M. Marin has just succeeded in the accomplishment of this dangerous exercise by means of a simplification in the arrangement of the reins, which are passed through rings attached to the surcingle or girth surrounding the belly of each middle horse...M. Marin...assured us that by this new system he could drive with equal facility, in a standing position on the backs of the two hindmost animals, as many as fifty horses at a time. There has not occurred hitherto the slightest accident in the course of these clever performances, which commence by a canter round the Hippodrome, afterwards continued by a race at full speed. The most perilous part of the exhibition is the exit from the arena, on account of the numerous turns required for driving the long equine train back to their stable quarters. Nothing can be more graceful than the ensemble of the seventeen fine animals racing at full speed round the immense circus of the Hippodrome, the extent of which is admirably adapted for witnessing such a spectacle to advantage, and for rendering the chances of accident less probable than in an inclosure of smaller proportions.' From "Illustrated London News", 1860.