Harness racing Harness racing 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, occupied by a driver, although in Europe, jockeys riding directly on saddled trotters ("trot monté" in French) is also conducted. In North America, harness races are restricted to Standardbred horses, although European racehorses may also be French Trotters or Russian Trotters, or have mixed ancestry with lineages from multiple breeds. Orlov Trotters race separately in Russia. The light cold-blooded Coldblood trotters and Finnhorses race separately in Finland,
Harness racing in Finland 3 000 are competing in harness racing. Finnhorse harness racing has recently decreased slightly, and occasionally coldblood heats have to be cancelled due to lack of participants. As of 2004, less than 35 percent of all harness racing heats were open for coldblood horses, more than 5 percental units less than in the early 1990s. Harness racing in general is not experiencing any such decline. The decrease of the popularity of the Finnhorse can be result from many factors. For instance, the expenses of horse keeping in Finland are high, so light trotters, usable for competition a year earlier than