150 



with a wagon weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, at that time the 

 best heat ever made, considering the weight drawn. Mack, the great 

 competitor with Lady Suffolk, is a Messenger horse, and went in 2 m. 

 26 s. ; the Lady herself is a full-bred Messenger, for ought any one knows 

 to the contrary. The Abdallah stock are from the Messenger blood, and 

 all of them go — many being remarkably fast. The fastest Western trot- 

 ting horse, O'Blenis, is an Abdallah. Although Messenger was imported 

 into the United States as early as 1791, sixty-one years since, his descend- 

 ants at this day partake largely of his characteristics. Other stocks of 

 horses could be cited to support this position ; the Morgan horse, for 

 instance, is a striking exemplification of our theory. That color, speed, 

 longevity, vice, defective vision, and various malformations in horses are 

 inherited, no observing man will deny. 



In selecting a brood mare, as much attention should be bestowed, or 

 more, as in selecting a sire. About fifteen and one-half hands has been 

 very near the height of the most celebrated horses of our day. They 

 should have good length of body, with clear bright eyes, small head, 

 long clean neck, oblique shoulder, and withers as high as possible, 

 which position of the shoulder blade allows extensive and safe action. — 

 Such horses never stumble ; and if they trip, will recover, while an ani- 

 mal with an upright shoulder would come down entirely. High withers 

 give room for the attachment and length of muscle which an upi-ight 

 shoulder cannot have. The oblique shoulder is indispensable for rapid, 

 safe and easy motion. The legs should be muscular, and as long from 

 the elbow joint to the knee, and as short from the knee to the hoof as 

 possible ; this will also give extensive action to the fore parts, which a 

 horse could not have with a length from the knee to the hoof equal to 

 the length from the elbow to the knee. The chest should barrel out back 

 of the girth, and be large and capacious, both to give the animal good 

 health, and cause it to keep easy, as the size of the chest is of great con- 

 sequence to the health, longevity and usefulness of the horse. This 

 part is too superficially noticed by purchasers in general. The loins 

 should be broad and well covered with muscle, and the haunch — or as it 

 is generally called, hip — should be long, to the place of its termination. 

 The old saying of a "long-bodied horse, with a short back, and long 

 under the belly " being a good one, was not without truth, as a long 

 oblique scapula, with a long hip or haunch would produce just that con- 

 formation of body best suited for speed. Great length from the hip to 



