The Coming Horse. 161 



" When everytliing is considered, I am of the opinion that 

 George M. Patchen was the best horse that Flora Temple 

 ever contended with and that, therefore, their names must 

 ixo down linked too-ether as those of the best mare and the 

 best stallion that have yet appeared." 



The struggle to keep up the reputation of Vermont 

 horses has been long and arduous. Men there have been 

 who, catching an inspiration as it were, or a glimpse of the 

 truth, have imported foreign blood such as Harris' Hamble- 

 tonian (by Messenger), Megg's Abdallah (by Abdallah, 

 by Messenger), Cock of the Rock (by Diiroc), Ber- 

 nev Henry, and the like, to increase the size, lengthen the 

 stride and raise the standard of Yermont horses ; but peo- 

 ple have patronized them with extreme caution, and only 

 found out their value when they had passed away or, per- 

 haps, not at all ; when their stock became brood mares 

 from which Morgan stallions made their reputations, the 

 product of which was Morgan, Black Hawk or what not, as 

 the case' might be, always accredited for whatever merit it 

 might possess to the stallion that sired it, from whence it 

 took its name. 



In the mares thus obtained there were elements of great 

 success, but the traditional love for the Morgan was held 

 so tenaciously in our hearts that we ignored their influence 

 and fell back upon the Morgan, as exemplified in the Black 

 Hawk to the second and third generations, greatly to our 

 detriment. 



Black Hawk found many good mares in Yermont, 

 descendants of these foreign horses, and Photo, Addison, 

 6 



