ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 129 



American Girl (2.16J), Lucy, and George Palmer. Her 

 career ended through falling when being boxed at a rail- 

 way station, when she got a hip down through striking an 

 iron rail with it, the accident happening in 1870, and she 

 then retired to the stud with a record of 2.18J. 



Undoubtedly it was an event of the greatest national 

 importance when the grey thoroughbred horse Messenger 

 first trod American soil, for most of the fastest trotters 

 of to-day inherit his blood. He was bred at Newmarket 

 in England by John Pratt, Esq., in 1780, and stood 

 15.3 high. 



Mr. Helm devotes some pages of his book to endeavouring 

 to prove a supposition that Sampson, the great grand-sire 

 of Messenger, was not by Blaze, as stated in the English 

 Stud Book, but by a coarse-bred horse, and that it was due to 

 this parentage that Messenger owed his phenomenal powers 

 of transmitting trotting qualities. The chief arguments of 

 Mr. Helm are that Sampson was black in colour, very coarse 

 in appearance, with great strength, and he further states : 

 " All persons acquainted with the character of the English 

 race-horses descended from the pure Arab know that they 

 possessed no such instincts {i.e., trotting). What they did 

 not possess they could not transmit." Now in this reason- 

 ing he is certainly in error, for many thoroughbred horses 

 are extremely fast trotters when put to that gait ; fre- 

 quently also the same may be said of Arabians at the 

 present day, and Barb horses, some of which breed appear 

 in the pedigree of Mambrino, the sire of Messenger. Again, 

 though black is a rare colour amongst pure-bred Arabians, 

 this does not apply to Barb horses, wherefore Sampson 

 may have inherited his colour from his African ancestors. 

 Some strains of Barbs, too, show great strength, especially 

 the Shawya tribe, which are built after the fashion of the 

 Fell galloways of the North of England, though at the 

 same time they are possessed of great speed. Many Barb 

 horses reach 15.3 in height and are frequently fast trotters, 

 though the Moors themselves prefer the pacing gait, and 

 take much pains to develop this by careful training. Mr. 

 Walter Winans has pointed out an interesting fact in con- 



10 



