THE HEAVY-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 4? 



in this respect to all the other breeds of light horses. 

 Since the eighteenth century, the breed has been under- 

 going evolution, and it may be said to have had its in- 

 ception with Shales (699), variously called "The Orig- 

 inal," " Old Shales," and so on. This horse, in the history 

 of the Hackney or Norfolk trotter, stands in relation to 

 the breed very much as Hambletonian 10 does in that of 

 the Standardbred horse or American trotter; and, 

 curiously enough, their breeding is of surprising similarity. 

 Shales (699) was sired by Blaze, a Thoroughbred horse, 

 foaled in 1733. It is said that Blaze was not a Thorough- 

 bred, but the best evidence we have credits him with 

 being about as much so as any other horse of that early 

 day. Blaze was by Flying Childers (a noted running 

 horse), by the Barley Arabian. The dam of Blaze is 

 asserted to have been by Grey Grantham, by Brownlow 

 Turk out of a mare by the Duke of Rutland's Black 

 Barb. Now the same Blaze sired Sampson, the sire of 

 Engineer, he the sire of Mambrino, and he, in turn, the 

 sire of Messenger, which was imported to America and 

 was the grandsire of Hambletonian 10. Again, the dam 

 of Hambletonian 10 was the Charles Kent mare by Im- 

 ported Bellfounder, a Norfolk trotter tracing back through 

 the Fireaways to Driver, a son of Shales by Blaze. The 

 dam of the Kent mare was One Eye, by Bishop's Ham- 

 bletonian, a son of Messenger. Yet again, Mambrino 

 Chief was by Mambrino Paymaster, by Mambrino, by 

 Messenger. So we have the two great lines of the Ameri- 

 can trotter, Hambletonian 10 and Mambrino Chief 11, 

 tracing back through Messenger to Blaze, and the most 

 noted of the early sires of Hackneys or the Norfolk trotters 

 going back to the same Blaze. May it not be reasonable 

 to assume from these facts that the latter horse orig- 



