THE MORGAN HORSE 77 



effort to re-establish the Morgan type they would 

 have served a purpose far from vain. 



Twenty years or so ago, when the horse shows 

 began to take the place of the old-time county 

 fairs, the driving horse that was popular in the 

 United States was the Standard Bred Trotter, 

 which usually traced back to Messenger through 

 Hambletonian, who has been celebrated with 

 such insistence of praise as the great begettor of 

 trotters that the majority of Americans believe 

 all that has been said of him as the actual and in- 

 disputable truth. It is not a grateful task to de- 

 stroy established and well-liked fictions, so for 

 the moment I shall pass the Hambletonian fiction 

 by, and devote myself to telling about horses of 

 superior breeding, better manners, higher cour- 

 age, greater symmetry and above all, a prepo- 

 tency of blood which reproduces itself in off- 

 spring. from generation to generation, so that we 

 have in the Morgans an easily recognized and 

 most valuable type. Before going on with my 

 story, however, I must disavow any intention to 

 detract from the merits of those who have bred 

 and trained the wonderful trotters that have, 



