152 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



It is most curious how a type happens. The 

 Morgans, as has been shown in a previous 

 chapter, came from a horse whose pedigree was 

 not even considered, and to this day is known 

 only by conjecture and not at all by established 

 fact. He was considered a good horse in his day, 

 but it was not until his sons begat colts of excep- 

 tional merit that it was thought worth while to in- 

 quire into his origin, and that of his antecedents. 

 With Denmark it was, in a degree, different. Den- 

 mark was a Thoroughbred, though some who are 

 over-critical, quarrel with the pedigree of his dam. 

 Let that be as it may. In 1839, when he was foal- 

 ed, begat by Imported Hedgeford out of Betsey 

 Harrison, he was about as good a Thoroughbred 

 as the generality of those we had in America. 

 Moreover, he was a successful contestant on the 

 turf and a good horse at four-mile heats. These 

 disputes as to the purity of the blood of our early 

 horses are rather academic than practical. In all 

 of the early race- horses, not purely English, there 

 were infusions of the American basic blood; and 

 for that matter this was the case also in England, 

 where the Thoroughbred at that time was only 



