20 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



sire and develops them in their own progeny. Several of them 

 were not only trained to run, bat did run successfully. It is not 

 known that any of his sons was ever trained to trot, but it is 

 known from contemporaneous evidence that several of them were 

 fast natural trotters, notably Bishop's Hambletonian, Bush Mes- 

 senger, Winthrop Messenger, Mambrino, etc., all of which will 

 be considered in their proper place. When we reach the second 

 remove from Messenger we begin to enter into the full fruition 

 of all the promises, and in considering such 'animals as Abdallah, 

 Almack, Mambrino Paymaster, Harris' Hambletonian, etc., we 

 begin to feel that we are well within the trotting latitudes, for 

 this remove began to found families and tribes that attracted the 

 attention of all intelligent breeders. 



In the next remove from Messenger we strike the most famous 

 of all trotting progenitors in Rysdyk's Hambletonian. At one 

 time there was an active and determined difference of opinion 

 among breeders as to which of three horses, Hambletonian, Ethan 

 Allen, or Mambrino Chief, would in the end prove to be the most 

 successful sire. This controversy may not be remembered by the 

 younger of the present generation of horsemen, but it was bitter 

 and uncompromising, and it presents a lesson so important that it 

 may be here referred to. The adherents of Ethan Allen argued 

 that as he was handsomer, that his gait was the very perfection of 

 trotting^action, and that he was incomparably faster than either 

 of the other two, he must of necessity prove the most success- 

 ful in begetting trotters. The adherents of Mambrino Chief 

 used the same argument, with the exception of beauty and style, 

 and dwelt strongly on the fact that he was a faster horse than 

 Hambletonian, and would consequently get faster offspring. 

 Both these arguments were good, so far as they went, but they 

 lacked completeness and hence were not sound. Neither Ethan 

 Allen nor Mambrino Chief had a dam, and so far as we know the 

 inheritance of both was restricted to the male side of the house. 

 Development of speed is a valuable and real qualification in any 

 sire, but all experience goes to show that it is only a help to an 

 inheritance. Hambletonian was not much developed, but it is 

 conceded on all hands that he could show a 2:40 gait at any time 

 and that his action was very perfect. He was got by a grandson 

 of Messenger, whose dam, Amazonia, was one of the fastestmares 

 of her generation, whatever her blood may have been. Abdallah 

 got more and faster trotters than any other grandson of Messenger, 



