CHAPTER XVII. 



MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS. 



Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors Record of pedigrees in Eng- 

 lish Stud Book Pedigrees made from unreliable sources Messenger's right 

 male line examined Flying Guilders' "mile in a minute" Blaze short 

 of being thoroughbred Sampson, a good race horse His size; short in 

 his breeding Engineer short also Mauibrino was a race horse with at 

 least two pacing crosses; distinguished only as a progenitor of coach 

 horses and fast trotters Messenger's dam cannot be traced nor identified 

 Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one that 

 founded a family of trotters This fact conceded by eminent writers in 

 attempting to find others. 



HAVING completed a brief historical sketch of horse history 

 from the beginning, and many events connected therewith, we 

 are now ready to consider the American Trotting Horse, as the 

 culmination of what has been written. Thus far we have met 

 with much pretentious nonsense, claiming to be history and 

 written by men who never gave the subject the study of an 

 honest hour. The horse is honest enough, but the rule seems 

 to be almost universal that whenever men commence to write 

 about him they are guided by their imagination and not by the 

 facts. As to what we are to meet in the coming chapters, I can 

 only say that, unfortunately, "the fathers have eaten sour grapes 

 and the children's teeth are set on edge." The instinct to mis- 

 represent has been transmitted, and I cannot promise that we 

 will find any great moral improvement among the horsemen of 

 our own country and generation. 



For more than three-quarters of a century, and indeed from 

 the first trotting experiences of this country that have been pre- 

 served, it has been the unanimous judgment of all who have 

 given any thought or attention to the subject that the imported 

 English horse, Messenger, was the great central source of trot- 

 ting speed. As the years have rolled by this opinion has 

 increased in strength until it has become an intelligent and 

 demonstrated belief. When, forty years ago, a horse was found 



