240 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



shire and Vermont, with an occasional change to the French Canadians, and 

 now and then a quarter or half bred horse from New York or New Jersey. " 



This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially 

 valuable, as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent 

 observer from a personal acquaintance with the original horse 

 and his progeny. There are some inferences, however, that may 

 be drawn from Mr. Howard's letter that would be unjust to this 

 distinguished animal. His general coarse appearance, in con- 

 nection with which Mr. H. says, "he hardly looked like a half 

 bred horse," was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino, 

 a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the 

 same remark was often made about him. The quantity and 

 length of his coat in the winter of his old age are not conclusive 

 against his pretensions to a large share of good and pure blood. 

 They are the results oftentimes of neglect and ill health. It is 

 somewhere stated that the famous Sir Archy before he died 

 looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully three inches long. 

 Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that "the second generation 

 from Mr. Hayward's horse were generally faster trotters than the 

 first." In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would 

 be altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these 

 things if development and use did not strengthen and intensify 

 the instinct to trot in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is 

 right, and we do not doubt he is, the increased capacity did not 

 grow out of the dilution of the blood, but out of the strengthen- 

 ing of the instinct by culture and use. At the time Mr. Howard 

 made this remark he evidently did not know that the famous 

 old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were 

 both immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In 

 their day these two were classed among the best and fastest trot- 

 ters that the world had then produced. The facts that both 

 these animals were the immediate progeny of Winthrop Messen- 

 ger were never brought to light for many years, and all I will say 

 about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or 

 suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established. 



In a letter written by Mr. Hayward, May 12, 1852, in speaking 

 of the useful and everyday qualities of this horse's progeny, 

 he used the following language: 



' ' The stock produced by that horse I consider superior, as combining more 

 properties useful in a horse than any other stock I have ever been acquainted 



