208 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



note any point upon which my own judgment differs from his.. 

 It should be remembered that this description was made when 

 the horse was breaking down with the weight of years: 



Hambletonian, now twenty-six years old, is a rich deep mahogany bay, with 

 black legs, the black extending very high up on the arms and stifles. His 

 mane was originally black, and in his younger days very ornamental; rather 

 light, like that of the blood-horse, and of medium length, never reaching below 

 the lower line of the neck, but uniform throughout. His foretop was always 

 light. At the present time not a vestige of either remains, they having 

 gradually disappeared until crest and crown are bald. His tail is long and 

 full. When we first knew him it was very full, but is also thinning with his 

 advancing years. The hair of both was black as a raven's wing, and entirely 

 devoid of wave or curl. His marks are a very small star and two white ankles 

 behind, but the coronets being dotted with black spots, the hoofs are mainly 

 dark. Muzzle dark. Head large and bony, with profile inclining to the Roman 

 order; jowl deep; jaws not as wide apart as in some of his descendants, yet not- 

 deficient. Eye very large and prominent, and countenance generally animated 

 and expressive of good temper. We found him to measure 10^ inches across 

 the face. Ear large, well set, and lively. Neck rather short and a little heavy 

 at the throatlatch, but thin and clean at the crest. His shoulders are very 

 oblique, deep andstrong; withers low and broad; sway very short, and coupling 

 smooth. The great fillets of muscle running back along the spine give extraor- 

 dinary width and strength to the loin, which threatens to lose the closely-set 

 hip in the wealth of its embrace. But it is back of here that we find lodged 

 the immense and powerful machinery that, imparted to his sons and daughters, 

 has ever placed them in the foremost ranks of trotters. His hip is long and 

 croup high, with great length from hip-point to hock. Thighs and stifles 

 swelling with the sinewy muscle, which extends well down into his large, 

 clean, bony hocks, hung near the ground. Below these the leg is broad, flat, 

 and clean, with the tendons well detached from the bone, and drops at a con- 

 siderable angle with the upper part of the limb, giving the well-bent rather 

 than the straight hock. Pasterns long, but strong and elastic, and let into 

 hoofs that are perfection. In front his limbs in strength and muscular develop- 

 ment comport with the rear formation. His chest is broad and prominent; his 

 forelegs stand wide apart (perhaps in part the result of much covering), and he 

 is deep through the heart; yet notwithstanding this, and the fact of his round- 

 ness of barrel, there is no appearence of heaviness or hampered action. 



Taken at a glance, the impressive features of the horse are his immense sub- 

 stance, without a particle of coarseness or grossness. No horse we can recall 

 has so great a volume of bone, with the same apparent firmness of texture and 

 true blood-like quality. Though short-backed, he is very long underneath. 

 Indeed, he is a horse of greater than apparent length. We found his measure- 

 ment from breast to breeching, in a straight line, greater by four inches than 

 his height at the withers a very unusual excess. We also found him two 

 inches higher over the rump than at the withers, and the whole rear, or 

 propelling portion of the machinery, would upon measurement seem to have 

 been molded for an animal two sizes larger than the one to which it is at- 



