290 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



of 2:31, another, Paul, was a very fast road horse, and two died 

 young. Of her four sons kept entire, Electioneer, Mansfield, 

 Antonio, and Lancelot, all are sires of trotters, and her daughters 

 already figure as producers. The figures would seem to point to 

 the daughter of Shanghai Mary and Harry Clay, 2:29, as perhaps 

 the most wonderful of all great trotting brood mares. She was a 

 brown mare, barely fifteen hands high, with a star and white hind 

 ankles, and was finely formed, with an exceptionally beautifully 

 outlined and expressive head. She had very superior trotting 

 action, the trot being her fastest natural gait. A writer who 

 made a very close study of her history said, on this point, in Wal- 

 lace's Monthly: 



" Her education was limited to a single lesson when three years old; but 

 previously she had been regularly developed on somewhat the same plan since 

 adopted for early training at Palo Alto, and was probably one of the fastest 

 trotters out of harness that ever lived." 



As a matter of fact Green Mountain Maid, while in no sense 

 vicious, was so highly strung, wild and uncontrollable, that her 

 training was abandoned with the "one lesson" referred to, and 

 she never wore harness again. 



Green Mountain Maid was a money producer as well as a 

 speed producer. Mr. Backman paid four hundred and fifty 

 dollars for her when she was carrying her first foal, and the 

 writer above quoted states that up to that date (1889) Mr. 

 Backman had received sixty-eight thousand eight hundred 

 and thirty dollars for such of her progeny as he had then 

 sold. This remarkable mare died June 6, 1888, and a fit- 

 ting monument marks her grave by the banks of the Walkill. 



At maturity Electioneer was of that shade of bay that many 

 might call brown, and stood precisely fifteen and one-half hands 

 at the wither and an inch higher measured at the quarter. Many 

 of his get, notably Sunol, are pronouncedly higher behind than 

 at the wither. In general conformation, Electioneer was a stout 

 and muscular horse, standing on fairly short legs. His head was 

 well proportioned, of fair size, and a model of intelligent beauty. 

 The forehead was broad and brainy, the eyes large and softly 

 expressive, and the profile regular, with just the faintest sugges- 

 tion of concavity beneath the line of the eyes. Electioneer's 

 neck was a trifle too short for elegance of proportion, but 

 not gross. His shoulder was good, the barrel round, of good 



