TROTTING FAMILIES. 49 



side view one would judge him to be a draught horse, 

 but a front or rear view would dispel the illusion. His 

 hind legs were sickle-shaped, front knees sprung back- 

 wards, legs wide and thin, very short from knees down, 

 great length of arms, with muscles long and massive, 

 hips extending so far forward and shoulders so far 

 backward that there was not length enough of back 

 for an ordinary riding saddle to be properly adjusted. 

 He seemed to be made of hips and shoulders, but had 

 good length of belly. His only gait was a pace. I 

 have often seen him pace with a running horse beside 

 him, and for a few hundred yards he would always 

 come out ahead." 



He had a sleek, short coat, and this and his sloping 

 shoulders were his only indications of good breeding. 

 As he was the single son of Pruden's Blue Bull, and 

 the single grandson of Merring's Blue Bull, to attain 

 reputation as a trotting sire it is fair to assume that 

 he derived his good qualities in great measure from 

 his dam. She was a " sorrel chestnut," about 15.1 

 high, with good trotting action, considerable speed, 

 and great endurance. On one occasion she was ridden 

 eighty-seven miles in eleven hours by a man who 

 weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. Her sire 

 was Young Selim, of a family called Truxton, 1 and 

 Young Selim is supposed to have been a half-bred. 

 Early in life Wilson's Blue Bull lost an eye, and was 

 deformed by a kick which broke one of his fore legs. 

 Thus his extraordinary and ugly appearance was 



1 The original Truxton, a son of Diomed, was owned and 

 raced by President Jackson. General Stonewall Jackson's favorite 

 charger was a sorrel called Truxton, probably a member of the 

 same familv. 



