94 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



of the horses with which he was running in an 

 open yard. He was without shelter, and inflam- 

 mation, which set in, hurried him to the close of 

 his career. A horse of coarse and weak fibre 

 would not have triumphed over the difficulties 

 and the hardships that he was compelled to face. 

 Walter T. Chester, author of the Complete 

 Trotting and Pacing Record, who was long 

 associated with me, but who is now the record- 

 ing secretary of the Vermont Horse Breeders' 

 Association, addressed a letter to me, when he 

 learned that I was to write a history of the trot- 

 ting and pacing horse, in which he said : " It 

 may interest you to know that nearly 5000 

 stallions and many mares have been registered 

 in the second volume of the Morgan Register. 

 The basis is blood alone, upon which you know 

 I often argued in the columns of the Turf, Field, 

 and Farm. Are not the Morgans the only dis- 

 tinct breed of trotters now extant? Eligibility 

 for registration is based upon the blood of Justin 

 Morgan, and upon that alone. With a certain 

 percentage of the foundation blood an animal 

 is admitted; without it he stays out." I have 

 always conceded the wonderful prepotency of 

 Justin Morgan. The racial characteristics of 



