THE TROTTING-BRED HORSE 187 



"When Messenger charged dawn the gang-plank," 

 Hiram Woodruff declared, "the value of not less than 

 one hundred million dollars struck our soil." ^ 



The dam of Rysdyk's Hambletonian was a fast road 

 mare, sired by Bellfounder, a Norfolk trotter imported 

 from England in 1 822, by James Boott, a rich merchant 

 of Boston. The Norfolk trotters, by the way, were 

 the progenitors of the modern hackney, but possessing 

 much more endurance and vim. They were great 

 roadsters, both under saddle and in harness, and Bell- 

 founder is described as having " a fine slashing gait." 



Rysdyk's Hambletonian was a plain horse, but not 

 a coarse one. He was of a rich bay color, with black 

 points, and stood 15.1 at the withers, and 15.3 at the 

 rump. Hamilton Busbey, who knew the horse well, 

 describes him as having " a large, expressive head, with 

 splendid eyes, a rather short neck, massive shoulders 

 and quarters, and legs broad, flat and clean." His 

 tail was well set on, but not well carried. He weighed 

 about 1,000 pounds. 



His gait was long and wide, and almost all the early 

 Hambletonian trotters stepped very wide behind, plac- 

 ing the hind feet outside the track of the fore feet. At 

 that time this was considered to be the proper gait for a 

 trotter, but now, for speed, as well as for the show 



iQne other imported thoroughbred has played an important part in 

 the development of the trotter, and that is Diomed, a chestnut horse, 

 who, in 1780, won the first " Derby." He was brought to this country 

 at the age of twenty-two, and died in 1808. Comparatively few 

 trotters descend from Diomed, but these few include many of the very 

 best, as, for example, Maud S., Nutwood, Arion, Direct, Nancy Hanks, 

 and AUerton. 



