HOW TO KNOW HIM. 49 



I still declare that both of them would have been 

 decidedly better horses had they been coupled shorter 

 and more strongly on the back. If Young Morrill had 

 had the back of his sire, — one of the most marvel- 

 lous specimens of perfect bone structure and muscular 

 power ever bred, — he would never have gotten so many 

 swayed-backed colts as now stand to his charge. The 

 same is the case, in even greater measure, with Rysdyk's 

 Hambletonian. We know what he has done in the 

 stud. We know, that, crossed on mares of a certain 

 pattern and blood, especially on the daughters of Ameri- 

 can Star, the son of the great Henry, he has given us 

 trotters of the highest speed, and second to none in 

 endurance. All this I admit, because it is a fact. But 

 all this is true in spite of his hack^ not because of it : 

 and, where he has gotten one colt closely and strongly 

 coupled up in the back and loins (as every colt should 

 be), he has sent forth five or ten without this admirable 

 construction ; nay, representatives of the other form. 

 You may attend the fairs of the country, and eight out 

 of every ten of the Hambletonian stallions exhibited 

 Avill present to the eye this unfortunate peculiarity. In 

 reply it will be urged that these long-backed horses 

 have an ''enormous stride." I grant that they do stride 

 a great distance ; but I also notice that their feet stay 

 under the sulky a long time. The power to "twitch 

 their feet out from under the wagon," as an old driver 

 once expressed it to me, does not belong to them. 

 You never find it in connection with a long back. I 



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