130 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



not excelled by any stallion of the running - family 

 living ; and I will not except the great Leamington, or 

 his greater son Longfellow. I have passed from the 

 stall of Dexter to the stable of Harry Bassett ; I have 

 seen Leamington and Longfellow one week, and Fear- 

 naught and Taggart's Abdallah the next ; and I solemnly 

 aver, that neither in the sheen of their glossy coats, the 

 bright, courageous look of their faces, the symmetry of 

 proportion, or suggestions of muscular power, did these 

 highest types of the one family excel these highest 

 types of the other. 



There is no doubt but that originally we were depend- 

 ent entirely upon the thorough-bred running-horse to 

 re-enforce the common breed of the country with more 

 generous qualities. It is to imported Messenger and 

 Diomed and Bashaw especially that we are indebted for 

 those excellences which now distinguish our trotting- 

 horses. I would be the first to recognize the obligation 

 that the trotting-family is under to the running-family ; 

 and there was a time when the breeder must needs 

 go to the racing-stables for those crosses from which 

 the needed re-enforcement to the weak common blood 

 of the native breed might be obtained. But now, 

 owing to this very outcrossing with the imported thor- 

 ough-bred and the success which naturally attended it, 

 the trotting-family has become, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, thorough-bred itself, and able to supply within 

 its own membership every desirable quality and attri- 

 bute. In localities where this transmission of thorough 



