802 THE PERFECT HOESE. 



is the " Bush Messenger " family to which New Eng- 

 land is so much " indebted " ? Will some one please 

 mention the " Hambletonian " trotters? If I write ear- 

 nestly and strongly, I do it, be it remembered, in 

 defence of a family of horses suffering from a most 

 unjust impeachment, and in vindication of a great 

 truth, that it is for the interest of every New-England 

 breeder to know; viz., that the family of horses ivhich 

 has been distinguished %, and embodied^ the four great 

 essentials of the ])erfect horse^ — beauty^ docility^ endur- 

 ance^ and speedy — is the Morgan. 



If any one should say, "Why! Fearnaught is not a 

 Morgan," I respond, " He is just as much a Morgan as 

 Dexter is a Hambletonian, or George M. Patchen, jun., 

 is a Clay horse ; " that is, he runs straight back in the 

 male line to Justin Morgan. 



I do not think that many people realize how much 

 we are actually indebted to this family of horses for our 

 trotting-stock. Many men who own valuable stock- 

 horses in New England, lineally descended from old 

 Justin Morgan, seem unaware of the fact. Indeed, I 

 have sometimes thought that I detected, on the part of 

 some, a desire to conceal the very connection and rela- 

 tionship from which, beyond doubt, their horses derived 

 the larger part of their excellence. Some foolish 

 writer has asserted that certain descendants of this 

 horse were not potentially affected by their relationship 

 with him ; indeed, were not Morgan horses at all. 

 The method by which he proves this, as a specimen 



