336 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



of the Morgan family. Look over the field and at the 

 list to-day. Gen. Knox and his great son Gilbreth, Win- 

 throp Morrill, Fearnaught, Taggart's Abdallah, Ethan 

 Allen and his wonderful stock-getting son Lambert, 

 Young Morrill, Woodstock Morrill, Gen. Lyon, Defiance, 

 and many others, all trace back straight to old Justin 

 Morgan. Now, over against this list I ask the reader to 

 put the Bush-Messenger stock or Hambletonian stock, 

 to which some people think New England is so in- 

 debted for her fast horses. The truth is, the Morgan 

 family has no rival in New England, and never has had. 

 The Clay stock and the Hambletonian stock may, in the 

 future, enter the field in competition ; but, up to this 

 time, the wreath belongs to the Morgans. 



I have already shown that three of the four great 

 elements needed to make a perfect horse — viz., beauty, 

 docility, endurance — the Morgan horse had and has. 

 But men say, ^' The Morgan horse had no speed." The 

 ignorance or audacity that prompts this assertion is 

 simply astounding. The truth is, no family of horses in 

 America has ever produced so many fast trotting-horses 

 as the Morgan. If you ask what I call a fast horse, I 

 respond, A horse that will trot a mile in a public race in 

 2.40 is a fast horse. Of all the races trotted this year 

 in public, it is safe to say that the average rate of 

 speed will not be under 2.40. I take it, therefore, as a 

 standard ; and a fair one it is too ; and, in proof of 

 what I have said, I refer the reader to the " record " of 

 time made by Morgan horses on pp. 300, 301. 



