70 PHILOSOPHY OF TROTTIXG. 



and 30; showing that the force of the Bellfounder blood was not so 

 tenacious — at least in that combination — as to contend successfully 

 Avith the concentrated currents of the more potent l)lood of Messen- 

 ger. The Patchens and other branches of the Clay family have so 

 much of the Messenger in their composition, that while they are very 

 heavy and long-appearing in their hindquarters, they really run very 

 near 23 — 39 to 40, except in the branch descended from Sayer's Harry 

 Clay, whose dam was a daughter of imported Bellfounder. I may 

 say that in this line the real characteristics of Bellfounder are more 

 clearly preserved than in any other family whose blood embraces any 

 part of that coming from the Norfolk trotter. 



Two instances have come under my observation where the tendency 

 of the Duroc-Messenger cross to make a long thigh, and no increase 

 from hip to hock, has been overcome by a re-enforcement of the Mes- 

 senger blood. These were, Allie West, 39^ — 23^, whose grandam 

 was by Downing's Bay Messenger, and the produce of Mrs. Caudle — 

 Ericsson, her son, and Clark Chief, lier grandson. 



The influence of these peculiarities on the gait of the trotter is both 

 obvious and remarkable, the lono- thiij-h causinof him to trot with his 

 hind feet wide apart — in some cases to an extent that deserves the 

 name of straddling or sprawling. Thus, all the produce of Mambrino 

 Chief — except the Ericssons and Clark Chiefs, and a few other excep- 

 tional cases, from causes not clearly ascertainable — the Star Hamble- 

 tonians, the Blackwoods and Swigerts, the Thorndales and Almonts, 

 except Allie West — all trotted with a wide, open gait; and these are 

 the families whose thio-h is 24 to 244^ inches in leno-th, while the Mor- 

 rills and Knoxes and Patchens, of New England, are as well known 

 to be the close-cutting trotters, occupying the opposite extreme. The 

 explanation is found in the fact that Gen. Knox, a horse 15^ in height, 

 has a thigh only 20|^ inches in length; Hopeful, 22; Orient, 23; Lucy, 

 20. Allie West had a thigh only 23^ inches, and the Ericssons and 

 Clark Chiefs, descendants of Mrs. Caudle, had shorter thighs, and 

 were longer from hip to hock, and trotted with a closer and smoother 

 Q-ait than the otlier branches of the Almont and Mambrino Chief fam- 

 ilies, respectively. The effect of the increased length from liip to 

 hock must be apparent. The leg is like a pendulum swinging on the 

 whirlbone, and the longer that line is, in proportion to the thigh, tlie 

 more closely will the horse pass one hock with another; and instead 

 of spreading wide or Sjirawling, he will reach far forward and set 

 his hind feet in line under his body, in some cases not passing wide 



