122 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



that while Messenger had trotting elements, they were not the para- 

 mount or most powerful traits of his organism. This is shown in the 

 fact that the trotting quality is not the strongest in those families that 

 show the most of the blood of Messenger — and it is strongest in those 

 currents or lines that have come through channels where the trottiag' 

 instinct received some even slight reinforcement from other blood, or 

 from use and employment in that way. 



Often the highest excellences of the trotting quality in the Messen- 

 ger "blood have come out of a single and remote line, while it is a 

 known fact that many of the pedigrees strong in Messenger have but 

 little of the trotting quality to show. It has been claimed that one 

 pecviliarity of this blood is, that its trotting quality comes out inten- 

 sified by the reunion of previously separated channels. This is 

 true. But if the merit was in the blood per se, it would come in all 

 the greater force from the powerful concentration of the blood before 

 the intervening separation had occurred. But it was this very sepa- 

 ration that seemed to give opportunity for the trotting impulses to 

 liberate from the control of the opposing forces, and when thus 

 liberated the reunion was attended with an intensified exhibition of 

 trotting quality. 



This aspect of the blood must be carefully studied, as having an 

 important bearing on the matter of in-breeding in the Messenger 

 family. Doubtless the greatest excellences are to be derived from 

 in-breeding in that blood — not in doing so closely or directly, but 

 after proper outcrosses and at judiciously chosen intervals. Close and 

 repeated in-breeding in that family will cause a retrograde in trotting 

 quality, while in-breeding after proper outcrosses and at suitable in- 

 tervals will enhance its value and greatly promote its adaptation to 

 the trotting gait. 



The most impressive trotting stallions we have yet seen were not as- 

 successful with the mares deep and closely in-bred in Messenger blood 

 as with those that possessed more remote and feeble strains of that 

 blood. Instances illustrating the disappointment of most sanguine 

 hopes in this respect will be given in the progress of this work. 



A further consideration of the qualities of Messenger is reserved 

 for the chapter on Hambletonian and the subsequent illustrations 

 presented in this work. 



