134 OKIGINAL SOURCES OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



These two may be regarded as correct general descrijitions, but do 

 not throw certain or particular light on the points that constitute his 

 characteristic or distinguishing physical conformation as a trotter, and 

 to which he owes his trotting qualities. 



It will be observed that the first writer speaks of his long, full quar- 

 ters to hocks, and short to the fetlocks, and that the other gentleman 

 speaks of his immensely strong quarters, well let down, and joined to 

 a crooked hind leg. 



These two thus in some respects agree as to some peculiar con- 

 formation of the quarters or hind legs, in their own way giving the 

 idea that they were long and of unusual strength. These are about 

 the usual terms in which the best of horsemen refer to such points, 

 yet it will be seen they fall far short of conveying a definite and pre- 

 cise idea concerning one of the important points which constitute the 

 marked peculiarity in the physical conformation of Bellfounder and 

 his descendants. It will be observed that Bellfounder was not a large 

 horse, not as large as the average Messenger by one inch in height, 

 yet from a close study of his descendants and those of other families 

 having crosses of his blood, I am satisfied that he possessed a thigh 

 24 inches in length, and that he measured 40 inches in the line from 

 his hip to his hock. 



It is a phenomenon incident to breeding that certain families are 

 marked by a certain peculiarity of conformation or other trait, and 

 which they transmit to and engraft on all other stocks with which 

 they may be crossed, however much they may yield to the stock thus 

 united Avith in other matters. In this one matter they assert their 

 individuality. Such is the fact regarding this peculiarity of confor- 

 mation in the Bellfounder family, and it is probable that it was one 

 that pertained to Sampson and to all the other road or trotting horses 

 of Norfolk. While they were evidently made of crosses from various 

 bloods, they all seemed to agree in the one common trait for which 

 they were chosen and bred: in their adaptation to go in harness or 

 under the saddle, at the trotting gait. This being a common and estab- 

 lished peculiarity or trait, they would transmit that with more certainty 

 and uniformity than other features in which they had not so univer- 

 sally agreed. I have shown that the Messenger families universally 

 were found to show a measure of 23 and 39, while Hambletonian, with 

 one-quarter of his composition that of Bellfounder, was 24 and 41, 

 and the Clay family — which, as we shall see before the conclusion of 

 this chapter, is nothing but a Messenger family coming through a 



