152 nAMBLETONIAN. 



without which such an advanced age can not be obtained without 

 great infirmity of limbs, and the development of marks and blemishes 

 indicative of the imperfections so common in horses everywhere. 

 There has been no firing nor blistering, and no resort to anything to 

 stimulate the absorption of synovial fluids, his own superior quality of 

 bone, tendon, sinew, muscle, fibre and nerve, having been sufficient to 

 exclude all approach of disease or tendency toward infirmity. He 

 constitutes the best illustration I have ever seen of the highly-bred 

 and finely-textured horse, as contrasted with the coarse-grained, soft, 

 low-bred, beefy-limbed and gummy-jointed plug. His own perfection 

 will be seen to better advantage, and more clearly illustrated, when 

 we come to consider the qualities, high and low, of other stallions, 

 even though some of them be the sons of this royal sire. 



Hambletonian has a knee Id^ inches in circumference, a hock 17-^ 

 inches; is 15 inches around the smallest part of the limb and back 

 tendon above the hock. From the centre of the hip-joint to the point 

 of the hock he is 41 inches; from point of stifle to point of hock the 

 length of his thigh is 24 inches; from the point of hock to centre of 

 ankle-joint he is 16 inches; from centre of foreankle to centre of knee, 

 11^ inches; from centre of knee to top of forearm joint, 20-^ inches. 

 His neck, from the notch in the vertebra on his withers to the extreme 

 poll, is 32 inches, and on the underside his Avindpipe is only 16 inches, 

 giving him the appearance of a horse with a fine crest, but a very 

 short neck. His shoulders extend forward at the point, very far and 

 very strong and prominent, giving him a square, massive appearance, 

 and one of great power. From hip to hip he is 24 inches, and in his 

 back of medium length, round barrel, and massive, powerful hind- 

 quarters, are found the comj^letion of the powerful outline I have 

 endeavored to portray. His pictures are all utterly inadequate to 

 convey any correct idea of the horse. I present to my readers a cut, 

 or outline, pre])ared by myself and under my own supervision, which 

 I submit as the only correct outline of the form of Hambletonian that 

 has ever appeared. This I know to be correct in outline, and accord- 

 ing to the exact scale represented in the animal himself. The triangle 

 from the centre of hip to the root of the tail, and thence to the stifle 

 and back to the hip, represented by the lines J£^ G, F^ respectively, 

 is as follows: H^ 19; ^, 30; F^ 21. The large muscle of the quar- 

 ters comes down to within nine inches of the hock, and between the 

 legs behind it is simply immense. The neck is not thick nor heavy, 

 the shoulders, or withers, flat and low, being higher on the rump than 



