168 HAMBLETONIAN. 



Hamljletonian was one inch narrower from hip to hip than the aver- 

 age of his sons, and he had not the same lateral roundness over the 

 hips and hindquarters that would be indicated by the roundness and 

 fullness toward the posterior view and in the quarters. In this respect 

 the influence of Abdallah may have been present, but certainly his 

 growthy buttock, full quarters and immense muscular development 

 doAvn to within nine inches of the hock, especially on the inside of 

 the thighs, came not from Abdallah. His ear was that of Bellfounder, 

 while his eye and head, nose, face, jaw, throttle and windpipe were 

 those of Abdallah. Elsewhere in form he was after the model of 

 Bellfounder, and in temper and disposition he was as kind and gentle 

 as a lamb. 



I have referred to the variable color of the produce of Abdallah, 

 and the large number of buckskins or chestnut shades and yellow 

 bays. Hambletonian, while a bright and beautiful bay himself, it is 

 said, never produced a chestnut or sorrel, his pi'oduce being bays and 

 browns with great uniformity. Color in Hambletonian was certainly 

 a quality derived from Bellfounder. This matter of color in Hamble- 

 tonian and his own offspring in large part applies to the produce of 

 his sons. The uniformity of the bay and brown color in the family, 

 even to the third generation, may be regarded as a very striking trait 

 of the race or breed. We have not yet produced a family of horses 

 of more fixed and uniform colors — a very strong testimony to the 

 power of Bellfounder in this one respect, wherever he may have 

 derived the quality himself. 



When it is remembered that the blood of Bellfounder in Hamble- 

 tonian, a grandson, and only possessing,. arithmetically, one-quarter of 

 the Bellfounder element, had to contend with that of Abdallah, a son 

 of a thoroughbred and a grandson of Messenger, reinforced by that 

 of the in-bred granddaughter of Messenger — odds most unequal — 

 and yet, in tliis contest, came out victor, in so much of the outward or 

 apparent physical conformation of the Hambletonian, we are com- 

 pelled to confess that tliis blood had qualities of a most positive, 

 obstinate and unyielding character. 



These facts would tend to show that the blood of Bellfounder was 

 really more potential than that of Abdallah; and in the composition 

 of Hambletonian it must be admitted that the influence of the Bell- 

 founder element seems to have been dominant. Nevertheless, as a 

 sire, we know that Bellfounder did not generally display more than a 

 fraction of the impressiveness of Abdallah; and that Hambletonian, 



