IMPRESSIVE SIRE. 223 



If we look for great excellence in any line of breeding, there is cer- 

 tainly much to commend to our favorable consideration a large and 

 powerful animal, so perfect and faultless as the subject of the present 

 sketch, when he is also the best and most perfect combination and 

 union of the two families that have given to this country, respectively, 

 a Lady Thorn and a Goldsmith Maid. Uniting in such perfect har- 

 mony the family lineage of the two great trotting queens, and in 

 himself and his produce overcoming all the infirmities incident to 

 •either family, and displaying so much of the combined excellence of 

 both, he can not fail to ocupy a high place in the estimation of every 

 American breeder. 



It is my purpose in these chapters to call especial attention to the 

 matter of gait, as illustrated in the representative stallions selected 

 for consideration. It is more difficult to describe with intellififent 

 accuracy the precise gait of Administrator, in all its niceties, than 

 that of some of the others selected. His gait is not that of the aver- 

 age Mambrino Chief family, and does not much resemble it, although 

 he possesses the skeleton framework which would tend to secure that 

 gait. His body is more muscular, and not so lathy, and has not so 

 much of the dry, sinewy form, and has none of the slashing looseness 

 that characterizes many of the Mambrinos of the Pilot cross. His 

 trotting is to a fair degree far reaching before and behind, but has not 

 that elastic springiness that characterizes the pure x\bdallah gait, nor 

 the far-reaching rear propellers of the Clay and Patchen cross; but 

 he has so much solidity, and is withal so compact and muscular, that 

 his gait, which is mainly Hambletonian in its form and stroke, carries 

 with it such an idea and appearance of momentum, that we fail to 

 classify it with any other than his own. It must not be inferred from 

 this, however, that his gait is lacking in elasticity — it has an abun- 

 dance of it; but his great muscular power of body and limb stands 

 out as the prominent feature of his gait. He carries his head out, and 

 at a fair elevation, and his tail well up — and I have not yet seen one 

 of his colts that did not show a high croup, and carry the tail well out 

 and at a handsome elevation. He goes forward with an ajDparent will 

 and determination that seem irresistible. 



Before closing this chapter, a word must be said on the question as 

 to whether this horse is to be regarded as a really impressive sire. 

 When I first became acquainted with him I had some doubts on the 

 subject. Hambletonian was not entitled to any such distinction. He 

 was made up of two elements somewhat diverse from each other, and 

 15 



