CHAPTER X. 



ALHAMBRA AND MESSENGER DUROC. 



I PRESENT In this chapter two stallions, one of them a son of Mam- 

 brino Chief, and the other a son of Hambletonian, both of which have 

 exhibited qualities that entitle them to the closest study, and in some 

 respects to high consideration. 



They belong to the Duroc-Messenger class, but each presents a 

 case where the proper balance between these two bloods has not been 

 duly maintained — a matter which is of the utmost importance in breed- 

 ing. With regard to the blood of all the great horses to Avhich we look 

 as the original sources of trotting blood — Messenger, Bellfounder, 

 Duroc, St. Lawrence, or the Pilots, and perhaps others — the important 

 teaching of experience has been that we receive the best results from 

 them, individually and collectively, in their remote or advanced stages, 

 and after they have undergone changes by commingling each with 

 the other or with different trotting elements. 



To no class does this apply with as much force as is sho\vn in the 

 case of the Duroc blood. As these two stallions present that blood 

 in strong currents, near to the original and closely interbred, they serve 

 for the basis of a lesson far too important to the American breeder to 

 have it overlooked or passed by in a treatise that stands out as authori- 

 tative and just both to the readers and the owners or breeders. 



Alhambra is a brown horse, low built, compact and massive, not 

 over fifteen hands three inches in height, with a head showing some 

 of the strong outlines of the family to which he belongs; an ear rather 

 larger and finer than they usually possess; a tail in later years becom- 

 ing somewhat thin. He is round barreled, capacious in the chest, and 

 very wide at the stifles. From the thigh or gaskin upward and in 

 his forequarters he is the model of strength and compactness. His 

 hock is not good, being too much on the Eclipse or sickle pattern, 

 and his limbs below the hocks show that his composition is too fine. 



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