ALHAMBRA. 231 



Alhambra and Messenger Duroc, in their physical organism, are 

 made up differently, owing to the difi'erence in the quality and 

 make-up of the various animals that have entered into their several 

 and respective pedigrees, but the prominent and chief blood traits or 

 characteristics of the two are essentially alike. Alhambra is a horse 

 of a very superior muscular organism. His body is formed for displays 

 of strength and energy vastly greater than his machinery of limb and 

 leverage are able to execute with due regard to safety. His ord- 

 nance is of a weight and quality far too great for the strength and 

 quality of the carriage on which it is mounted. 



He was the result of a cross between two animals too extreme and 

 distant in their construction. Had his dam been a part-bred mare, 

 larger and coarser, but possessing the essential blood elements of this 

 mare Susan, he would have been a far different horse — not lacking any- 

 thing in his essential character, but of vastly more endurance and 

 power. His sire was the extreme of coarseness and his dam the perfec- 

 tion of fineness, even to a degree of delicacy. Besides, Alhambra 

 lacks in leverage. He is a low-built horse, and short from his hip to 

 his hock, not over thirty-nine inches, while his thigh is the full Eclipse 

 and Duroc pattern of twenty-four inches. His muscular power in 

 body and quarters is immense, hardly surpassed anywhere. 



His advance or propelling power does not consist in the sweep or 

 range of his leverage as much as in the extreme of muscular energy. 

 He does not display the long sweeping strides of Lady Thorn or of 

 Bodine, but goes with a plunge and a stroke that is simply terrific. 



His muscular action is violent and swift, his stroke not so much 

 marked by its precision and steadiness, like that of Abdallah, as its 

 vigor and plunging energy. When he trots, it looks as though some- 

 thing must break. 



He is not lacking in steadiness or brain balance — he has that in 

 full volume; but his limb machinery is wholly inadequate in strength 

 and in leverage for the immense concentration of power that he brings 

 to bear upon it. 



The character and qualities by him displayed belong also to his 

 stock; wherein he excels, they excel, and wherein he is lacking, they 

 are deficient. 



Alhambra was bred by the late R. A. Alexander, the distinguished 

 breeder of Kentucky, whose high character as a gentleman of integ- 

 rity and great sagacity is known all over the continent. He was 

 equally distinguished for his high appreciation of horse breeding as 



