MESSENGER DUEOC. 235 



I believe it is understood that Messenger Duroc has never spent 

 much time, in actual work upon road or ti-ack. He is yet young, and 

 if he has limbs that would endure such work it might set at rest some 

 <ioubts, if he could be worked for a few seasons, and show that his 

 fibre was of the sort that enjoyed it. It would be a satisfaction to 

 some, doubtless, to know if his cellular tissue could stand friction 

 without irritation; and further, if he has that health of joint that will 

 take up and absorb all the synovial fluids he secretes. I think there 

 is some room for apprehension on this branch of the subject. The 

 first time I ever saw him he had just been severely blistered on both 

 of his hind ankles, and the appearance of his limbs and hocks at that 

 time suggested to my mind doubts which have increased on seeing 

 him and some of his produce since that time. I have long since 

 heard that his produce were, many of them, not quite satisfactory in 

 regard to the health and soundness of their limbs. Since the appear- 

 ance of my original chapter relating to this horse it has been a matter 

 of public notoriety that his stock were in very large numbers un- 

 sound, and showing out the defective tendencies to which I called 

 attention. 



The high trotting quality displayed by them, and their robust, 

 growthy natures and generally good disposition, had led their breeders 

 to anticipate the highest results, yet the great prevalence of defects so 

 serious and so incurable has had the effect to cast down many other- 

 wise brilliant hopes. The seat of these defects is to be found in an 

 unsound element which has been deeply bred in, and can not readily 

 be eradicated. It is certain this taint does not reside in the Abdallah 

 or Bellfounder blood, or the other Messenger crosses which abound 

 in this horse. Messenger and his family had a certain kind of coarse- 

 ness about them, but when un contaminated by other and baser blood, 

 it was not a coarseness that ran to disease or unsoundness. They 

 were a synonym for health and soundness, although sometimes rough 

 in outward form. 



"Whence, then, does he derive this peculiarity which is likely to dim 

 the lustre of one of the most promising of the Hambletonian 

 families? 



I do not care to dwell on this subject, but will answer the question 

 by reference to that part of Chapter V where I have given an account 

 of the stallion Duroc, son of Diomed. It is a fact now clearly under- 

 stood by all intelligent and well informed horsemen that these defects 

 in the Duroc-Messenger families came ft-om too close in-breeding in 



