CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CLAY HAMBLETONIANS. 



The wide dissemination of the blood of the family known as the 

 Bashaws and Clays, which form the subject of my Chapter XIX, 

 led to the employment of numerous mares of that family for breed- 

 ing purposes. Hambletonian received many such, and several of his 

 distinguished sons came from such mares respectively. In this chap- 

 ter I present for consideration the representatives of that class; and 

 they furnish us with some valuable lessons, and much that illustrates 

 and confirms what we have already gone over in previous chapters. 



In Chapter XIX it will be seen that the first of the so-called Clay 

 family was produced by a Canadian trotting mare called Surry. We 

 know but little of her, except that she was a mare of superior trot- 

 ting action, and was said to possess all the characteristics of the 

 Canadians. Her son Henry Clay was noted, among other points, for 

 long rear leverage, that is, for long and heavy quarters. This is often 

 referred to by those who knew him, and will be more particularly 

 referred to in the chapter devoted to that family. It has been a 

 noticeable feature of the several branches of the Clay family that they 

 are still noted for heavy and powerful quarters; but the length of 

 the line from hip to hock has gradually grown shorter with each 

 remove from the first Clay, except as this trait has found reinforce- 

 ment by Bellfounder or other crosses, until in the Clays of the 

 present day but a slight variation, if any, can be found from the 

 measure in length of the Messenger family. I only call attention to 

 this, and will explain it fully when I come to treat of that family, as 

 showing the tendencies of the uppermost or superior blood in the 

 composition to revert to the original standard of that blood. 



Notwithstanding the fact of the partial or complete return of the 

 family to the short leverage, their manner of going, or action of the 

 rear propellers, still shows the effect of the increase of power and 



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