ELACKSTONE. 301 



I need only add that Knickerbocker is a horse 16 hands and one- 

 half inch high on his withers, and one inch higher on his rump; 

 has a measure of 414- inches from hip to hock ; and 24^ inches 

 in length of thigh ; is 11^ inches in his front cannon-bone ; and 

 23 inches in his forearm, which, for so large a horse, is a splendid 

 measurement, and in as fine proportion as can be found in the Ham- 

 bletonian family. The gait I have described in his produce is just such 

 as should follow such proportions- 

 One or two suggestions will close this part of the present chapter. 

 This horse is one that has been kept in the dark, and has had few or 

 no mares deserving in excellence of his own rare combmation of blood. 

 His owner has not kept him at home as he should have been kejit, 

 and has not brought him into the notice of the breeding public in 

 such manner as to allow his merits to be known. Much of the repu- 

 tation, as well as success of a stallion, is owing to the manner in which 

 he is held before the public by his owner. 



He is certainly worthy of the patronage of the best mares of any 

 family or blood, and in so far as he is deprived of them the breeding 

 public is kept in ignorance of his real merits, inasmuch as he is kept 

 for no other purpose than stud service, scarcely leaving the premises 

 of his owner for shoeing. He has produced a few trotters of local 

 fame that are very promising, but prior to 1875, none of his produce 

 had ever been in the hands of a trainer, so far as I can learn. I should 

 send to him with the greatest confidence. 



BLACKSTONE. 



This is a brown stallion, foaled in 1867. His dam was Dolly, by 

 Jupiter; second dam the Simonson mare, by Abdallah, and the third 

 dam by Engineer. He was bred by John Gr. Wood, of West Mill- 

 bury, Mass. 



His breeding shows a great concentration of the blood of Messen- 

 ger. Jupiter was by Long Island Black, from Gipsy by Almack. 

 Almack was bred by Mr. John Tredwell, of Long Island, the breeder 

 of Abdallah. He was by Mambrino, and his dam was the mare 

 called Sophonisba, and was for several years driven by Mr. Tredwell 

 as the mate of Amazonia, the dam of Abdallah. Sophonisba was by a 

 grandson of imp. Baronet, and was bred by Mr. Tredwell. Almack 

 was foaled in 1823, the same year with Abdallah, and Jupiter was 

 foaled in 1849, the same year with Hambletonian. 



Blackstone has been kept in Massachusetts, and is little known away 



