314 HAMBLETONIANS — IN-BRED ABDALLAHS. 



lowed him all over the lot, to the wonder and astonishment of the 

 people at the house, who did not understand the secret tie that bound 

 the old horse to this grey-haired man, whom they expected to see so 

 speedily devoured. Lakeland Abdallah has some of the same char- 

 acter, and he brooks no familiarity from strangers, but is kind and 

 docile to those with whom he is well acquainted. 



The form of this stallion indicates much of the Messenaror — he 

 shows Messenger in his solidity, his compactness, his perfection of 

 limb, and superior muscular organism, his high and lofty spirit, and 

 intense nerve organization; but he shows little of the eccentricities of 

 form that marked Abdallah. He shows the long sharp ears, but that is 

 about all. His form is not of the flat sided or cat-hammed kind, that 

 distinguished Abdallah, and he has none of the light shades of color 

 that come out in the strong Abdallahs. The Bellfounder in color and 

 form is apparent in him in every point, except the ear. He has all of 

 the rotundity and massive parts of Bellfounder. His breast, shoulder, 

 barrel, loin — a superb one — hip and quarters, are all Bellfounder, and 

 there is hardly a strong Abdallah feature about him, except his long, 

 sharp ears and rather light tail. The internal evidences of his grandam 

 being by Bellfounder are very strong, and with the straight forward 

 and authentic history of the dam and grandam, as givfen by those 

 ■who knew the animals in their own day and generation, are very hard 

 to overturn, and should not be doubted at this distant period, except 

 upon contrary proofs of more than a merely negative character. 



His appearance is that of a horse that carries with him a concentra- 

 tion of the particular qualities by which he is distinguished. There 

 is nothing heterogeneous in his composition. 



Any one familiar with the qualities of the Bellfounder and the 

 Messenger horse will find in him an instance of the highest concen- 

 tration of these qualities — close to the original. I think the exception 

 to be taken to the animal is in the fact that he. is so close to the 

 original. His close in-breeding is apparent, and undoubtedly it is 

 somewhat against him, although it will certainly intensify his power 

 and quality as a sire. The perfection of these elements which he 

 embodies in such concentrated form will come out in breeding, with 

 great power and positiveness. 



I think I have already shown in previous chapters that the blood of 

 Messenger and of Bellfounder had proved most available when it had 

 passed through certain degrees of removal from the original. And 

 herein lies the force of the only exception that can be taken to Lake- 



