THE GREEN MOUNTAIN SIRE. 32B 



Fillies of the third and fourth generation are sought after as brood 

 mares* 



Of the breeding of Harris' Hambletonian, on the sire's side, there is no 

 shadow of doubt. Of his dam, I think all that can be fairly and reasonably 

 said is, that it was unknown. Mr. Wallace states, in the first volume of his 

 "Trotting Register," that at the time when Mr. Munson purchased her she 

 was represented to be by imp. Messenger. 



The dam of this stallion was bought for stage purposes and sent 

 from Boston to Vermont, and was a mare of great quality and en- 

 durance at the way of going then required for stage purposes. 

 "Whatever may have been her blood, she had good blood, and she had 

 habits of muscle and nerve that adapted her to road service — habits 

 which had been acquired by service in that particular way, and she 

 transmitted them to the son she produced, and he became one of the 

 most noted sires of roadsters we have ever known. His trottino; 

 character may be altogether due to the blood of old Messenger, but 

 that blood which he received had gone through the important processes 

 by which the galloping instinct of the Arab had been eliminated, and 

 the trotting instinct, inherited from Sampson, had by use and road 

 crosses become so far invigorated and reinforced that it constituted 

 the essential spirit and genius of the horse. He was a great trotting 

 sire, and a line from him is worth more, perhaps, than any other line 

 from Messenger, outside of Abdallah. 



I make the following interesting compilation from another source: 



The Harris horse was taken early to Vermont, and being a gray, 

 rather large, and a somewhat plain-looking horse as compared with 

 the stylish, trappy Morgan so popular in that day, his opportunities 

 in the stud were limited. What he accomplished, however, under his 

 unfavorable surroundings, proves unmistakably that with an equal 

 chance he would have been the peer of or any other ever in the 

 stud. "We will name some of his produce, taken from the records 

 of winners^ as indicating his abiHty to get trotters and to transmit 

 the power of reproduction to his descendants. It will be admitted 

 that in his day, considering the great improvement made in tracks, 

 wagons, driving, etc., 2:40 was equal to 2:20 or 2:25 at the present 

 time. 



He was sire of Old Sontag, long the queen of the turf (as much 

 so as Goldsmith Maid has been the past few years), record 2:31 (draw- 

 ing three hundred pounds), and beating the famous Flora Temple. 



