424 MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



old imported Messenger ; I knew three of his get tliat were full bay roans. I 

 have known, altogether, full twenty horses and mares, the get of imported 

 Messenger. I knew well Mambrino and Ilambletonian. 



Now, while my hand is in, I will tell you something about Stockholm's 

 American Star. I saw him run and win his two-mile race at Poughkeepsie, 

 in October, 1830. I was so struck with the horse that I tried to buy him for 

 a stallion to get road horses. He was one of the grandest horses I ever smc, 

 fiiw size, splendid dappled chestnut, quite dark, and dappled beautifullj^ had 

 a white foot behind, a star and snip, arched neck, high withers (not like old 

 Duroc there, and most of his get), had a neat head, level rump, and was 

 altogether one of the grandest horses I ever saw. His trotting action was 

 splendid, and he had to he whipped to force him- to a gallop. 



Mr. Stockliolm told me that his dam was by Mambrino, son of Messenger, 

 grandam by imp. Messenger, and I made a memorandum of it ; and he agreed 

 to consider my proposition to sell me the horse, but the treaty came to nothing- 

 Stockholm represented the horse thoroughbred, and the horse showed it. He 

 was very large. He ran a game race and would in this day he a trotter of the 

 first class. 



I knew old Duroc, he had no more trotting action than a cow ; paddled 

 with his forefeet, and could not have trotted in less than six minutes. As a 

 roadster he was a brute, and all his get that took after him were no roadsters, 

 and I knew many of them. Henry was the same as old Duroc. Of the 

 hundred Diomeds and Archies I have known, I never saw one with trotting 

 action. 



I knew Mambrino Chief both in the East and here in Kentucky, and can 



say to you that he was not unlike Messenger Duroc in appearance and 



action, but not so neat and blood-like by far, nor so level or quiet in trotting 



action. 



Your obedient servant, Ambrose Stevens. 



Soon after the appearance of my original chapter on Mambrino 

 Chief, in the Live-Stock Journal^ 1 received the following- letter from 

 Mr. Hayt, now a resident of the city of Milwaukee : 



Milwaukee, Jan. 31, 1877. 



H. T. Helm : Your postal card and Live-Stock Journal is received. I have 

 given the subject an examination. I find Mr. Stevens in error in some of 

 the history he gives of Duroc ; the writer bought the colt of Reuben Vincent, 

 town of Freedom, Duchess county. New York, in the latter part of the winter 

 of 1821 ; he was then coming three years old. The dam was brown instead of 

 grey ; the family from which she came I am not able to give. Mr. Vincent was 

 a neiglibor of mine, and I had a perfect knowledge of the dam as I had of the 

 colt; she was 153^ hands, compactly made, deep chest, strong and well coupled 

 at loin, heavy and muscular quarters, with limbs and hoofs almost unexcep- 

 tionable, head rather large but clean, fine ear, neck rather long and straight. 

 The Vincent family, in all that I knew, which Avas numerous, were all horsemen 

 and -were noted for the many fine horses they raised. 



The dam of Duroc was valued by Mr. Vincent for her purity of descent. 



