426 MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



Chief, was a square, open or big-gaited animal, and a free and loose goer; a 

 mare of great power, and for one used as she was, a strong goer — could prob- 

 ably trot in four minutes or better. She was a mare that possessed the charac- 

 teristics of the horse Messenger Duroc, as described by Mr. Stevens, in a veiy 

 strong degree, and she transmitted them to her colts. The feet of Mambrino 

 Chief were just such as Mr. Stevens describes. His foot was a fine-looking 

 foot, but it could not stand work, he threw out quarter cracks. I had one colt 



by him that did the same thing. 



Geo. T. Williams. 



That the qualities of Mambrino Chief were due in larg'e part, if 

 not mainly, to his dam, has been regarded, by those in any degree 

 familiar with the subject, as almost certain. Mambrino Paymaster 

 produced no such stock as the three sons of this mare from any other, 

 and the fact that she did not succeed with any other, estalilishes the 

 fact that their greatness was owing to the reunion of separate lines of 

 the trotting blood of old Messenger, We are familiar with the various 

 trotting elements that have come to the surface in this country, and 

 we do know, as an established fact, that the blood characteristics of 

 Mambrino Chief were none other than those manifested by the blood 

 of Messenger, modified by one other element, which in this case we 

 are clearly able to identify, and which also aids us in establishing the 

 breeding of this mare. 



This mare was probably foaled about the year 1828 to 1830, perhaps 

 one or two years before that date. The characteristics of Mambrino 

 Chief and his stock, down to the second and third generations, point 

 with unerring certainty to Messenger Duroc as the sire of his dam. 

 She was probably fifteen years old when she produced the Chief. 

 Her large feet, and those of the family since, with their flat bottoms, 

 found their prototype, not in Ohio corn, but in the blood of old Duroc. 

 The family are yet noted for a broad, flat foot that frazzles and breaks 

 readily about the edges. 



The dam of Messenger Duroc was a brown mare, by Messenger, 

 and the infirmity of feet in his stock was greater in those of the bay 

 or brown color than when their color showed that the stock leaned 

 toward the Messenger tyjjc. He often produced greys, and especially 

 if that color was reinforced in the dam ; and in his other produce, 

 the bays and browns, a grey leg would now and then appear. Such 

 would be most likely the case if in these the blood of the grey Mes- 

 senger was also reinforced — and right here we find a witness that still 

 testifies of the blood of that mare. Mambrino Chief had a family 

 badge, in the shape of a grey right hind leg — from the hock to the foot. 



