434 MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



It may be well to recur to the ascertained history of the dam of 

 Mambriiio Chief. She died in 1857, and was supposed to be near 

 thirty years of age. Twenty-seven to twenty-eight years seems to be 

 the age generally attained by members of the Messenger and the 

 Duroc families when properly used. She was probably foaled about 

 the year 1828 to 1830, and she came either from. the county of Ulster 

 or some county west, southwest or northwest of that county, and not 

 over one hundred and fifty miles distant. It will be remembered that 

 at this period Messenger Duroc made his spring seasons in Ulster and 

 Duchess counties, and was taken in the fall of these j'-ears to Oneida 

 and Genesee counties, over the precise path, probably, traveled by 

 the man Nicholson, when he brought the brown mare to Duchess 

 county. It will also be seen that this mare possessed, in an eminent 

 degree, the qualities of a daughter of Messenger Duroc from the 

 common-bred stock of the coiintry. More than that, such a daughter 

 would, of all others, possess the exact qualities requisite to produce 

 such a horse as Mambrino Chief, from such a sire as the son of Mam- 

 brino, a grandson of imported Messenger. Moreover, the dam of 

 Mambrino Chief must of necessity have possessed the exact qualities 

 we have seen should properly have been found in a daughter of Mes- 

 senger Duroc, or she could not have given such qualities to Mambi'ino 

 Chief, and he possessed thern in a very striking degree. 



More than all this, we are so far acquainted with the blood traits 

 and characteristics of all our American-bred horses as to be able to 

 declare, with absolute certainty, that such qualities as she possessed 

 were at that period nowhere found on this continent save in a com- 

 mon descendant of the two horses Messenger and Duroc. This we 

 know absolutely, for such qualities have not been exhibited by any 

 other families, and they were exhibited in the produce of this horse 

 Messenger Duroc. Hence, a full survey of the field, and all the evi- 

 dence, leaves upon my mind the conviction, as an absolute and moral 

 certainty, that a daughter of Messenger Duroc was the dam of Mam- 

 brino Chief. The trotting gait of Messenger Duroc, as described bv 

 Mr. Stevens, will be recognized by every one familiar with any part 

 of the Mambrino Chief family. They are free and ready travelers, 

 and go with level heads, steady and true. There is no quit about 

 them, but they will go for all there is in them — full of courage and 

 good temper. They are not up to the highest standard in point of 

 quality, but an exceedingly pliant and fertile field on which to engraft 

 the fixed and rich strains of the Abdallah and Hambletonian families. 



