HIGH TROTTING QUALITY. 477 



the traditional accounts of him and his stock, and from such of the 

 descendants of that horse in our day as I am able to find. 



With the above exceptions, I may say that I know of no family 

 that shows so much of the genuine character and form of old Messen- 

 ger as these two stallions, so much alike in every respect. The brain 

 and foreliead development shows the Messenger plainly, but not quite 

 so clearly as some families known to me. The clean, flat legs, the 

 sound joints, and freedom from curbs, spavins, splints or ringbones, 

 or other defects, all attest the perfection of health that prevails in 

 the family. There seems to be no lack of muscle, no weakness nor 

 marked deficiency in any particular; and the general contour of the 

 horse, in each case, impresses me, on a close inspection, with the 

 presence of one quality, that I find so much lacking in many, and 

 present only in a few, that of great positiveness in every point of type 

 and character. In this respect, I think, I was particularly struck by 

 Blackwood, and I can not say that Swigert, in any respect, falls below 

 him. Condition has much to do with the estimate an inspection 

 creates in the mind, and in this respect, when I saw Blackwood, he 

 was in far better state than S\\"igert, whom I saw after an accident 

 from which he was slightly disabled. His success in the stud, when 

 locality and the class of mares he has received are considered, has not 

 fallen below that of Blackwood. He has been kept in the stud 

 closely, and had a service of neaHy one hundred mares yearly, and 

 was never in the hands of a trainer until 187G, when, at the age of 

 ten years, and after the close of a season in which he had the above 

 number of mare'^, he at<-iined a rate of speed below 2:30, that 

 exceeded the expectations of his owner and patrons. 



It remains for us to consider the blood forces that have united in 

 the composition of these two stallions, so much alike, and of so great 

 excellence. Their respective dams being each by Mambrino Chief, 

 my delineation of that family, in Chapters XXII and XXIII, presents 

 my readers with a clear statement of their composition, derived from 

 that source. The 2d dam of Blackwood is stated to have been a dun 

 mare of unknown blood that came from Ohio, and was a fast trotter. 



The 2d dam of Swigert is a mare that has herself produced the fast 

 and noted mare Rosalind. She is by a son of Copperbottom, a fast- 

 pacing stock, well known in the State of Kentucky, and always 

 regarded as possessed of good blood. So far as the known qualities 

 of the two grandams extend, it must be conceded that the advantage 

 is in favor of Swigert, and his own dam has been the maternal ances- 



