482 BLACKWOOD AND SWIGERT. 



three minutes, as estimated by those who chronicle him, and a show- 

 horse every inch. But his forelegs were used up. I am compelled to 

 say that the front legs of the Swigert family are not such as I like, and 

 they are the weak point in the family. I know of some complaint on 

 that score, and it should be kept in mind in breeding. A mare with 

 weak front legs or shaky cannons should not be sent to Swigert. 



A defective piece of machinery wears out sooner than one that is 

 properly constructed and performs less work. The race horse Henry 

 gave out in his forelegs at the age of six years; and the American 

 Star family acquired their game legs by honest inheritance. These 

 Stars all had what is popularly called knee-action. A fifteen-hand 

 horse, with a front cannon 11^, and a forearm 18| — mark the measure 

 — such was the Star horse. A short forearm and a long cannon, and 

 the result was they lifted their knees and pounded hard when they 

 struck the ground; the feet and legs, not of the best to begin with, 

 pounded to pieces in short order. A horse that is so constructed will 

 not throw his feet out in front, but he will chop or strike the ground 

 very hard. I have not seen one horse of like proportion that did 

 not strike hard. Fullerton does it, and so did Smuggler. That 

 this family have most likely inherited this foreleg peculiarity from 

 the sire of the Morse Horse, I regard one of the reasonable deduc- 

 tions from experience and common observation, aided by our positive 

 knowledge that the other elements that form so much of the character 

 and make up of these animals were totally different in respect to the 

 point specially under consideration. 



It is useless to indulge in any surmise as to the possible blood or 

 composition of this so-called imported horse. Such he may have 

 been, and such he may not have been. He was a horse of positive 

 excellence of character, and one whose blood elements fused or har- 

 monized well and completely with the rich veins of Messenger blood, 

 with which he was crossed in the successive generations that have 

 left us Blackwood, Swigert, Lula and May Queen, That he was him- 

 self a grandson of imported Messenger is quite as probable as any 

 part of the legend that he was imported from France. 



I must not close this chapter without calling the attention of my 

 readers to the important place the blood of these two stallions is to 

 fill in the future of our American trotters. The high trotting character 

 'of the Mambrino Chief, or Duroc-Messenger family, has found ready 

 appreciation in the estimate of many who were yet deterred from 

 resorting to it from what sometimes appears to be a lacJc of quality. 



