RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



for two years to his buggy. He bred her to Alex- 

 ander's Abdallah, sire of Goldsmith Maid, but she 

 did not prove fertile. He described her in a letter 

 written at Spring Station, February i, 1872, as 

 " rather bad-tempered, and has but one eye." In 

 the spring of 1865 he bred her to Alexander's Nor- 

 man. As her remaining eye was getting bad, and, 

 fearing that she would continue sterile, he concluded 

 to get rid of her. 



" I took her," he wrote, " with another Mambrino 

 Chief mare I owned, with large hocks, called Dove 

 Mambrino, and offered both on November County 

 Court day in Lexington at public outcry. Mr. D. 

 Harris bought Fanny, Blackwood's dam, at auction 

 for $110. Blackwood was foaled the following 

 spring, his mother being entirely blind, and I think 

 she died soon after from a fall. The dam of Fanny 

 was a dun, or yellow mare, of unknown blood, and 

 was brought from Indiana, I understood. If this dun 

 mare was by Commodore, I never knew it, as I was 

 very much interested when I bought her from Mr. 

 Thomas. He said it was impossible to pedigree her, 

 as she was not raised in this vicinity. The dun mare 

 was a fine roadster in those days. Fanny had only 

 fair trotting action as a buggy mare. She was a 

 lengthy mare, with broad hips, dark bay, or brown, in 

 color." 



Blackwood was foaled the property of Andrew 

 Steele, of Scott County, Ky. Mr. Steele was a 

 lightly-formed, emotionless man, and a strict Metho- 

 dist. When Blackwood began to show speed his 



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