128 MY HORSE; MY LOVE. 



stirring inarch of the regimental band, are music in 

 their ears, and an impulse to their going. ' 



Very true, and every soldier has something to 

 tell of the surprising and intelligent faithfulness of 

 his horse in battle. Hov;^ many I have heard grieve 

 over their loss or their wounds! They seemed ever 

 bound together in a mutual love, the soldier for his 

 horse, and the horse for his maUer. 



'• Up to that time the foundation blood of America's 

 best horses was the choicest from England's thor- 

 oughbreds, which was always kept strongly reinforced 

 by infusion of Arabian blood. For fifty years New 

 England had been proud of her Morgan horse created 

 from Arab blood. New York and Long Island 

 boasted with proper spirit of the families of Henry 

 Clay and Andrew Jackson, while Long Island was 

 the home of the famous Messenger of direct Arab 

 blood, and also of Wildair, inbred to Arab blood. 

 The latter, after importation from England, was so 

 highly prized there that he was repurchased." 



Then it was these noted stallions who were the pro- 

 genitors of the finest horses in the country, and who 

 gave the foundation blood to all the trotting speed of 

 which America could then boast? 



" Yes, madam, but when this immense army of 

 horses was sent to the front, the mares at home were 

 left without mates equal to them in blood. Only the 

 basest of stallions, in fact, the commonest mongrels 

 were left to mate with these blooded mares. As the 

 progeny of mongrel blood does not 'train on' with 

 successive generations, the reproduction of thorough- 

 bred horses was an impossibility. From this time 



