THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 493 



followed breeding the two families together after several genera- 

 tions of descent ; and there is no reason to doubt that if Diomed 

 had come with Messenger to this country, and had stood some- 

 where near Philadelphia or New York, instead of coming seven- 

 teen years later, and standing in Virginia, the two families would 

 have been inter-bred sooner. Two good results would have 

 attended : first, all the advantage of breeding trotters with trotters 

 without the disadvantage of in-breeding; and, second, the inter- 

 breeding of two good trotting families before the trotting quality 

 was diluted by other crosses not possessing it. American Eclipse, 

 who gave so much trotting quality to his descendants, combined 

 both bloods. . See pedigree of Mambrino Pilot, Table II. Eclipse 

 was known only as a running horse, and was one of the very best 

 thorough-breds ever foaled in America. He was equally distin- 

 guished on the turf and in the stud. Post Boy, a distinguished 

 race-horse that lived to a great age, had many trotting descend- 

 ants. He, too, combined the blood of Messenger and Diomed. 

 See pedigree of Young Merrill, Table V. All the trotting of 

 Morrill on his sire's side was inherited from Post Boy. Another 

 thorough-bred of the same descent was Cock-of-the-Rock. He 

 too was a race-horse that begot trotters. Golddust inherits all 

 of his trotting from him. See Table IV. These and other simi- 

 lar cases that might be adduced, show that the produce of a cross 

 between two trotting families has equal power of transmitting its 

 peculiar qualities to offspring that the produce of in-breeding has. 



In breeding two trotting families together, if one has any defect 

 the other may correct it, as it is improbable that both will have 

 the same defect; but by in-breeding any defect of the family will 

 be pretty surely perpetuated, as the colt will inherit it from both 

 sides. Now that we have trotters enough to allow of a free selec- 

 tion without breeding near relations together, there are no reasons 

 why the practice should be continued, and many why it should 

 not be. 



The opinion is quite prevalent among breeders, that every horse 

 a mare is bred to modifies, not only his own get, but all the colts 

 she may afterwards have by any other horses. Without denying 

 the facts set forth in the body of this book by Stonehenge, of a 

 mare that had colts by a horse, and that they resembled the 

 quagga she was first bred to, I am prepared to assert that no such 

 effects are commonly noticed when mares are bred to different 

 stallions. I have looked for such results in various species of ani- 

 mals the human included and could never detect the slightest 

 resemblance in the offspring of one sire to any other sire the dam 

 had previously borne offspring to. Practically, the theory is of no 

 value whatever. Another notion, about equally common, is, that 

 a mare that has bred a mule will not breed to a horse. It is 

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