BLACK HAWK 169 



"A son of Trotting Childers named Doncaster, which I sold to 

 Mr. Paran Stevens, was a small horse of great speed and untiring en- 

 durance. He could trot better than 2 130, and I never knew him to 

 be tired. He left colts in and around Salem which were remarkable 

 for courage and power. Only two, I think, remain. A pair of old 

 horses, one by Childers and one by a son of Doncaster, are now in 

 my stable, with a great record of labor and merit. A brown mare 

 out of a white mare, a daughter of Doncaster, is, I think, as nearly per- 

 fect as horse can be, and a great-granddaughter of Doncaster, by George 

 Wilkes, Jr., dam by Smuggler, promises great speed, and has courage 

 and energy. This mare, now four years old, has George Wilkes as a 

 grandsire on her sire's side, and Smuggler as a grandsire on her dam's 

 side. But it is Black Hawk blood in all these that I value, and I can 

 safely say the best horses I have bred have possessed this strain. I 

 do not mean to say they have all been fast, although some of them 

 have been, but they have all those qualities which make a reliable, 

 sensible, fearless, enduring horse. 



''This is the kind of a horse that Black Hawk himself was. 

 He was one of the strongest horses I ever knew. His dam was said 

 to be of English blood. They used to say that Justin Mor- 

 gan, small as he was, could at a dead lift pull more weight 

 than any other horse in Vermont; and I have no doubt Black 

 Hawk was capable of the same performance. He was admirably 

 balanced. His stifles and gaskins were immense and beautifully 

 formed. His back was short and strong. His shoulders and arms 

 were very muscular. At the same time he was symmetrical and had 

 no superfluous flesh. No horse ever had a handsomer head and 

 neck than he had, and his intelligence was great. His power in har- 

 ness was apparently equal to any weight. His gait was always level, 

 and his break was an advantage rather than a hindrance to his speed. 

 I have seen him pull an old-fashioned C-spring chaise at a rate 

 almost speedy, and when he broke, even with this great weight be- 

 hind him, he seemed to be running away, and he returned to his feet 

 again as if he had only a sulky behind him. That a handsome, 

 cheerful, powerful, well-made, good-gaited horse like this should have 

 laid the foundation of a good family is perfectly natural. 



" It is not from cold-blooded horses that we get such a family as 

 he founded. For while the Black Hawks may be second to 

 the Hambletonians in 'producing turf performers', they are 

 second to none in the production of sure-footed, intelligent and 

 spirited animals for the road, in addition to their long list of 

 trotters which you have so diligently and accurately made in the re- 



