278 THE MORGAN HORSE 



a favorite colt out of the same mare which he hopes to make a trotter of 

 renown. He will undoubtedly have speed, but unless supported by a vigor- 

 ous constitution the great exertions for long distances demanded for a trot- 

 ting horse will be apt to mar his prospect of celebrity. 



"As Mr. Dansereau resides in the race-horse region of Canada, his 

 neighbors, envious of his good fortune, have for many years attempted to 

 raise rivals by breeding their mares to his crack horse for the time. But 

 though the produce make fine ponies, the cross does not operate kindly as 

 to their speed, and the want of increased size in such offspring indicates 

 perhaps a delicate constitution in the parent stock. The horse which won 

 the Chambly pacing match in 2 137, 2 135^, is by estimation fourteen hands 

 three inches high, of a glossy black color with but little white, of light car- 

 cass, trim built, stands high on the legs and in the stable often rests one 

 hind foot on the other. He has a full breast with Morgan shoulders, round 

 barrel, and a pretty muscular croup. His head is neat and delicate, his 

 crest neither high nor low and his neck rather short on the top, which in- 

 clines his nose to poke out ; this, however, may give him facility in breath- 

 ing. His carriage is graceful". 



From this additional testimony, most fortunately handed down to us 

 and coming from Mr. Dansereau himself, we are able to say with certainty 

 that this famous racing and brood mare Jeanne D'Arc, from which sprung 

 Pilot and the most renowned of the pacing and trotting families of Canada, 

 did not possess a single drop of French blood. She was from an Amer- 

 ican mare, and by an American horse, both of which presumably came from 

 Vermont, and the last of which, judging from his description and the qual- 

 ities that he handed down through this mare, belonged to Vermont's noted 

 family of Morgans. 



It also appears, from all the testimony gathered, that the horse known as 

 the Gravelin Horse, a Morgan-shaped horse of fine proportions, roan, about 

 fifteen and a half hands high, eleven hundred pounds, foaled the property of 

 Vital Dupre of St. Ours, Province of Quebec, somewhere about 1812 101814, is, 

 with the possible exception of Copperbottom, the earliest progenitor of the 

 great pacing family of Canada of which we have been able to get direct knowl- 

 edge. Without question he got the Duhamel Horse (Carillon), that in turn 

 got the Vassar Horse (Pappillon). The dam of Carillon may have had and 

 probably did have some French blood, but was herself a pacer and therefore 

 undoubtedly inherited pacing blood from the States. This Vassar Horse was 

 owned for many years by Louis Dansereau of Contre-Coeur, and from him cer- 

 tainly descended several others of the Dansereau stallions and a large part of 

 the Vercheres and Contre-Cceur stock. Pilot was foaled 1823, 1824 or 1825. 

 If the Vassar Horse was foaled in 1820, he might have been and probably 

 was the sire of Pilot ; for Jerome Dansereau, son of Joseph, the owner of 

 Pilot, who ought to be the best witness we have on this point, distinctly 

 states that the fast black pacer owned by his father and bred by his uncle 

 Louis was got by the previous fast black pacer owned by Louis. Several 



