TROTTING FAMILIES. 25 
Arab foundation. At all events, he was superlatively 
excellent both as a race horse and as a sire, and Mes- 
senger inherited most of his good qualities, but not his 
extreme speed. Messenger, though running bred, was 
a natural trotter, — the more so, perhaps, on account 
of his somewhat straight shoulders and low withers. 
It is true indeed that certain of our very fastest 
trotters, notably Axtell and Palo Alto, have sloping 
shoulders and fairly high withers ; but the Messenger 
or Sampson conformation is that of the typical trotter. 
Maud 8.,? Sunol,? and Nancy Hanks are built thus. 
Messenger was an animal of great soundness and 
vigor. One who saw him taken off the ship was ac- 
customed to relate that three other horses, his com- 
panions on the long voyage, “had become so reduced 
and weak that they had to be helped and supported 
down the gang-plank ; but when it became Messenger’s 
turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, rushed down, with 
a negro on each side holding him back, and dashed up 
the street at a stiff trot, carrying the grooms along in 
spite of all their efforts to bring him to a standstill.” 
“When Messenger charged down the gang-plank,” 
Hiram Woodruff declared, “the value of not less than 
one hundred million dollars struck our soil.” 
Messenger died of colic, at Oyster Bay on Long 
Island, in January, 1808, being then twenty-eight 
years of age, and having attained such a height of 
equine reputation that he was buried with military 
honors. and a charge of musketry was fired over his 
grave. 
1 Her record is 2.083. ‘ 
2 Her record is 2.08} on a kite-shaped track. 
3 See page 87. 
