132 THE HORSE 



an Arabian, that belonged with a circus that was 

 showing at Newport. Of this horse's claim to 

 Arabian blood I have no proof, but the appearance 

 of the mare, whom I remember perfectly and all of 

 whose colts I rode under the saddle, certainly bore 

 it out. She had the dishing face, the clean limbs 

 and head, the high-carried tail, and the peculiar 

 elegance of contour that goes with the Arab race. 



My father always bred her, as well as his other 

 mares, to a thoroughbred stallion, but he was very 

 careful to select a smooth, compact, short-jointed 

 one; most thoroughbreds he considered too 

 slender and rangy to produce the best carriage 

 stock. He found his ideal sire in De Wolf's 

 Matchless, a horse that stood in Bristol, R. I. 

 Curiously enough, this horse whose get, consider- 

 ing the diversity of mares that were bred to him, 

 were of remarkable finish and many of them very 

 showy in harness, was never fully appreciated by 

 horsemen until after his death. 



I recall an incident in the latter days of my 

 father's horse-breeding which, though trivial, I 

 may perhaps be pardoned for telling. The 

 keeper of a young stallion of Hambletonian blood 

 whose services he wished to see tried on good 

 mares, came to show him the horse. After look- 

 ing him over he condemned him as " lacking in 

 style and too coarse, especially in the head," and 



