114 TYPES AND BREEDS 



Origin. — Orange County, New York, was the original seat 

 of this breed; then Kentucky, and eventually the States in 

 general, California in particular. The chief interest in trotters 

 centered about ISTew York City, where the improvement in the 

 construction of roads gave a great stimulus to road driving. 

 Their foundation blood lines were laid in Orange County. 



The two most notable foundation sires in America were im- 

 ported Messenger and Justin Morgan. 



Messenger was a gray Thoroughbred, six generations re- 

 moved from the Darley Arabian, imported from England, as an 

 eight-year-old in 1788. He stood most of his life aboiit Xew 

 York and Philadelphia, where he left numerous progeny. Al- 

 though himself a running race horse, brought to this country for 

 the improvement of runners, he soon became noted as a sire of 

 trotters, and upon his trotting sons and grandsons, daughters 

 and granddaughters, the Standardbred is based. It has been 

 suggested that the fact that the horse stock about ISTew York 

 was descended from the horses brought over by the Dutch, and 

 that a family of trotters were native to Friesland, would account 

 for so many of the get of Messenger being trotters. The infer- 

 ence is that Messenger inijiarted the speed and stamina, whilehJs 

 get derived their instinct to trot from their Uutch-bred daii^. 

 The most notable of Messenger's sons was l\lambrino, the sire of 

 Mambrino Paymaster and Abdallah. Mambrino Paymaster in 

 turn sired Mambrino Chief, from whom the Mambrino family 

 of trotters and the Chief family of Saddle horses of Kentucky 

 are descended. Abdallah sired Tlambletonian 10, the most 

 conspicuous sire of the Standardbred. 



Hambletonian lo, or Rysdyk's Hambletonian, is regarded 

 as the progenitor of tlie Standardbred, so far as one individ- 

 ual can claim that distinction (Fig. 82). Tie was foaled 

 the property of Jonas Seeley near Chester, Orange County, 

 New York, in 1849, but soon passed into the hands of the man 

 he inade famous, ^^''m. M. Rysdyk. jSTotwithstanding the fact 

 that his stud fees later amounted to $1S4,7'25.00, Tlysdyk dick- 

 ered a long time before the purchase j^rice of $125.00 for the 

 mare and foal was agreed upon. Tliis would indicate tliat neither 

 party to tlie transaction had any conception of the ultimate value 



