“The mares that produced these horses were of no particular blood. Various stallions had been kept in that section. Morgans from New Hampshire and Vermont, with an occasional change to the French Canadians, and now and then a quarter or half bred horse from New York or New Jersey.”
This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially valuable, as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent observer from a personal acquaintance with the original horse and his progeny. There are some inferences, however, that may be drawn from Mr. Howard’s letter that would be unjust to this distinguished animal. His general coarse appearance, in connection with which Mr. H. says, “he hardly looked like a half bred horse,” was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino, a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the same remark was often made about him. The quantity and length of his coat in the winter of his old age are not conclusive against his pretensions to a large share of good and pure blood. They are the results oftentimes of neglect and ill health. It is somewhere stated that the famous Sir Archy before he died looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully three inches long. Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that “the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than the first.” In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would be altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these things if development and use did not strengthen and intensify the instinct to trot in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is right, and we do not doubt he is, the increased capacity did not grow out of the dilution of the blood, but out of the strengthening of the instinct by culture and use. At the time Mr. Howard made this remark he evidently did not know that the famous old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were both immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In their day these two were classed among the best and fastest trotters that the world had then produced. The facts that both these animals were the immediate progeny of Winthrop Messenger were never brought to light for many years, and all I will say about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established.