Horse Sire

There are certain general views touching the influence of the sire on his stock, which every one who is intending to breed should be aware of. There are certain cautions which it behooves every writer, who attempts to give people instruction in the business of breeding, to give frankly to his readers. I propose, therefore, in this division of the work, to enter into a full discussion of the matter, and give my ideas at length concerning the influence of the sire on his stock. Indeed, as I have already sketched the outlines of a perfect horse, and described the different points and characteristics which must distinguish such an animal, I now propose to sketch a perfect stock-horse, and thereby supply my readers with a standard in breeding, as I have already done in purchasing. In short, having described a perfect horse, I will now describe the way in which he can be propagated. The first, and to my mind the most essential fact to be borne in mind by a breeder is, that the propagating principle or capacity does not inhere in all stallions alike. It does not follow that a stallion, however perfect he may be both in conformation and temperament, will make a good stock-horse, or prove a source of profit to those who patronize him. It is at this point that so many blunders are made, and from which so many failures result. At this point two roads diverge, one of which leads to success, the other to certain disaster. How essential, then, that a warning and directing hand should be set up at this point, seeing which no breeder can be uncertain which path to take !

The fact is this, that in addition to temperament and perfection of structure, over and above desirableness of nervous and muscular organization, there does exist in certain horses the power to propagate their most perfect points and characteristics, which other horses, equally perfect in themselves, perhaps do not have. What this power is, or where it is, or how the horse comes by it, no one can tell. It cannot be implied: nothing short of an actual demonstration can prove that it exists. It is this which makes a stallion worthy to be kept as a stock-horse ; and nothing else can. No matter how beautiful, nor how sound, nor how speedy, nor how well connected in pedigree, a colt may be : he should never be advertised to the breeding public, until, by actual service with his own brood-mares, his owner is made aware of his capacity to reproduce his own excellences in his get. I maintain that any other course includes a fraud upon the public, in that he advertises as certain what he knows, or should know, is extremely uncertain ; for this reproducing capacity is withheld by some strange freak or unascertained reason of nature from most horses, and bestowed only upon the few. Out of a hundred stallions in a State, only two or three ever become justly famous. The strangest and most unaccountable thing of the whole matter is, that many horses for which the best judges would surely predict success, prove, upon trial, lamentable failures; while others less esteemed become heads of families, and live with increasing honor with the birth of every generation of their descendants. It is not from the winners of the St. Leger and the Derby that England has received her fastest stock. These winners, in cases numberless, were out of the loins of horses by no means noted, but which gave to their sons and daughters that which made both parent and children immortal. Instances too numerous to mention might be quoted ; but the principle is too fully admitted to require argument and illustration.

The fact stands admitted, that, until a stallion has been actually tested in the stud, it is useless to predict whether he will be valuable as a stock-horse or not, and folly for the general public to breed to him. Among the horses which excel in this peculiarity, at the very head of the list may perhaps be placed old Justin Morgan. The reproducing capacity of this horse, considering the treatment he received, was simply marvelous. Unappreciated and abused half of his life, it was the merest accident that his value as a stock-horse was discovered at all ; and even then he was bred indiscriminately to mares, unassisted by the least intelligence in the matter. Still, in spite of all obstacles which neglect and ignorance opposed, the reproductive faculty was so superlatively strong in him, that he founded a family truer to the original type, and more able to protect itself from the infringements of foreign blood, than any family of horses, perhaps, that the world has ever seen. Whatever men may say for or against the Morgan horse per se, none can deny that his blood was strong enough to dominate over every blood with which it was brought in contact. No matter to what mare he was bred, the offspring was invariably a Morgan colt. In outward conformation of structure, in color, in temperament, in style of action, and even habits of the stable, the foal grew up to look and act like the sire. Not only was this reproductive faculty strong in the old horse, but he transmitted it to his sons which is the highest form of all excellence in a stock-horse. Nor did this power die out in one or two generations, but continued on like a stream having a constant source; and might have been prolonged, doubtless, unto this day, had not the State which had been enriched and made famous by this animal and his descendants committed financial suicide by allowing the family to be scattered, and the family type itself bought away from it. Not alone Vermont, but the entire country were losers when the Morgan family ceased to have " a local habitation," although it could never cease to have "a name." In proof of the perpetuation and continuity of this reproductive faculty in the Morgan family, even in our time, might be mentioned Ethan Allen, sired by Black Hawk ; and Taggart's Abdallah, whose grandsire was the famous Gilford Morgan, — perhaps the most beautiful horse ever ridden at a military parade. Of the speed of these two famous stallions — the former of which has trotted a mile faster than any horse that has ever lived, and the latter of which is, in our opinion, the highest type of a stock-horse in the country — we shall speak more fully hereafter.

Enough at this point to say that they are lineal descendants from the original Morgan, and illustrate the assertion which we made above. As a further illustration of this principle, if any were needed, running all through the Morgan family, especially in case of the male colts, I might mention Old Morrill, grandsire of Draco, Mountain Maid, Hiram Woodruff, and the justly celebrated Fearnaught. Here is another descendant by a direct line from Justin Morgan, marked strongly with the family type ; marking his colts with the same type, fighting bravely, and maintaining himself against the incoming of foreign elements, — elements too, be it said, of the most potent character. Look at the pedigree of Old Morrill as exhibited in Table V. of the Supplement, and observe how the Morgan blood has to contend for the possession of the channel against three currents that find their source in imported Diomed, and three other streams that come pouring in like a torrent from imported Messenger ; and yet the Morgan blood is royal enough to contend at odds against royalty, and takes the six streams of imported blood, mingles it with itself, and rolls along as calmly and as true to itself as before. I trust I am not opinionated; but I would ask. What other horse, imported or home-bred, has ever founded a family able to perpetuate its characteristics, and defend itself against the intrusion of foreign blood, as has the Morgan? Where is the imported Messenger type invariably true to itself? Where is imported Diomed, as discerned in his descendants ? Where is imported Bashaw, out of whose trunk the Clay branches have all sprung ? Where is any horse, or family of horses, whose type of outward conformation and temperament even have survived seventy years of outcrossing and admixture ? The horse and family do not live, I reply. The Morgan, and the Morgan alone, is worthy to stand upon the pedestal in answer to such an interrogation. Whatever else he lacked, neither he nor his descendants lacked or lack the power to reproduce themselves. It is for this reason that I give it as my deliberate opinion, that, other things being equal, the stallion with the largest amount of Morgan blood in his veins will prove the best stock-horse. It is undoubtedly to the presence of this blood in their veins that Fearnaught, Ethan Allen and his son Lambert, Taggart's Abdallah and his descendants, and the Morrills of Vermont, are able to mark their offspring with their own characteristics. They are indebted, every one of them, to their old ancestor, Justin Morgan, for the possession of that rarest of all faculties in horses, — the power to reproduce their own excellences, — and which, derived from him, has won them fame, and their owners large incomes. We all live in debt to-day to an animal which so many horsemen underrate, if not despise, but which, in our opinion, gave to the country more handsome, docile, serviceable, and fast horses, than any animal America ever had. But, leaving this topic for subsequent discussion, — and we propose to give the reasons for our emphatic assertion before we are done, — we lay it down as the first maxim of intelligent breeding, that a stock horse is to he judged by his stock rather than by himself and that the stallion that gets the best colts is the hest one to patronize. But what is it that the sire gives to his descendants ? and how far, and in what, as compared to the dam, does he dominate over his offspring ? This, perhaps, should be the next point for us to consider. We will proceed to do so ; premising, at the start, that the answer will not, in all points, be full or satisfactory. Indeed, the processes of Nature are often hidden, and the springs of her influence concealed ; nor can man by searching find them out.

Especially is this true in this matter of the causation and reproduction of life. The mists and vapors which geologists tell us swathed the infant world in the creation period swathe all infant life to-day. It exists in unknown conditions and obscure relations before it is seen. How much the boy owes to the father, and how much to the mother, and how he came to owe the same, or more, to one than to the other, we do not know. How much nature is shaped in the germ, independent of condition and circumstance, or how much, on the other hand, circumstance and condition affect the germ, who can say ? We can speculate; we can dogmatize: but, while the created mind is ignorant of the processes of its own creation, life, in its origin and pre-natal conditions, must remain largely a mystery. Before I express my own views, I will put before the reader the following principles of breeding, as published in " The Horse-Owner's Cyclopedia," page 99, and which have been highly indorsed by no less an authority than the late Mr. Herbert (" Frank Forester").