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RICAN STALLION
REGISTER
, . : IN : THE • .
R, FROM THE I Q02.
R WITH THE ENGLISH ST
ALL SIRES OF 2 .7,0 TROT ERS TO 19c
ALS OF
THESE STALL ■ LR AS I
COMPILED FROM ORIGIiNAL SOURC
HIT' rLY 1
ATED
BY JOS1 BATTELL
AUTIK
" I did for the horse what T would neither do for earl aron, dor' y hat t<
won irse, the fas: t in mat
" ■ Lavengro"
VOLUM"
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AMERICAN STALLION REGISTER
INCLUDING ALL STALLIONS PROMINENT IN THE BREEDING OF THE AMERICAN
ROADSTER, TROTTER AND PACER, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO I902.
AND THIS INCLUDES NEARLY ALL IMPORTED ENGLISH THOROUGHBREDS,
AND THEIR MORE DISTINGUISHED GET, TOGETHER WITH MANY OF
THE ENGLISH STALLIONS FROM WHICH THEY ARE DESCENDED j
ALL SIRES OF 2 130 TROTTERS OR 2 125 PACERS TO I903.
ALSO THE RATING OF MORGAN BLOOD IN ALL OF
THESE STALLIONS SO FAR AS KNOWN
COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES
WITH
MANY PEDIGREES, HITHERTO INCORRECTLY RECORDED,
CORRECTED (IN ALL CASES THE EVIDENCE UPON
WHICH THIS IS DONE BEING . GIVEN), AND
MANY MORE PEDIGREES EXTENDED
ILLUSTRATED
BY JOSEPH BATTELL
AUTHOR OF THE MORGAN HORSE AND REGISTER
" I did for the horse what I would neither do for earl or baron, doffed my hat; yes! I doffed my hat to the wondrous horse, the fast trotter, the best in mother England." — George Borrow in "Lavengro."
VOLUME I.
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
MIDDLEBURY, VT.
I909
Copyright 1909, by Joseph Battell.
PREFACE
IN COMPILING the first volume of The Morgan Horse and Register, we obtained a large amount of information showing that a very large propor- tion of the pedigrees of the more noted progenitors of the foundation stock of the American trotter and pacer, as recorded in Wallace's American Trotting Register, which was the usual accepted authority, were largely erroneous. That the pedigrees of others, as Copperbottom, Pilot, St. Lawrence and indeed the whole contingent of Canadian sires from which a- very large number of the best American road horses, including many of the fastest trotters and pacers, are in part descended, were not given at all. To correct this we began as early as 1884 to collect accurate information of this class of sires, with the intention at first of publishing it in an appendix to the Morgan Register, but it rapidly became too voluminous for such place, and before long it became evident that it would have to be published in a work by itself.
To make the work more complete we have added pedigrees of all sires of 2 130 trotters and 2 125 pacers to the year 1903 ; have included also some of the more noted English thoroughbred sires, taken from the General Stud Book of England and a large number of thoroughbred and other horses from advertisements in files of American newspapers, and from other sources.
The rating of Morgan blood for each stallion, so far as known, is given immediately after the name of the animal.
The present volume includes the first three letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, whilst in the Introduction has been added quite a number of valuable articles relating to the Horse, which have mostly been copied from files of different horse papers examined in the public libraries at Washington, D. C. These too, are arranged in order for easy reference, and we think will be found instructive and valuable by all interested in the horse, and his develop- ment.
ILLUSTRATIONS
President Theodore Roosevelt, -
American Stage Coach, _____
Lake Champlain, _____
Washington Monument, -----
Washington, D. C, Views, -
Ethan Allen, -
fearnaught, ----__
Mambrino, by Engineer, -
Quebec, P. Q., - -
Residence of David Goss, St. Johnsbury, Vt., and Barn in
Justin Morgan was kept, 1805-11, Justin Morgan, _____
Vermont Views, ______
A Ripton, Vt., Trout Stream, -
Horses Drinking, ------
Winooski River, Vermont, _ _ _ _
Capitol at Washington, D. C, -
General Washington at Trenton, -
Alexander's Abdallah, -
Goldsmith's Maid, by Alexander's Abdallah,
Albert, by Pilot Duroc, - - - -
contre cceur, p. q., -
Bedford and Bow Bells, -----
Almont, ______
Magnolia and Blood Chief Jr., -
Abdallah Star, _____
Arion, _______
California Scenes, _____
Kitty Bayard, 2:12*^,
Flora Temple, _____
Bermuda, -
Blumberg's Black Bashaw and Baronet,
Frontispiece
- xviii
xix
xlii xliii
- Ixxxvi lxxxvii
ex
- cxi
WHICH
- exxxvi exxxvii
clxii clxiii
- clxxvi clxxvii
ccxii
- 1 8
- 9
36
- 37 64
- 65 92
- 93 118
119
168
169
208
209
ILL USTRA TIONS
Black Hawk, - - - - - - =244
Bridport, Vt., and Lake Champlain, - 245
Black Hawk and Lady Suffolk, - - - . - - 262
Four in Hand, Winter, - - - - - 263
Blackwood, - - - - - - -286
A Kentucky Scene, - - - - - - 287
Jim Wilson, by Blue Bull, - - - - -322
Blue Bull, ------- 323
Brown Hal, 2 :i2^, _-_-__ 37s
Bonnie McGregor, 2 :i3}4, ----- 379
Randolph, Vt., - - - - - -• -396
Eastern Vermont, - - - - - - 397
Columbia River and Mount Hood, Oregon, - - - 442
Views of the St. Lawrence, Canada, - 443
Charles L. Caffrey, - - - - 480
Charles Reade, - - ... ^gr
Clear Grit, - - - -'- -524
La Canadienne, - - - - - - 525
Columbus From a Daguerreotype, - - 554
cobden s. and coeden s. jr., - - - - 555
Ben Franklin, ---.-._ 618
Cresceus, 2:02^, - - - - - - 619
View, East from the Government Morgan Horse Farm, - 668
Allen St. Joe and Xenophon, - - 669
Askey, 2 :o8j{, - - - - 708
Badger Boy, - - - - - - -709
General Montgomery by Ben Nevis (Boodle), - - 734
Bread Loaf Park, Vt., - - 735
Victoria Square and Harbor, Montreal, - - - 774
Elsie Good, by Blue Bull, - - - - -775
Threshing and Plowing, Manitoba, - - - ' - 798
Threshing in Manitoba, - - - - - -799
TlCONDEROGA, N. Y. AND VlCINITY, - - - - 842
Montreal, Winter, - - - - - - 843
\~>
INTRODUCTION.
UNDER the following horses : Allemande (Gravelin Horse, supposed to be Tom Hal), Black Diamond, Bourke Horse, Columbus, Commis, Copper- bottom, Duhamel Horse, Frank Pierce, John Bull, Live Oak, Papillon (Vassar Horse), Petit Coq, Pilot, Simard Horse, Ten Eyck Horse, and several others, much information is given in this work concerning the breeding of the fast pacers and trotters, which, beginning with Copperbottom in 1S16, and for many years thereafter, were imported from the Province of Quebec in Canada into all portions of the United States.
In a very large number of cases these Canadian horses thus imported became in part the foundation stock of the modern American trotter and pacer, the fastest of the world. As one of the leading horse dealers of Mont- real expressed it, " No Commis in Canada : no trotters in America." And whilst this could not be strictly correct, it would be very largely true that without the Dansereau breed of horses in Canada we should not have had the American trotter of today : no Maud S. ; no Jay Eye See ; no Directum ; no Star Pointer ; no Major Delmar ; no Arion ; no Allerton ; no Kremlin ; no Lou Dillon ; no Cresceus. There would of course have been other trotters, but their records might not have been so fast.
It is a most remarkable condition that in the development of the Ameri- can trotter a locality so extremely one side, occupied almost entirely by a rural population with but little wealth, and within the coldest cultivated zone of the continent, should have been an indispensable factor. For so extraordinary a result there must be an adequate cause. Our efforts to find this were the first, and we believe the only ones which have been made. Unfortunately these were made too late to get all the minor particulars — that is, the full breeding of every horse. This, indeed, is rarely ever got. But, fortunately, it was made in time to make plain the source from which all this excellence of breeding came. And this was that the very remarkable horse known as Justin Morgan was by accident taken in the latter part of the eighteenth century to the, at that time, new State of Vermont, and to that part of it which adjoins the Province of Quebec in Canada, so that of necessity his progeny entered and pervaded this province ; where soon upon the magnificently fertile plains of the St. Lawrence they found a country which, in spite of the cold of winter, was congenial to their development. Hence their increase equal to the ex- tension of their blood over the greater part — at least the greater civilized
INTRODUCTION
m
part — of America, and their most wonderful assistance in the develoDment of the American trotter and pacer. In the same manner Morgan horses from Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts were distributed over the country at about the same time.
These two different branches of the same family, because of coming from two different nationalities between whom there was no very intimate connec- tion, were not at first generally known to be of the same stock, although the Morgans were very commonly called French, and constantly in our inter- views with our most intelligent horsemen the opinion would be expressed that there must be a relationship between the Morgans and the Canadians which were brought into the States. To illustrate this we will quote a few of the many instances referred to. Dr. C. G. Lithicum, born in Macon County, Ky, 1820, a veterinary of long-established reputation, whom we vis- ited at his handsome home in Baltimore, Md., in a long discussion of the horses of Kentucky and Maryland, with both of which he had been very familiar, said :
" I think myself that the Vermont and Canadian horses were very intimately connected. There is a very striking resemblance between them. The Morgans are a little more plump and a little better loined ; but I have always thought there was a relationship between the two."
Samuel Lee, bom about 181 5, one of the best known, oldest and most intelligent horsemen of Baltimore, to whom we had been referred as the highest authority on pedigrees and histories of horses in that locality, said :
"The Canadians were all smooth and blocky, -much like the Morgan in style. All had good heads, which they carried up ; and heavy manes and tails. The Narragansetts had lighter tails and were bigger horses than the Cana- dians. I most positively think that the Morgan and Canadian were related. All had quick action, and nearly every Canadian gets his head up like the Morgan."
William McCracken, an old-time horse-dealer of Lexington, Ky., of much practical intelligence, owner of the so-called Canadian horses, Roebuck, Niagara, Jupiter and others, that appear frequently in the trotting pedigrees of Kentucky, said :
" Roebuck was fine and stylish and carried his head up ; he was very pretty. Niagara was a roan with small star and the prettiest Canadian I ever saw. I bought him of a Frenchman named Hendricks, who brought him here from Montreal. I sold him, about 1S55, to Col. James Shelby of Mis- souri for about one thousand dollars. He was shaped like a Morgan. I got a white Canadian ; called him Jupiter. I bought him of a Frenchman that came here from Canada and stayed a couple of weeks. He looked like a Morgan. He got the dam of Bushwhacker, 2 127. He was six years old when I got him. I kept him two years and sold him for five hundred dollars. Eureka was as nice a chestnut horse as you ever saw, fifteen hands, very stylish, say one thousand pounds. No doubt but he was a Morgan. He marked his stock with his own points for three or four generations. Corbeau, sire of Billy Boyce, was owned in Harrodsburg. The sire of this Corbeau was Canadian. I knew old Black Pilot well. He came from New Orleans, paced very fast and finally struck a trot. He was another stout little Canadian.
iv INTRODUCTION
Tom Hal stood here. There was a roan Tom Hal and a sorrel one with white face. They resembled the Copperbottoms. The original Copper- bottom was about fifteen and one-half hands, thick-breasted ; a fine sort of a horse. I was born in 1818 and I remember Copperbottoms as early as I remember anything. Johnson brought Toronto, Canadian, to Kentucky, about 1850 ; a nice-made horse and a trotter. The man who brought in New York Beauty brought in two other Morgan stallions. I think the Morgan horses must have come from Canadian."
A further illustration of the resemblance between the Morgan and the Province of Quebec Pacer, that came to the States, is the fact that in the early history of the Morgans they were often called French or Canadian, especially in New York ; and so in Kentucky and Tennessee we have found that the two were frequently confused. Thus Telegraph, known as Lithicum's Telegraph, has generally been called a Canadian horse, but was a Vermont horse, and un- doubtedly a son of Black Hawk. Cardinal was called both, but was probably a Canadian. Webber's Tom Thumb, that was called Canadian, was undoubt- edly a Morgan. So the famous mare, Lady Surry, dam of Henry Clay, was called a Canadian until it was learned that she came from Surry, N. H. She was probably a daughter of Revenge, son of Justin Morgan. The renowned Black Hawk, son of Sherman Morgan, has been claimed to be Canadian. We met repeatedly in Canada those who thought Black Hawk came from Ver- cheres and belonged to the Dansereau pacing family. They felt sure of this because he resembled them so strongly. H. J. Spencer, an intelligent horse- man of Burlington, Vt., in speaking of the Corbeaus, said that he traded for a black stallion of that name, with a Frenchman from Canada, about 1850; that it was a very valuable horse and looked almost exactly like Black Hawk. Blazing Star, by Henry Clay, son of Romeo, pacer, was thus described to us by Mr. Kistler, a leading liveryman and horse-dealer of Warren, O. : "A compact-built fellow ; looked like a Morgan. The stock was much thought of." The get of Legal Tender Jr., an inbred Davy Crockett and the leading sire of that line, is described in a letter of his owner, J. M. Amos of Rushville, Ind., as follows : " They have fine style, like the sire ; look like the Morgan stock of horses."
As will appear later, Pilot was described by parties who knew him in Connecticut and New York, accomplished judges of horses, as very much re- sembling the Morgans, especially the Black Hawk strain.
For further illustration of this subject see The Morgan Horse and Regis- ter, Vol. L, pp. 255-280, and Vol. II., pp. iv-xi of the Preface.
The Canadian Morgans, especially those that sold the readiest, were bred largely pure, but still by degrees partook of the difference in the foundation stock of the two nationalities ; that of Canada being from France and very plebeian ; each intermixed with thoroughbred blood, but we think that of the States having a good deal more of this, and perhaps in choicer strains, than the Canadian.
From the start, in our investigations, we found that the information
INTRODUCTION v
gathered pointed most distinctly to the Morgan origin of the noted Province
of Quebec trotter and pacer of the early part of the nineteenth century. And
when suddenly from two witnesses, relatives of M. Gravelin, who owned the
sire, that by many witnesses was shown to be the progenitor of the fast family
of pacers bred and owned by Louis Dansereau of Vercheres, P. Q., from
which a very large share of the pacers imported to the States were descended,
we were told that his horse was descended from a Dutch or English horse,
the testimony became practically complete of this Morgan origin. For as is
well known the original Morgan horse was called Dutch by Mr. Morgan, who
bred him and was his first owner in Vermont, which appellation very generally
obtained throughout northern Vermont and Canada, where his stock was first
propagated. This is illustrated by the early advertisements of Morgans in
those localities. Nor, so far as we have knowledge, was this term applied in
that locality at that time to any other breed except the Morgans. Thus we
find in the Danville (Vt.) North Star the following advertisements of sons of
the original Morgan horse :
" The Dutch horse Weasel, a horse four years old, will stand at the stable of the subscriber, one mile north of St. Johnsbury Plains, Vt. ; terms, one to three dollars. Said horse is fifteen hands high, stout built, and sired by the full-blooded Dutch horse that stood at St. Johnsbury last season.
Richard W. Fenton. St. Johnsbury, May 10, 1810."
"Young Traveler will stand the ensuing season for the use of mares at the following places, viz. : at the stable of Silas Gofham, Danville, every Sat- urday, commencing on the 24th inst. ; at Chamberlain's, Lyndon Corners, on Tuesdays ; at Doles's Tavern, St. Johnsbury, on Thursdays ; and at the stable of the subscriber all the intervening days of each week. Young Traveler is descended from the old Dutch Goss horse, and, as he is generally known, a particular description is deemed unnecessary. It is presumed, however, that those who call will be satisfied with his figure and movement. Terms, three dollars the season, four dollars to ensure a foal.
Olney Hawkins,
St. Johnsbury, May 14, 181 7."
Before the next season Olney Hawkins sold this horse to his brother, Stephen Hawkins, of St. Johnsbury, who advertised him in the Danville North Star, May, 1S1S, as the part Dutch horse formerly owned by Olney Hawkins of St. Johnsbury, to stand in Danville, Wheelock Hollow and St. Johnsbury,, Soon afterwards the horse went to Stanstead, Canada, where he was adver- tised in the Danville North Star in May, 1S20, as follows :
" Improve your breed of horses ! The celebrated Dutch Horse, formerly owned by Stephen Hawkins, St. Johnsbury, will stand in the stable of Robert Rogers, every day in the week, on Stanstead Plains, the coming season. Stanstead, May 20, 1820."
He remained at Stanstead probably till 1824, and was owned the latter part of the time by John Johnson, by whom the following advertisement was inserted in the Stanstead Journal, May, 1823 :
"The celebrated Dutch horse, called the Hawkins Horse, ten years old
vi INTR OD UCTION
this year, will stand at the subscriber's stable, in Stanstead Plains, every day in each week, the ensuing season, at two dollars the single leap, or three dollars the season ; warranted as the parties can agree. Any kind of produce will be received in payment in January next. John Johnson."
The Sherman Morgan is advertised in the Danville North Star in 1828,
as follows :
" Notice : For information of those who may be gratified therewith, the noted and celebrated Dutch, Morgan, or Sherman Horse (which is one and the same), will stand for the use of mares the ensuing season on St. Johnsbury Plain, on Fridays and Saturdays of each week, and the residue of the week at S. West's on Danville Green. J. Buckminster.
Dutch Prince is advertised in the North Star, April, 18 14, by W. W. Carpenter at Lyndon Center, Kirby and Waterford at $2 to $4 :
"Said horse is of as good blood and pedigree as any in the country, of good size, well built, and is a dark chestnut color."
He is advertised again in May, 1827, by Joseph Pope at Wheelock, Danville and Peacham, Vt. This advertisement says :
" Dutch Prince was by the noted Sherman Horse, and for size, elegance of proportion and goodness of stock is exceeded by none in this vicinity."
Again in the North Star, 1818 and 1820 is advertised :
" That noted half Dutch horse Mountain Traveler, at Barnet, Vt., St. Johnsbury, Vt. This horse was also by Sherman Morgan."
Dutch Morgan Trotter, said to be by a son of Justin Morgan, is adver- tised, 1830, at Moultonborough, N. H.
We could add a number of other similar advertisements especially in the north part of Vermont and in Canada describing the Morgans as Dutch, but the above are sufficient to show that they were very commonly in the early part of the nineteenth century called Dutch.
In a letter of Geo. Barnard, Sherbrooke, P. Q., headed " Origin of the Morgan Horse Established," and which appears in the New York Spirit of the Times, July 2, 1842, is very remarkable contemporaneous evidence of the use of the word "Dutch" in Canada at that time, as applied to a class of horses whose description is identical with that of the Morgans. Mr. Barnard says :
" There is a variety among the Canadian horses, of peculiar character- istics, low, heavy, short in the legs, with shoulder thick at the breast and thin at the withers, which are termed Dutch, but whence their origin is unknown. The ignorant habitants have a custom, too, of calling cross-bred horses, which grow large, heavy and thick-meated (as all crosses with the Norman are apt to do), chevaux Alkmande, Dutch horses, probably from their superficial re- semblance to those solid chunks among them, first mentioned, and which appear clearly to be a variety distinct from the Norman.
"I hope that if any of your readers know of a Dutch breed, now or formerly in existence, of the fleet and active sort — not the lumbering and heavy — he will mention it in the 'Spirit.' Let no mistake be made, we don't wish to hear of a breed of coach or cart horses, but rather of swift and heavy ponies : the Morgan horse was but about 14 hands high."
INTRODUCTION vii
Mr. Barnard, who lived at Sherbrooke, which was removed considerably to one side of the more usual route of travel from Vermont into Canada, had become interested in the Morgan horse and his probable origin, havino- writ- ten before two letters in regard to him, the first early in October, 1S41, and the second dated Oct. 25, 1S41, to the Cultivator at Albany, N. Y., both of which were copied into the Spirit of the Times.
In the first he suggested that the horse was probably derived from the French Canadian, which origin, at that time, was quite generally, and perhaps naturally, assumed, Northern Vermont, where the Morgan horse first became known, being contiguous to Canada. Hence the dam of Henry Clay, a good Morgan mare, bred in Surrey, N. H., was called Canadian in New York, and the same with Seeley's American Star, his sire, and nearly all other Morgan horses. But Mr. Barnard based his assumptions upon affidavits of one John Stearns of St. Johnsbury, Vt., given Aug. 14, 1S41 (a copy of which and of Mr. Barnard's letter appears in Vol. I., pages 64 and 65 of The Morgan Horse and Register). In this letter Mr. Barnard says :
"Various accounts are current as to his origin ; many think it quite distinct from the Canadian breed of Norman French extraction, and consider the horse to have been of Dutch blood, and to have been introduced from some of the settlements on Hudson river, southward of Albany. Stories are told of a traveler's blood mare having got with foal by a Canadian or Indian pony, at various places north and west, and having brought forth this horse ; all these accounts are improbable, and appear to be unauthenticated.
For the last dozen years, being aware both by observation and experience, of the surprising results of crossing the Canadian with other breeds of horses, and having become acquainted with the vast variety and different qualities of various racers in the Canadian breed, I have believed that the original Mor- gan horse was of French Canadian origin. This opinion being confirmed by the accounts here given, I am anxious to ascertain whether any one can prove it erroneous, and, if not, to make it public, that it may be known that thous- ands of horses may be obtained in French Canada of the same blood, and not inferior in qualities to the Morgan, whose existence added several hundred thousand dollars to the wealth of Vermont."
In his second letter he admits that his inferences were too quickly drawn as follows :
uIn my communication on this subject, published in the late October number, I have expressed too confident an opinion in saying I believe the original horse (Morgan) was of French Canadian origin. I have recently had some acquaintance with a Morgan horse endowed with all the peculiari- ties of the breed, sufficient to make me forbear any decided opinion on the point in question, until very clear evidence is adduced. The affidavits which I furnished is only probable, and not conclusive testimony that the original horse was of Norman French descent, and procured in Montreal.
"The horse which has been with me of late is one of those called from being inbred, a full-blooded Morgan — an absurd term, for it is impossible that a descendant can inherit full blood from a single progenitor.
_ " All the accounts, being not less than half a dozen, which I have heard, of the origin of the first Morgan horse, agree in this, that one Justin Morgan, of Randolph, Vt., from whom the name was derived, owned the animal while
viii INTR OD UCTION
he was yet a colt. Doubtless there live persons who can testify to his origin, whether or not it be such as represented in the late affidavit. The public would be not only gratified, but greatly benefited by such evidence. There has probably never been another stallion whose stock for thirty or forty years have produced so much net profit to the growers.
* * * *
"Whether the Morgan be a scion of the Canadian stock or be derived from the Dutch, or some other breed which has disappeared in the United States, appears to be a question of some importance to those who would make a good selection in order to improve the breed of horses, and whoever can throw any light on the subject will gratify a large portion of your readers by making known his information through The Cultivator. If the French Canadian did not supply the Morgan, I, for one, should be glad to learn what other breed has ever been known upon this continent that could boast such excellent- qualities for common service as are universally admitted to distin- guish both of these breeds."
Following this letter came the reply of Justin Morgan Jr., son of the orig- inal owner of the horse, stating that he knew Mr. Stearns' statements were not correct, that his father brought the horse from Springfield, Mass., or near there, where he had formerly lived, to Randolph, Vt., about 1790, and added in clos- ing that he " knew his father always whilst he lived called him a Dutch horse."
Then follows this third letter of Mr. Barnard in which he refers to this breed similar to the Morgan then existing in Canada, and seeks information from the editor and readers of the Spirit, if they had ever known of any such Dutch breed of horses. He evidently connects them with the Morgan, for it is the " Origin of the Morgan Horse " which he is discussing; and that origin not yet having been made known, any further than that he was brought from Springfield, Mass., or near there, by one Justin Morgan, he is inquisitive to learn the family from which the horse is descended.
There had never been any such breed. The Morgan horse, whether hav- ing an admixture of Dutch blood or not, was the progenitor of this family, which came at the same time in Canada and New England, moulded by the quality which occasionally belongs in a remarkable degree to some animal, of impressing his own characteristics upon his offspring. This small and active breed of horses which appeared in Canada at this time, called Dutch, were Morgan horses. There is no possible explanation of their existence except this. In the first place, it would have been impossible for the Morgans not to have spread into Canada, and there multiplied, as they did in Vermont, New Hamp- shire and Maine. In doing this it would have been impossible that, to a cer- tain extent, they should not have changed the character of the French Can- adian horses, as they did those of New England and elsewhere where they went ; and in the third place, we have the statement of this most intelligent contemporaneous historian that they did so spread, being called Dutch, which as the advertisements of Sherman Morgan said, and as was repeated to us in Canada,, was one and the same as Morgan.
The fact, then, is completely demonstrated that the Morgans early in the
INTR OD UCTION
IX
nineteenth century became the dominant breed in Canada, and were imported thence in great numbers into the States — Kentucky, Pennsylvania (especially to Philadelphia), Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Massa- chusetts, Maine, California, and practically all parts of the United States : the first recorded importation being that of Copperbottom, a son of the original Morgan horse, to Kentucky in 1816.
The origin of this name, Dutch, as applied to the Morgan horse is un- known except that Justin Morgan himself called him so. Justin Morgan Jr., in a second letter, states that his father also always said that the horse was of the best blood. Unquestionably the title Dutch was given to him by Mr. Morgan. And unquestionably, too, as has been abundantly proven he was nearly or quite three-quarters thoroughbred. This would include one-six- teenth blood of Arabian Ranger by the second dam. What the other quarter was we do not know. It might have been in whole or part Dutch, which would have meant a mixture of the blood of the horses previously imported into the Dutch colony of New York by the original Dutch settlers. And these were not so very different from those imported by the English colonies from Eng- land, but somewhat larger.
But whilst .there may have been Dutch blood mingled in the un- known quarter of the original Morgan horse's blood, and must have been some blood to change an otherwise running-bred horse into a trotter, the name of Dutch, we think, might be applied to him by the owner because his sire was from New York, a colony settled by the Dutch. The same as we speak of any horse that comes from Canada, no matter what the blood, as Canadian. Or, it might have been applied because of his form, low and thick set.
But no matter what the cause, that Justin Morgan was accustomed to call the Morgan horse Dutch is unquestionable. And from this fact, especially in Northern Vermont and across the border in Canada, the breed became known as Dutch. This breed spread over practically the whole of the Province of Quebec and from this by a reflex movement over a large portion of the United States. It also spread over large portions of the United States directly from Vermont and other States where it had become the dominant breed.
In discussing the question of the sire of the Gravelin Horse, which was called Dutch, we said :
"If the horse that got the original Copperbottom, that went to Ken- tucky was known, we believe that the horse from which the great family of Canadian pacers sprung would be known"." See The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I., p. 236.
This was under the supposition that these fast pacers and trotters, for nearly all of them, at least many of them, were good at either gait, came from the same parent stock • and as Copperbottom was the first known, and in the right location, it seemed very probable that the others descended from him.
Since this was written it has been demonstrated that David Blunt brought to Bolton, when he moved there in 1810 or n, a chestnut Morgan stallion, said to have been the best, and to have left the best stock, of any
x INTRODUCTION
ever brought into that country. (See letters below and pedigree of Cop- perbottom, p. 590). That this Morgan stallion was got by the original Mor- gan horse, kept at Danville in 1808, when he was begotten, is practically certain, and that he was Copperbottom, the horse of same description, both in size and color, that was purchased in Bolton, 18 15 or 16, and afterwards became so noted, both individually and as a sire, in Kentucky, is also practi- cally certain. The Canadian pacers, which followed Copperbottom into Kentucky, were unquestionably of the same family, and may have largely been descendants of Copperbottom, as it is quite possible that he was the sire of the Gravelin Horse from which the Dansereau family descended.
But as we know that many Morgan stallions entered Canada from Ver- mont after Copperbottom had left, impressing their characteristics upon the horses of that dominion far and wide, so some must have gone into Canada earlier ; all helping to produce the race of horses known there as Dutch, so graphically described by Mr. Barnard.
COPPERBOTTOM.
Sherbrooke, Que., June 8, 1906.
ONCE more I find myself in this northern province, always interesting to me, because reflecting the healthy and enduring qualities which are indigenous to its climate. Vermont and all New England respond to the same, but the characteristics become more and more marked as we penetrate further and further towards those regions where snow and ice predominate for a greater part of the year.
There then comes, too, when we cross the Vermont line, the differences which belong to a change of government, and a partial difference in the original inhabitants. But this last we do not consider so great. The Eng- lish inhabitants are derived practically from the same stock, and the French are so plenty throughout New England as to be a constituent part of its popu- lation,— and a very good part, too. The different form of government effects the results more. It fosters a civilization more impervious to changes, whether or not it is the most desirable.
Since starting from Middlebury the great problem has been how to reach Bolton Centre ; Bolton being one of the Eastern Townships in Quebec, and situated upon the shores of Lake Memphremagog. Not being able to find out in Vermont how to do this, I bought my ticket through to Montreal and learned there that I should take the Sherbrooke branch of the Canadian Pacific railroad and stop off at Eastman, with a chance for livery from there to Bolton
Centre.
Wednesday was a busy day with me at Montreal making acquaintance with the libraries, journals, and oldest horsemen. Two of these last, very
INTRODUCTION xi
intelligent and reliable men, I have enlisted to make investigations of early- horses. The Roodhouse St. Lawrence, or Bayard (also spelt Baillard), I learn was unquestionably bred at Chambly, or vicinity, and got by old St. Lawrence before Mr. Walter Pendergast owned that horse.
But my principal first errand on this trip was to obtain further informa- tion of the stallion Copperbottom, that was taken from Bolton, Quebec, to Ken- tucky in 1816. We had this horse quite closely traced to David Blunt, who moved to Bolton, from Danville, Vt., previous to 18 12. This tracing was recently published in a letter by us to the American Horse Breeder, Boston, which was copied into the Register. In the testimony was information received last February from Mr. Giles Fuller of Bolton Centre, that his father and David Blunt moved from Vermont to Bolton, and that he had heard his father say that Mr. Blunt brought with him from Vermont a Morgan stallion and brood mare. This information came to us through an interview with Mr. Fuller by Mr. Pibus of Knowlton, Que., who married a granddaughter of David Blunt.
It was to get further information, in a personal interview with Mr. Fuller, that we wished to go to Bolton Centre. The distance from Eastman to Bolton Centre, is seven miles. We stopped at the one store in Bolton Centre, to learn where Mr. Fuller lived, and were informed that he was dead ; had been dead about two months. Our trip was apparently a failure. We told Mr. Holland, who kept the store, our errand. He was thoughtful for a few min- utes and then said : "You would better see Mr. Edward E. Cousens who lives several miles west, and who married a niece of David Blunt. Mr. Cousens is a reliable man, about 70, a horseman, and may be able to tell you a good deal concerning this matter."
We started immediately to find Mr. Cousens. These Canadian roads are not in remarkably good repair, and at present are quite muddy. Three miles brought us to the house of Mr. Cousens, who was engaged in sowing oats upon a side hill. Walking up this, I introduced myself, saying that I had been referred to him for information of stallions formerly owned by David Blunt, who settled in Bolton nearly or quite a hundred years ago, and asked if he knew about them. He answered immediately : " I know it was a fact that David Blunt owned two stallions, a chestnut and a brown or black. They were both good, but it was claimed that the chestnut was the best stallion that was ever brought into this country, and left the best stock."
My next question was if he knew where Mr. Blunt got them? He answered again without hesitation : " I have always understood that both came from the States." And to the further question if he knew what their blood was, he said : " It is my impression, — indeed I am positive, that they were Morgan stallions, both of them." Mr. Cousens was unable to tell what became of them, but said that for many years their descendants were kept in the Blunt family, and that he remembered one brood mare of this stock which lived to be 32 years old.
xii INTRODUCTION
Mr. Fuller had testified that Mr. Blunt got the brown or black stallion about 1823, and sold him several years later to a Mr. Wood of Shefford. The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I., shows that Mr. Wood owned this stallion, which was the Hawk ens Horse by the original Justin Morgan, from about 1828 to 1832. We traced him some 20 years ago, getting our information from residents of Waterloo and neighboring towns, but we did not then learn of whom Mr. Wood bought him.
All of this proves how quickly over the border line came the Morgan horse, then in this section more commonly called or advertised as Dutch, at precisely the time when, and in precisely the locality where, the fast Canadian pacer and trotter, for they were equally both, originated. Learning that there was a Mr. Blunt living in Stukely, a well-to-do farmer and a descendant of David Blunt, we continued our drive to interview him. The road was quite romantic, winding at first up a hill, and then descending into West Bolton. Turning here abruptly to the north, we ascended a higher hill, almost in the nature of a mountain, from the top ,of which was a very fine view of the mountains to the west between this region and Montreal, diversified with Canadian valley scenery and a long lake in Brome. The day was especially splendid, the atmosphere being very clear, and the heavens in all directions diversified with beautiful masses of sun-lit clouds.
We found Mr. Blunt, but he was unable to give us further information of the horses owned by David Blunt. This locality does not excel as a farming country, as far as the eye can see being but sparsely cleared, and many of the fields quite stony or rocky and more or less covered with ferns, resembling the mountain farming lands of Vermont.
Bread Loaf, Vt., June 12, 1906.
SHERBROOKE, the largest of the Eastern Townships, has about 14,000 inhabitants. Probably the population now is over half French, and this fact is reflected in both stores and inns in which, and a part of its buildings, the city is a miniature copy of Montreal.
I was somewhat interested in the stores, but got more interested in the horses, especially in a chestnut Morgan appearing mare that was being driven up one of the steep hills of the city, single, with three good sized men in the buggy. They went up too rapidly to be readily overtaken, but stopped at the top of the hill for conversation with another party, which gave me an opportunity to inquire the breeding and the price.
The breeding was short, by Cardinal Wilkes ; dam a Morgan mare ; size about 15-2 ; weight 1040 pounds; conformation very nearly perfect, and dis- position said to be quite so.
From the proprietor of the Magog House, I learned that Cardinal Wilkes was by Jesuit, son of Onward, by George Wilkes : dam by Addison Lambert ; second dam by Royal George 2d, supposed to be son of Royal George, by Black Morgan, son of Green Mountain, by Sherman Morgan.
INTR OD UCTION xiii
My visit to Sherbrooke was preliminary to one to St. Mary, County Beauce, and about thirty miles south-east of Quebec. For this trip I left Sherbrooke at four p. m., arriving at St. Mary at eight p. m., distance 103 miles. At first, and probably for half the distance, the railroad followed the St. Francis River through a fairly well appearing farming country, though largely diversified with forest. At about half way we reached Agnus, a very thrifty looking village on commanding ground, from which its large fine stone Catholic Church was visible on all sides for a long distance.
Then came a more mountainous and heavily wooded region, interspersed with several ponds or small lakes, and at about the highest point along the road, an Asbestos mine with quite a considerable mining village connected. This mine is said to furnish more than half of the Asbestos used in the world, the remainder coming largely from Italy.
I made upon this trip, mostly on the cars, a number of very pleas- ant acquaintances, among them that of the Superintendent of Education for the Province of Quebec, who lives in Quebec. He called my attention to a most wonderful river valley extending from the north-east many miles, per- haps an hour before we reached St. Mary. All of this valley, including the banks, which on both sides roll back high upon the hills, is very highly culti- vated, and presents a magnificent appearance, with hundreds if not thousands of comfortable farm homes. Then came St. Mary, a very beautiful French village with an especially large substantial and graceful stone Catholic Church. I was told the place had 2500 inhabitants.
My immediate errand in visiting St. Mary was to interview Mr. Charles Barbeau, a prominent horse dealer and breeder of this place, and son of Louis Barbeau, who was said to have imported from France the stallion Vermont Boy, or French Charley, foaled about 1845, owned at St. Albans, Vt., about 1850, and afterwards taken to Pennsylvania, and then to the West. This horse was quite a good one and became somewhat prominent in breeding. He was owned in Pennsylvania by a Mr. James Torrence, who claimed that he had certificates to show that he was imported from France by Louis Barbeau of La Prairie.
This stallion appears in the pedigree of Thundercloudj now used by the United States Government in their breeding experiment in Colorado, and also in that of Bonnie McGregor.
It was late when we arrived at St. Mary, where we encountered an attack of quite a brigade of stalwart young men, all very polite but all determined to get hold of our valise, and all talking French. We hung to the valise protest- ing in good English that we would not give it up until we decided what to do, and this would depend largely upon where Monsieur Barbeau lived.
One young man answered, that he lived quite a little way up town, when we proposed to go to the hotel that was nearest to Mr. Barbeau. To this we were told that there was but one hotel, and that was close to the depot, just across the road, and a narrow road at that. Seeing that the principal spokes- man had a horse, we engaged him for half-past seven in the morning, then,
xiv INTRODUCTION
surrendering our baggage, were escorted to the hotel. This wasn't very large but fairly comfortable, and when it came to the supper a good deal more than that, for we have seldom got a better cooked steak, or more luscious boiled potatoes. Evidently the potato, if not a native, is adapted to the soil of Canada.
The young man with the horse was promptly on hand in the morning and drove us through the village to the residence of Mr. Barbeau, a very comfortable two-story house with substantial barn adjoining. In interview Mr. Barbeau said that his father, who had been dead for some years, had always dealt in horses, both breeding and buying them, getting the best to be found, but that he never imported any from Europe, either from England or France. This he was sure of. Possibly he might have imported some from the States ; but his business was to sell them at home or to take them into the States, especially Maine, and sell them. That he had taken many and some excellent horses to Maine, including one or two valuable stallions, and mentioned French Tiger, about 15^ hands and quite fast that he sold in Waterville. This French Tiger he thought belonged to the old stock of the county of Beauce, and was the sire of Bijoux, an excellent stallion owned by his father for some years.
It became very certain that Vermont Boy, alias French Charley, had not been imported from France, or anywhere else unless from the States, by Louis Barbeau of St. Mary. And this is in accordance with the best information that we had when recording the horse in The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I.
But I remembered the claim was he had been imported by Louis Barbeau, of La Prairie, and asked Mr. Barbeau if there were others, or had been, of his name in the province. He said there was one other branch of the family who had lived at Montreal, and possibly at La Prairie, though he had never heard of any other but his father named Louis, and he did not know there were others who dealt in horses. He referred me to a Mr. Barbeau, cashier in a savings bank in Montreal, and who was quite an elderly man. Mr. Barbeau then showed me two excellent trotting bred stallions which he now owns.
It would have been impossible for any one to have answered our ques- tions more politely, or so far as he had information, more intelligently, — nor do we believe there is any more intelligent breeder and dealer of standard bred trotters in the Province of Quebec, — than Mr. Barbeau.
At half past nine, we took the train, which starts from Quebec, to Sher- brooke, thus returning by same route that we came. For we saw that further testimony should be got of the stallion Copperbottom, and besides we wanted to make further inquiries concerning the Sherbrooke mare by Cardinal Wilkes, feeling strongly disposed to purchase her.
Sherbrooke was reached again at 1 p. m. After dinner we interviewed the breeder of the Cardinal Wilkes mare, Joseph Duford of Sherbrooke. He said the dam was a superior bay Morgan mare, 15-2, 1100 pounds, that he
INTR OD UCTION
xv
bought, when three years old, of James Wilder of Lenoxville, now deceased, and raised from her nine colts, all good ones.
My next errand was to inquire further concerning Copperbottom of Mr. Pibus, who had written me at Washington in regard to him, after having inter- viewed the old gentleman, Mr. Giles Fuller, now dead. The route was again by the Canadian Pacific, and, passing through Eastman, where we stopped before, we arrived at Stukely, the second stopping place beyond, at about half past five. Here we hired a livery for Knowlton, coming to Brome Lake in about three miles, and northerly and easterly on the shores of this to the very prettily placed and quite handsomely built summer resort of Knowlton, and four miles further to the home of Mr. Pibus. We were welcomed very civilly by a daughter who found her brother, and he, the father, busy somewhere in making fences. Mr. Pibus was an exceedingly well appearing gentleman and most accurate witness. He said that Mr. Fuller's statement was that Mr. David Blunt brought the Morgan stallion and the brood mare to Bolton, when he moved there from Danville, Vt. This was the point upon which we desired more exact information.
We returned to Knowlton for the night, calling in the evening upon one or two of the older citizens who knew well Mr. David Blunt, but did not know about his horses.
Sunday we made two other calls, one upon Mr. Pettis, an old gentleman of 84, and his wife of about the same age. She with the Knowltons, from whom the village is named, moved here from Windham County, Vermont.
The second call was upon Rev. Ernest M. Taylor, a Methodist minister and local historian, President of the Historical Society, and by marriage a relative of David Blunt. Mr. Taylor proved a very valuable witness for he knew that Mr. Blunt moved to Bolton from Danville, Vt., in 1810 or 181 1.
Mr. Taylor said : — " David Blunt married my grandmother's sister. He married a daughter of Dudley Davis of Barrington, N. H., of the Old Revolu- tionary army. Dudley Davis moved to Danville, Vt., at the close of the war. and later to Missisquoi Bay. Mrs. Blunt was the fourth child of Dudley Davis. David Blunt did not come here until after there was a considerable settlement ; I think about 18 10. Not long before war of 181 2. His father-in-law moved to Stanstead in 181 2, but had moved previously from Danville to Missisquoi Bay. David Blunt died about 1843. I know he moved to Bolton before Mr. Dudley Davis moved to Stanstead, as Mr. Blunt was instrumental, after he himself had moved to Bolton, in getting Mr. Davis to move to Stanstead. Mr. Blunt was noted for his fine stock, especially cattle, was a thrifty man and left his son 900 acres of land. He lived on the western border of Bolton.
"Elisha Perrin was here in 1797. His name appears in letters patent issued by George III. to Col. Asa Porter of Newbury, a loyalist and leader for the township of Brome. No doubt the bar was named after Perrin. The first house in Knowlton was built by Perrin, who had a pension from the British Government. This house was made of logs. Mr. Perrin left no family. We know nothing about him except that his occupation was fishing, and he lived
xvi INTRODUCTION
alone in that log house. Do not think he ever owned a stallion, but was a man that might have been employed to take one West."
This completed our testimony and made it certain that in 1810 or '11 Mr. David Blunt brought to Bolton, Que., a Morgan stallion, then one or two years old, son of the original Justin Morgan, and quite certainly bred by Mr. Blunt. This stallion, as we have said, resembled both in description and quality Copperbottom, that was taken from Bolton to Kentucky by way of Detroit in 18 15 or '16, and advertised 1816 near Lexington, Ky., by a Mr. Jewett or Jowitt.
It is certain that Mr. Blunt did not own this stallion in 1823, when he bought the Hawkins Horse, another son of the original Justin Morgan ; and there is very little if any doubt that Copperbottom, imported to Kentucky from Bolton, Canada, in 18 16, by Mr. Jowitt, and the elegant stallion by Justin Morgan, brought from Danville, Vt., to Bolton, by Mr. Blunt in 1 810 or '11, and (see testimony of Giles Fuller), that was sold by Mr. Blunt, went to Montreal and then South, are identical. The testimony, too, of Mr. Fuller, that the party who bought this horse sent him out of the county to a race course, and sold him after at double the money he paid, is very much to the point, as the advertisements of Copperbottom offer to match him in a race (pacing) for quite a sum with any stallion in Kentucky.
We drove that evening to the Stukely Station and from there by cars returned to Sherbrooke. The next morning purchased the mare Cardinal Flower and made arrangements for her transportation to Vermont, then returned to Montreal and Tuesday by way of St. Albans to Burlington.
The city of Montreal is extending in all directions and rapidly becoming very large and prosperous. As a secondary result the farming country and its immediate neighborhood is being very much improved, and we think all of the Eastern Townships are decidedly more flourishing than when we visited them last in 1890. Indeed the farming lands of Quebec, as we saw them between Montreal and the Vermont line at Swanton, compare most favorably with those of Vermont, that lie between this point and Burlington ; although we saw more cattle, sheep and horses in the fields after entering Vermont, and larger and more flourishing orchards. — J. B. — Middlebury ( Vf.) Register^ June ij, iqo6.
Since the above was written we have received the following letter from Mr. Pibus :
Knowlton, Que., Sept. 10, 1906. Mr. Joseph Battell,
Dear Sir : — Yours of the 4th received,- and in reply would say, Mr. Fuller seemed quite certain that the same horse Mr. Blunt brought from Danville, Vt., was sold and went South, and that he was a fine Morgan horse,
Yours very truly,
John H. Pibus, Sr.
INTRODUCTION xvii
ANOTHER factor of the highest importance in the development of the American trotter and pacer was the horse, Seeley's American Star, sire of the dam of Dexter, and dams of all the trotters got by Hambletonian with records of 2 :20 and better. This horse, too, is practically without pedigree in the American Trotting Register, although it is there and everywhere, so far as we know, admitted that he was bred by Henry H. Berry of Pompton Plains, N. J., and got by a small chestnut Morgan appearing horse known as Coburn's American Star, owned by Ira Coburn, a builder of New York City, and kept by him at Pompton Plains, seasons of 1835-36.
Mr. Wallace published these facts, and from them without any serious diffi- culty, we traced the Coburn horse. This tracing will be found complete in The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I., p.p. 348 a-1, and reasonably complete in this volume. He was bred by Frederick E. Sumner of Charlestown, N. H., foaled about 1829, got by Cock of the Rock, son of Sherman Morgan : dam a small, Morgan- shaped mare, purchased by Mr. Sumner of a Mr. Baker, and said to be a Morgan mare.
From Seeley's American Star, accidentally straying into Orange County, N. Y., Hambletonian owes a large share of his success as a trotting pro- genitor ; over one third of stallions from him which got 2 130 or better trotters, and 2 125 or better pacers, as well as all the fastest of his get, being from dams by American Star. Our statistics of this are from the records of 1894.
The California horse, St. Clair, is another of the noted horses in speed lines which belong to the Morgan family, And so, the great brood mare, Belle of Wabash, is descended from Copperbottom, son of Justin Morgan ; and the dam of the sire of the famous Blue Bull, which at one time headed the list of sires of 2 130 performers, is also said to have been a Copperbottom.
We have referred to these famous progenitors of trotting and pacing speed, because heretofore they have not generally been properly credited to the family to which they belong.
The remainder of this Introduction will contain articles connected with the breeding of the American Roadster and Trotter gleaned from the files of Horse Journals of the past 75 years. These will be arranged in chronological order, and for convenience be divided into sections: "Historical," "Breed- ing," "The Morgan Horse," "Miscellaneous."
II.
HISTORICAL.
RHODE ISLAND HORSES.
H \ 1 7HEREAS the best horses of this colony have been sent off from V Y time to time to the West Indies and elsewhere, by which the breed is much dwindled, to the great detriment of both merchant and farmer ; therefore a number of public spirited gentlemen of Newport, for the good of the colony and to encourage the farmers to breed better horses for the future, have collected a purse of $100 to be run for on Thursday, the fifth of May, next, on Easton's Beach, free for any horse, mare or gelding bred in this colony agreeable to the following articles, viz. : "A purse of one hundred dollars to be run for on Thursday, the fifth day of May next, on the course of Easton's Beach, etc." — Newport (R. I.) Mercury, April n, 1763.
THE TROTTING HORSE.
Philadelphia County, Feb. 5, 1831.
Mr. Editor : — Being under the impression that trotting horses have not held in our section of the country, that rank among breeders to which they are entitled, I venture to offer some remarks upon the advantage of breeding them ; and having something to say of them, not only as a distinct particular breed, but as performers on the course, I have thought the communication would not be inappropriate to a Sporting Magazine.
It may not be generally known that the first trotting matches in this country took place in New England ; and, twenty years ago, every stranger who traveled the road from Boston to Portland, a distance then of one hun- dred and twenty miles, must have been surprised to see horses, not quite fifteen hands high, drawing heavy carriages, with nine passengers, at the rate of eight and ten miles an hour, accomplishing the journey with ease, in one day. No team or set of horses, being on the road more than an hour and a half, before they were changed for a fresh set, and all trotting, as if that gait was their fastest.
Within ten years, New York, having principally supplied herself from New England, has had her trotting matches, too, and the breeders of that great State, particularly on Long Island, have turned their attention to the improvement of roadsters.
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HISTORICAL xix
About four years ago, Philadelphia and its neighborhood became vaccin- ated with this trotting mania (as some good people call it), and now our farmers are just beginning to see the advantages of raising this kind of cattle ; and I have no doubt but that, ere long, Maryland and Virginia, possessing soil and climate so admirably adapted to the development of the powers of this noble and useful animal, will, in their turn, bear away the palm in trot- ting, as they hitherto have done in racing.
It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain with any cer- tainty the speed of the trotting horse, while in the stable, or on his walks : yet it is quite easy for a practised eye, to discover, when he is in motion, at the rate of a mile in four minutes, whether his speed can be materially increased by training.
If, in the action of trotting, the hind legs (which may be rather crooked, or bent under him while standing) show the catham in motion, with a ten- dency to reach outside and beyond the fore pasterns, while, at the same time, the fore legs are neither lifted high or thrown out straight, you have pretty strong proof that there is improvement in him ; and as you increase his stroke, you should not be discouraged if he has the speedy cut. I have seen many horses strike the cannon-bone, outside, with his hind foot, and the knee, inside, with the fore-plate, that after thorough bitting and training, by being led by the side of a galloping horse, traveled perfectly clear without any interfering.
This was the case with old Top Gallant, one. of the most distinguished trotters in this country. Practice and an improved mouth enabled him entirely to overcome these defects, and to be, for many years, an unrivalled horse for speed and bottom.
On examining the fastest horses it will be found that they are rather heavy chested. This was the case with Boston Blue, Whiting's Colt, Bull Calf, Columbus, and most others ; it is the case with all the fast Canadians that I have ever seen. And may it not be fairly inferred that heavy shoulders have a tendency to keep a horse down to his horizontal work, and, in a measure, counteract the perpendicular impulse, given by the extension of the hind legs so far under his body as is the case when at his greatest speed ? So, on the other hand those horses which are light forward, with shoulders like the race horse, sharp and receding, lose their horizontal motion for want of weight in the fore-quarters, to keep down to their work; they make good gallopers but poor trotters.
This pressure forward explains the reason why a horse trots faster under the saddle, with 150 pounds, on his back, than in harness, to a light 80 pound sulky, exclusive of the driver ; when in the latter case, he pulls everything by the reins — he trots with slack traces and taut breeching ; in the former he pulls twice as hard, and has added 150 pounds upon his shoulders, and the harder he is pulled the greater is the forward pressure, and less the liability to kick up.
From what is known of the speed and strength of this horse, of his prop- erties, so well adapted for the road, as well as the turf, it has always been
xx INTRODUCTION
unaccountable to me why farmers and breeders, generally, do not introduce the trotting horse, instead of the high-mettled racer, of whose usefulness scarcely one word can be said. I am, however, far from underrating the thoroughbred horse ; the sports of the turf are always interesting to me ; but I now address practical men ; and I ask if they would not benefit themselves and the community more by raising the trotter instead of the racer ?
The one is useful as a work horse, on the farm or on the road ; generally kind and gentle in harness, and often active enough for the saddle. Whilst the other, if his strain is superior, has an irritability, a nervousness, that unfits him for the steady routine of making wheels turn round, and is only calculated to carry a light weight and occasionally win a plate or a purse.
I believe it is estimated that only one colt in thirty proves himself a first- rate runner, under the most judicious management, in the selection of brood mares, and the greatest care in feeding and grooming and bitting. Such a colt may bring two or three thousand dollars \ but the twenty-nine may not average one hundred and fifty dollars, while the trotting colt of good promise (which is indicated not unfrequently at three years old) readily brings from two to five hundred ; and some of them one thousand. Besides, these horses are always in demand ; every man in the neighborhood of our large cities, traveling on dusty roads, wants a trotter for his every-day use ; but how few there are who keep a racer.
I am aware that fine roadsters are sometimes obtained by crossing the common mare with the full-blood horse. There are instances of it in the progeny of old Messenger ; he was the sire of Fagdown, and, I believe, Mam- brino and Hambletonian ; and this stock has supplied Philadelphia and New York with the only trotting horses that they raised for some time. Tippo Saib, who now stands at the Hunting Park course, belongs to the same family, and although as a trotter I have never heard of his performance, yet he is the sire of Sally Miller, a very celebrated trotter.
Now, with the exception of Messenger, I have never been able to trace extraordinary trotting families derived from such a source. There are in- dividuals of celebrity whose origin is unknown ; but we want in this quarter, the distinct race, as they pervade some parts of the Eastern States and the county of Norfolk in England. The breed in those places are unlike our own, and are as separately trotters as the thoroughbred, full blooded, are racers.
Of this pure trotting breed ranks Bellfounder. He was imported from England by a gentleman of Boston ; and he now stands on Long Island. A colt of his, coming five years this grass, stands about four miles from Philadel- phia, near Frankford ; he is out of Dr. Hurd's celebrated trotting mare near Boston ; is a dark bay without any marks.
Now I maintain that this is emphatically a distinct trotting stock. Its identity may be perceived in the sucking colt, by an aptitude to stick to his trot, even in his most frolicksome mood, when playing with other colts, or exercising himself alone in the field.
HISTORICAL xxi
By neglecting to breed from such horses, we are indebted for more than one-half of the gig horses, if not the carriage horses, used in Philadelphia, to the Eastern States. This is a fact well known ; and the jockeys are so well aware that the Eastern horses have the reputation of more speed and bottom than our own, that they put off many an animal that was raised in Pennsylvania under the denomination of a Yankee horse.
I think there are two reasons why we have not supplied the demand for the Philadelphia market with the right kind of roadsters. One is, we have mixed up too much of the running stock particularly in New Jersey and south- ward of us ; and the other is, we have too little. That medium, so desirable for the road, which for years has given celerity to the private and public con- veyances in New England, was not generally known here until the establish- ment of the trotting club on the Hunting Park course.
Five years ago a man would jeopardize his reputation for veracity if he asserted that many of the Eastern horses could trot a mile in 2m. 42s., while at the present moment hundreds can bear witness that the Boston Gray, called Burster, trotted fair and square, one mile on the Hunting Park course last fall, in 2 m. 32 s.
I have now endeavored to establish this fact, that trotting is as natural to a certain strain or breed of horses as running is to the full blooded. Of the latter stock how common is it to get up a produce purse, to be run for three years after the colts are foaled? And in the same manner, and with the same confidence, many a trotting match has been made on the embryo colts in anticipation of their performance. — "Norfolk." — American Turf Regis- ter and Sporting Magazine, 1831.
NEW ENGLAND HORSES.
BOSTON established the first canal, the first railroad, and first passable "turnpike." The first trotting matches in the States took place in New England ; and upward of twenty-five years ago the traveler on the road between Boston and Portland, a distance of 120 miles, must have been surprised to see horses not above fiiteen hands high drawing heavy carriages with nine passen- gers inside, at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, and accomplishing the journey in the course of the day, a feat which would hardly be equalled now. New York has now entered into the lists, and has her trotters and trotting matches also ; but the New England and Vermont roadsters still worthily sus- tain their former reputation; and eight years ago (in the fall of 1830) the Boston Gray "Burster" trotted fair and square, as the Yankee phrase has it, one mile in two minutes and thirty-two seconds. — Signed, Wildrake. — Lon- don (New) Sporting Magazine for October. — Spirit of the Times, Dec. 1, 1838
xxii INTRODUCTION
A TROTTING CONTEST.
For the 28th of this month a stake has been made up to come off over the Beacon Course, Brighton, Mass., that is full of promise of sport. Dutch- man, Awful and Henry Clay (alias the Ice Poney), are entered. The con- ditions, as we learn, are $1000 subscription, $300 forfeit, mile heats, best three in five, to go in wagons, weight of wagon and driver, 345 pounds. Should the track be fine, such time will be made as has not yet been recorded. — Spirit of The Times, Oct. 12, i8jg.
THE CANADIAN CROSS.
To Editor of Lexington Reporter :
First as to horses, all that you need desire ; except that I am strongly persuaded that a cross of the close knit, compact Canadian stallion, on your blooded mares might give you better hacks for the saddle, and especially bet- ter coach horses. It is to that cross that Vermont is said to owe her superior and much sought for stage horses. The experiment is at least worthy of a trial. Agricultor. — Spirit of The Times, Dec. 7, i8jg.
MARYLAND HORSES.
* * * What a scandalous reproach on the management and common- sense of the horse breeders within the State, that if you want a nag, that will go his mile inside of four or even five minutes, or one that will clear in the chase, a worm fence with the rider off ; or a match of horses, with heads up and well set on, good shoulders, clean limbs sound wind and fine coat, mov- ing evenly and well together, you must go, or wait until some Baltimore liv- ery stable keeper can send, all the way to New Jersey or New York or Ver- mont.— American Farmer. — Spirit of The Times, Feb. ij 1840.
NORTHERN HORSES.
It is notorious that carriage horses from those States (New York, Vermont and Maine) command 20 per cent more in the market of the Atlantic cities than those from any other section ; it is from thence also that we derive a majority of the horses on the trotting turf of this city (New York) and Phila- delphia.
HISTORICAL
xxm
A pair of the Northern horses it is well known go in more style, are handsomer, hardier, better travellers, and better broken, than any others in the Union. A person with an ordinary eye to the points and action of horses, will recognize a Northern horse at once in Carolina, Georgia, or Louisiana, notwithstanding they are generally disguised by being neither fed nor groomed so well as they are here. — Editorial, Spirit of The Times, Feb. 22, 184.0.
PROPOSITION TO TROTTING AMATEURS.
Philadelphia, June 1, 1840. Dear Sir : — Much attention is now paid in this neighborhood to the rais- ing, by proper crossing, of good roadsters. There are 20 or 30 very well bred mares (the majority of them entirely thoroughbred) that have been bred to well bred Canadian stallions, that are equal to 2 :35. I hope you will agree with me in approving of this cross, and believe that when the get is sufficiently ma- tured to be tested, that the reports of the different trotting associations will possess more interest than ever. * * * W. B. C. — Spirit of The Times, June ij, 184.O.
THE HORSES OF CANADA.
Dear Sir : — I promised you communication on various matters connected with horses.
Sherbrooke, my location, is centrally situated in a fertile grazing district less than 100 miles square, called the Eastern Townships. This region abuts on Vermont, and the chief and best part of the population are of New Eng- land origin. Latterly immigration has introduced many settlers of various grades from the British Islands. A few French Canadians in this section are for the most part laborers from Sherbrooke, which is a town of some pro- spective importance, owing to an immense water power and the establishment of courts and else ; the French Canadian settlements lie distant, by various routes, fifty miles and upwards. Generally speaking, the French settlements in Canada occupy the immense flats, in many parts ten leagues in breadth, which border the mighty St. Lawrence and its tributary rivers. Here, in a champaign country, fertile in summer, but in winter cold and bleak, and lying under three or four feet of snow, the smart Canadian has lived in a house of squared logs or sawed planks, whitewashed with lime ; and has trod in the footsteps of his father from the first settlement of the country to the present hour. His farm is a mere slip of a few rods breadth, stretching back from the road for perhaps a mile. Owing to the narrowness of the lots the houses, placed by the roadside, present the appearance, wherever one travels, of
xxiv INTRODUCTION
a continuous village. Occasionally a mansion of stone and mortar, thick walled, the roof covered with thick tin plate ; or a clapboarded wooden house with the luxurious substitute of paint for whitewash, diversifies the scene and indicates the residence of a wealthier and more tasteful person. The country is divided into parishes, and each parish has a stone church, whose bright tinned steeple and roof gleam from afar with dazzling brilliancy. Close by this bulky edifice are the priest's house, a tavern or two, as many shops or stores, a smithy, some few good dwellings, and a host of small and poor ones, inhabited chiefly by superannuated persons who have given up their farms and all the cares of life to their sons, for a yearly allowance of so much wheat, pork, onions, coarse cloth, etc., as they shall need while they remain upon the earth, and have come to spend the remainder of their days where they can frequently enter the hallowed building, and kneel down and mumble prayers to the blessed Virgin and their guardian angels, and thus prepare for the im- portant duties of a superior state of existence hereafter.
With Roman Catholics, many innocent yet enlivening diversions are lib- erally permitted after mass on Sunday which some of our Protestant brethren would think it perilled their eternal welfare to indulge in. Such are visiting, courting and innocent or sober exercises and amusements generally. With this latitude to his conscience and a glorious little nag to convey him from the church door on a cold winter's day, when speed is gain, the Canadian in- dulges in racing even at the close of divine service. The practice has gone to such extent as to endanger the safety of persons on foot, and the law now ordains that no fast driving shall be permitted within a short distance of the sacred edifice. As many of the churches stand near the rivers, and the wor- shippers pass upon the ice when this is smooth and glare, the trials that take place in returning from service are sometimes interesting to witness, and the move of handicapping, when one horse is allowed to be more powerful or fleeter than another, by transfer of a passenger, perhaps a woman or child from the weaker to the stronger team is really comical in a high degree.
The Canadians, drive single, that is, only one horse to a sleigh, a mode which gives at once the most perfect control of the animal, and taxes his power to the utmost. Their breed is the Norman French, Normandy being that part of France lying most convenient for shipping to that part of North America. For the best description of the Norman breed see the Spirit of Nov. 6, 1 84 1. The social disposition and simple mode of life of the Cana- dian peasant make him dote on his horse almost like an Arab, and he has little less cause in the excellency of the animal. Prone to indulge in contests of speed on Sunday and festivals, of which his calendar affords a goodly num- ber, Jean Baptiste is not less inclined to rejoice in swift riding on convenient occasions at other times.
The characteristic physical excellency of the Canadian horse is muscle ; this gives him strength for work, and when accompanied by good lungs, power for speed. His leading intellectual trait is courage ; he is therefore prompt
HISTORICAL xxv
and efficient, makes no missteps, and meets with few accidents. The Nor- mans trained some of their nags to pace or amble, for palfreys ; many of their descendants in Canada inherit the gait ; and it being found that these can outgo the trotters in the short contests in which they are so often employed, the Canadians have a great fancy for them, and certainly the style in which they stretch over the smooth ice with their legs lost in a blur, is likely to gain admiration from any person of spirit.
There is something irresistible and intensely charming in this racing on the ice. One blank spreads all around you ; neither vegetation nor any con- spicuous object of variegated form or color serves to attract attention ; no dust obscures the view or impedes the breathing ; the bright blue sky, and the cold and condensed air stimulates your feelings and your very thoughts to excess ; or if a mild afternoon blesses the land, the dazzling brilliancy of the sun is redoubled by ice and snow, and the unaccustomed heat produces a glow throughout the system and makes the blood course faster through the veins. Now you sit behind a little animal whose every trait is energy and compact- ness. Away he shoves, rejoicing in a rattling gait, so that for the moment you cannot see whether there be two or ten legs a pegging like broomsticks under him. The wind cuts your cheeks, and you slacken the pace ; now your pony capers high and lightly, excited by his previous burst. You rein up and take a position to see the coming out of the trotting match that is in prospect. There is no air stirring ; it was your rate of going that made the wind bite so sharply.
But here the horses are going up to take the start. Each is harnessed rather clumsily to a low-boxed sleigh, which shows him to advantage and gives the driver a position standing up close behind his nag, where the short reins afford him great command, and a short whip may do its office. There are five horses ; here is a noble bay — what a neck he has — how round his body — how well he is balanced at both ends. He is a mongrel which adds to his size and appearance. The next is a black — rather heavy in the head — what large cords he has at the gambrel. Here comes the gray — his head is light and fine enough, and his legs show blood ; shaggy fetlocks, however. This is a Canadian of the first description ; you may read evidence of his pedigree in that proud, cresty neck, and the terrible muscular frame, the blood-like ex- tremities and roomy throat are a turn up from his Arab ancestors. Now comes a mare — she walks well, is clean built with a fine muzzle, and in good trotting form. "But what is this drawing the next sleigh — the foal?" No. — "Well, it cannot be more than a stunted yearling." That is a little pacer ; one of the old Norman palfrey breed, whose race, for want of crossing, has dwindled to this size and appearance. He is of a bright chestnut (the favorite color of Jean Baptiste) and has three white legs and a bald face (all the better for him) . Well, now, what a wretched little, weak built, lop-eared, ragged-hipped, sloped-rump, cat-hammed, curly tailed creature it is. There he goes, to start with those powerful horses for a mile.
xxvi INTRODUCTION
And now you see them turning yonder. Presently they will be off. Now they come. Each takes a track for himself ; the ice being hard and glare for a great breadth, and the brave horses well accustomed and not afraid of the black spots in it. See, the bay and the black are left behind, and the gray leads, tossing his mane above the lofty crest, and springing forward, as upon legs of steel. He is a gallant horse — I think I'll buy him, but what — the mare is gaining ; she moves as unerringly as a machine. And see the little pacer — his legs going like a spider's — only one side at a time. Oh Jehu ! how they come — our favorite is far behind — the black and the bay still farther — the pacer has come up with the mare, and every stride of the imp swings freer and faster as he finds that he is gaining on the others. The short whip is put upon the mare, and she would as soon think of flying, as breaking from her trot ; her croup dodges faster and her neck is outstretched. They have passed us with a whirr — we only saw the pacer's nostrils, red and distended, like the mouth of an Indian warrior giving the warhoop, as he slid by the goal.
Such are the races that frequently enlivened the winters on our large rivers. On the small ones, which empty into these, the training is constantly going on, after a fashion. When, from a thaw, or rain, a jam, or the influence of tides, the water rises in the larger rivers, the smaller ones overflow their ice at the edges and this water freezing forms the best of ice, until a fresh snow storm covers it. These streams, having high banks, afford snug sheltered rides for practicing horses on their fast gaits, even in the coldest weather, and in the neighborhood are always to be found the fleetest goers, which are reared in a great degree for pleasure, but with a view to profit ; and generally sold at about their maturity.
Now, as the Canadians possess horses of the best sort for their service, and that can go the pace ; as they have learned what glorious sport it is to contend for victory and speed ; as they have such advantages for training and practicing in the dead season of winter ; and as there is, and always must be a market for the best, at the Southward I apprehend that, so long as French Canadians exist their country will be renowned for fast trotting horses ; and this, I conceive, is the true source which must be looked to, for stallions especially, to improve any breed of business horses of North America. Why the horses of this region are and must continue to be the best for such a pur- pose may form the subject of another paper. Sherbrooke, E. T., Canada, Feb. 15, 1842. G. B. — New York Spirit of The Times, 1842.
This letter is from George Barnard, of Sherbrooke, Canada, who excelled in power of description, and had good acquaintance with and much natural liking for horses. Mr. Barnard was for quite a time a correspondent for The Spirit of the Times, and also for the Albany Cultivator, and his letters throw much light upon the horses and customs of Canada at that time. But in referring to the origin of the French Canadian pacer he fell into an error, that he would have avoided had he lived earlier. And, indeed, in a future
HISTORICAL xxvii
letter he partially corrected. Thus in a letter to the Spirit of The Times, dated at Sherbrooke, Nov. 23, 1846, Mr. Barnard writes :
Sixty miles to the north of this we come into the French country, where the land is occupied by :
" The low Canadian, swart and mild of mien, In toque, capote, ceinture and moccasin."
Ten miles further is Grand Maska on the pleasant Yamaska River* navigable thus far for sloops, and lined almost throughout its whole length, like other rivers in the French settlements, by neat white cottages accom- panied by thatched barns, with here and there substantial stone houses, and at every few miles some elegant buildings cluster about a larger and more costly one with a belfry and spire.
Forty miles up this river at St. Damase was reared the great Moscow, now upon your trotting turf, and who has precisely verified my foretold expectation in showing himself equal to the mile in 2 128. In my descrip- tion of him, published three years ago in your paper and reprinted the next year when the horse had appeared among you, a misprint occurs thus, " his loins are not of great length" ; what I wrote was, "his loins are not of great apparent length ; they are not very much developed." The want of power in these parts is probably what has kept him from signally rivalling Lady Suf- folk ; and it will prevent his ever being the champion of the trotting course. Note ye, I have a runtling stud pony of the same breed as Moscow, his sire being from Moscow's dam, and inheriting the same true stride in trotting, Avhich has a stout loin and tolerable thigh.
Twelve miles beyond the Yamaska we strike the broad St. Lawrence, a league across at Sorel, where flitting steamboats yield a choice of transit either to Montreal or Quebec. The whole of the immense plain stretching far beyond either of these cities, and embracing a tract on both sides of the great river some three hundred miles in length and nearly one hundred broad, is filled with French-Canadians, "as a nut is with meat," and well peppered with pacing horses ; I say peppered, for their presence forms the seasoning of their owners' life throughout the long cold winters.
The Canadian pacer is probably not thoroughly a descendant of the Norman breed imported by the early settlers. The purest known descend- ants from the original importations are emphatically draft horses, bull-necked and stout of limb.
The ambling pad pony was a favorite riding horse in France under the ancient regime, and perhaps some few cavaliers, et dames et demoiselles, ban- ishing themselves to this dreaded clime, concerning which one of the earlier adventurers wrote home, 77 y'a sept moi d' hiver et cinq de maavis temps'' (seven months winter and five of bad weather), brought over a few luxurious nags, which became a pattern for the more able and ambitious of the bour- geousie. Nearly fifty years ago my father bought Narragansett pacers coming from Rhode Island, and took them in droves to the French country about and beyond Quebec, where they were readily sold or exchanged for the stout native white horses. Fashion and fancy have much to do with a Canadian's fondness for a fast pacer ; and they generally take pains to breed a rattling mare to a grand marcheur, if there be one in the parish.
Yearly, ever since my recollection, the northern residents of the United States have been taking numerous droves of the best Canadian horses, but mostly for draught, and recently the fastest trotters. Few of the pacers have gone, obviously for two reasons : First, the Yankees do not like their gait, and,
xxviii INTRODUCTION
second, Jean Baptiste does not care to part with his favorite for either clocks or nutmegs. An X will pay expenses of a week's stay in the very heart of the French country, where I have been, upon like errands, a score of times, within as many years, learning something of the qualities and rates of speed of the best horses, taking note of the choice mares' nests, a point not to be disregarded in selecting a breeding sire. By the time that I can hear from you again there will be sufficient snow for such a trip by sleigh ; and even if the horse be not required before spring, it is now a favorable time for com- mencing such a search. I could name several within a hundred miles of here ; but none of them is of the very first water ; they would come under this general description :
" The price of the pacer in York might be From one and a half to hundreds three; Proportioned well in height he stands, Fourteen and a half to fifteen hands, His color good, a black or gray, A roan or chestnut, brown or bay; Young, sound and kind — boss never licked him; At speed, you'd think the devil kicked him. "
Some twenty miles above Sorel, on the very shore of the St. Lawrence, where some peculiar current causes the presence of glare ice in winter, lives Monsieur Louis Dansereau, who for half his lifetime has possessed a family of black pacers that take to speed at their first harnessing, like young ducks to the water. The old man shows some gay pompons, or ornaments, which have been publicly placed to grace the heads of several of his horses, in addition to more substantial gratification for himself, at various of our winter races. One of his nags, some ten years since, then a recent winner at Mon- treal, in 2 :44, was purchased at two hundred dollars by a Canadian, on his return from Illinois, whither, having gone as a common boatman, he had by industry and judicious purchase of land become independent. The horse was kept two or three years at Grand Maska, before mentioned, where his colts, now at maturity, are great favorites. Poor Pappillon ! He gave me a brisk ride on the ice one Sunday after mass ; but he has gone the way of much good horse flesh. His owner, having returned to Illinois, sent back for the horse, which was duly forwarded as far as Detroit, where the person in charge of him, wishing to gratify some gentlemen with a view of his action, set him to spinning in the street, ran foul of a shaft or the like :
"And the good steed, his labors o'er, Stretched his stiff limbs to rise no more ! "
From The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I., p. 242, we copy infor- mation upon this subject which we obtained in Canada, and in looking over all the books of early travels in America which we could find in the Congress- ional Library at Washington :
" We will now examine the evidence respecting the introduction of the pacer into the Province of Quebec.
In returning from a trip to Canada we came to the pretty hamlet of Freleighsburgh, composed of about equal parts of valleys and hills, with a sparkling and beautiful river winding through. It was a long journey and our horses needed their dinner, if not rest. At the hotel we were told that Thomas Pickering, who lived on the hill, some five miles from the village, was excellent authority on all matters of history, as he had for
HISTORICAL
XXIX
many years spent much time in gathering historical information. The feel- ing was so strong among those of the citizens present that he should be seen that we hired a livery team and drove to Mr. Pickering's house. He gave us much valuable information, and among other things said :
Father came here a little less than seventy years ago. I am sixty-four. There were no pacers in the French country. The pacers from Canada came from the States to start with ; Yankees used to cheat the Frenchmen in trading pacing mares. A man named King lived here many years ago, who used to work for Gov. Chittenden, on Onion River, Vermont. King lived to be nearly one hundred years old. He has told me many times about taking pacing mares into the French country and trading them to the French. There were no roads here then, only a blazed path through the woods to the French country. He used to go alone, taking half a dozen of these pacing mares at a time fastened together by head and tail. Once, he said, he went as far as Quebec. He had an extra memory and would tell every little par- ticular about the trades. He came through Fairfield, and went through St. Caesaire and St. Hyacinthe. Formerly there were only ponies in the French country. King used to tell, too, how Yankees would cheat the Frenchmen with pacing mares. No matter how old they were, they wanted them. King died twenty-five years ago or more. King came originally from New Jersey. He brought pacing mares into Canada as early as 1795.
"This important testimony of Mr. Pickering we found sustained in a book entitled, " Travels through Canada and the United States in the Years 1806-7-8," by John Lambert, who says (Vol. I.,.page 128) :
The cattle in Canada are rather diminutive, being mostly of the small Norman breed. If they have not degenerated in size by their emigration, they have certainly not improved. The horses are strong and swift, many of them handsome, but they are mere ponies compared with the English horse. There is a large breed about ninety miles below Quebec, which are gen- erally brought up for heavy work. The first horse seen in Canada arrived in the ship Le Havre, July 16, 1665. It appears that neither sheep nor horned cattle were in the Province long before that time. Their cows and oxen are small, lean and poor. The sheep are small and have but little fleece. Poul- try are very good.
The Americans from the States carry on a lucrative traffic with the Cana- dians for their horses. The latter are very fond of a horse which runs with a quick shuffling pace, and the Americans bring in with them a parcel of rickety animals which have that accomplishment. The Canadian willingly exchanges his fine little horse for the pacer and often gives a few pounds to boot. The Americans return with the Canadian horses to Boston, or New York, and there obtain thirty or forty pounds for each, according to their value, which in Canada rarely sell for more than ten or twelve pounds. The Canadians are reckoned very adroit at a bargain ; but they sink in compari- son with an American horse dealer."
"And again, while traveling in Vermont, he says :
The Vermonters are clean traders and are seldom outwitted in a bar- gain ; on the contrary, they have often displayed their dexterity as horse jockeys in Canada, and exchange their weak and rickety pacer for the hardy little Canadian horses."
xxx INTRODUCTION
"From this it is evident that when he wrote, 'The Americans from the States carry on a lucrative traffic with the Canadians,' etc., he referred to the Vermonters, and it should be remembered that at this time the land traffic between Lower Canada and the States was almost entirely across the Ver- mont line.
" It thus appears that the Canadians had a passion for pacers, about the beginning of this century, which they gratified, not from any supplies of their own, but by means of those brought in from the States, especially from Ver- mont. These were generally pacing mares, and of course were frequently in foal to stallions of the locality whence they came. But it was precisely at this time that the Morgan horse began to flourish in Vermont, and it is a curious fact in this history that the Mr. King whose exploits in taking these mares into Canada each year has thus been handed down, lived at Williston, Ver- mont, where, in 1795 (the precise time when he was thus engaged) the Jus- tin Morgan was advertised to stand."
AMERICAN TROTTER.
By the Hon. J. S. Skinner of Washington dry.
HAVING, as it is believed, described and accounted for the successive modifications and general improvement of the English horse, from many of the best of which ours have been bred, and for the excellence especially of their high-bred courser and hunter; and having adverted incidentally to the high national importance to be attached to maintaining the horse in all his capabilities, as giving elasticity and vigor to one great arm of national defence — cavalry — the use of which has sometimes decided the issue of battles and the fate of empires — we now pass to contemplate this animal in a form in which Nimrod (Mr. Apperly) himself, one of the most voluminous and authentic writers on these subjects, and one not prone to make admissions of English inferiority in anything, does admit that we excel, to wit, in our trot- ting horses.
The stoutest horse, of whatever kind or degree of blood, might be expected to give way if put at three or four, as the race horse is, into severe training un- der heavy weights, for trotting stakes or the chase ; but, on the other hand,, without blood to give him wind and courage, what would avail this " bag of bones" in a trial to trot his hundred miles in ten hours? Johnson, author of the Sportsman's Cyclopedia, justly esteemed high authority on such subjects, remarks that " thoroughbred horses and particularly those of the best blood are seldom possessed of sufficient bone to render them pre-eminently calcu- lated for the chase ; yet I am free to confess that the very best hunters that
HISTORICAL xxxi
have fallen under my observation have been remarkably well and very highly bred, but yet not absolutely thoroughbred." The same remark it is not doubted might be made as generally applicable to our first rate trotters at long distances. The cases of Abdallah and Messenger have been instanced to show that great trotters not thoroughbred may and do beget trotters, and hence some would argue that a distinct race of horses may or does exist. But it is to be remembered that both Abdallah and Messenger are sons of Mam- brino, son of old Messenger, though not thoroughbred ; and nothing is bet- ter known by all who have been in the habit of attending to these subjects than that the Messenger family is distinguished for making first-rate coach horses, quick in light harness, and remarkable for endurance and long life. That Abdallah, therefore, should be himself a trotter and a getter of trotters, only proves that like begets like, and that of a distinct breed, like the thorough- bred horses, characterized by the possession of general properties belonging only to and constituting that breed. There may be particular families distinguished for some particular qualities not possessed in the same degree by other families of the same breed. Thus we have the three classes of the English thor- oughbred stock, to wit : the Herod, the Matchem, and the Eclipse, that have served as crosses for each other. In like manner, it may be said of the im- proved Short-horn cattle — their, general characteristic is early maturity and pro- pensity to fat, without being generally remarkable as deep milkers, though there are families of the Short-horns esteemed for that quality ; — a dash of the blood of old Messenger imparts high form and action for the stage coach, and the eye of the connoisseur can detect the signs in a horse in whose veins even one-eighth of his blood flows ; so the fact is generally known to old gentlemen in the South, and especially avouched by the Sporting and Agricultural society in South Carolina, that the stock of old Janus (there called Genius) was so re- markable as road and saddle horses as to have gotten to be considered a dis- tinct breed ; so the Topgallant stock made fine saddle horses, excelling in the canter. The blood horse, too, is remarkable for longevity — the Messenger stock particularly so. If the truth could be known it is probable it flowed in larger or smaller streams in each of the four thoroughbreds which the late General Hampton (sire of that paragon of sportsmen and gentlemen, Col. Wade Hampton) drove in his coach altogether for sixteen years.
Here may be aptly introduced some extracts from a familiar letter re- ceived by the editor from Col. N. Goldsborough of Talbot, Maryland, who has an eye for the fine points of a horse, as quick as a hawk's for a fish — one who has thought much and with effect on all matters that give dignity and attraction to rural life — himself of the pure old stock in fashion when it meant something to be called a "Maryland" or "Virginia Gentleman." He, in confirmation of our hypothesis, says, speaking of Tom Thumb — " But whence came his lastingness, his powers of endurance, as well as speed ? I have been in the habit of thinking that no horse could long continue exertion, especially at a rapid pace, without a good tincture of blood. At about the same time there went to England a horse called Rattler, of great speed as a trotter, he
xxxii INTRODUCTION
was represented as the cross of a full-bred horse on the Canadian mare. What a magnificent picture Whale-bone makes in his trotting action, and how differ- ent from the above named horses ! When a boy I have seen Phil Hemsly mounted on his trotting mare, bred on the borders of Queen Anne's county. She was much in the style of the famous Phenomena Mare of England, about fourteen and a half hands high ; he could keep up with a pack of hounds all day in a trot, — and she could pass over the largest oak bodies lying in a wood, without breaking up. I was informed two years ago in Philadelphia by Mr. Allen, son-in-law of Badger of the Marshall House, that some of the best trot- ters then in New Jersey were the off-spring of Monmouth Eclipse — the Mess- enger blood, you see ! I know of no other family of the pure blood horse which may be said emphatically to produce trotters, the exception confirms the rule. Col. Lloyd's Vingtun and old Topgallant got fine racking and cantering horses. Is there more than one out of twenty thoroughbreds that makes really a racer? And are there not as many trotters at the North, and more, than the racers at the South, etc., where the most systematic efforts have been preserved in for years, exclusively for the production of racers ? I have often wondered where they of the North derived their horses — from what I have seen and heard, they have a peculiar family, different in appearance, in form, strikingly from ours. They of the North have had some method in this matter, — as well as the breeders of Short-horns, Leicester sheep, etc. About the lakes they have a horse of great speed and power, as I am informed, called the "Frencher". The English officers bring over from the mother country fine blooded stallions for troopers and parade. It is the cross of these and the Canadian mares which produces the "Frencher" — blood is indispensable. But what is the Canadian? Unde venit? They are descended from the horses of Normandy, carried over by the French settlers. Napoleon's coach, when captured was being drawn by four Norman horses, and I guess the emperor was not fond ot sitting behind slow cattle. When the Spaniards were in pos- session of the low countries they carried with them their Andalusian horses, these were crossed on the Norman, which produced great improvement. When the Spaniards were expelled, the breeding in-and-in from this stock must have produced a distinct family as Bakewell produced with other races of quadrupeds. Climate necessarily produced a change in the Norman horses when transferred to the rigor of Canadian winters — hence the thick coat of hair, etc. The Andalusian, you know, is of Arabian descent. So far as I have been able to learn, Vermont is indebted to Canada for her distinguished race of roadsters, as well as the neighboring States. They have one distinct family, the "Morgan," descended from a little Canadian, famous, too, for running quarter races. This family has been cherished for years, and is as distin- guished among them as old Archy in Virginia. I have some indistinct recol- lection to have seen, years ago, an account of a horse among them got by, or from a mare by Cock of the Rock — Messenger blood again."
It is now in proof that this Morgan breed is descended from a horse that was stolen from General de Lancey, importer of Wildair, and there is
HISTORICAL
XXXI 11
every reason to believe that though he may not have been thoroughbred he was well steeped in the best blood of the Anglo-American turf horse.
While it has been found impracticable to obtain any precise information as to the pedigree of some of our very best trotters, in other cases where more is known they are found to be deep in the blood. Awful is known to have been gotten by a thoroughbred, American Boy. Lady Suffolk is by Engineer, but what Engineer is not known. . Abdallah, as before mentioned, is by Man> brino, and he again, a great trotter by Messenger ; but Dutchman, one of oui best trotters, has no known pedigree, though we have some reasons to think ht was got by Young Oscar, then at Carlisle. He was taken out of a clay yard, and was transferred to the trotting turf from a Pennsylvania wagon team. Woodruff thinks blood does not give them length, or the power to go long dis- tances, but in this it is believed he must be mistaken. These Canadian or Norman French stallions, small and compact, which on well-formed, large mares give such fine horses and trotters, are, as before said, deeply imbued with the blood of the Barb taken from Spain into Normandy. We have been told lately by an intelligent Englishman that the infusion of blood into their coach horses has enabled them to lengthen their stages, and in very observable proportions to the degree of blood; finally, where the blood of the trotter when known, is seen to flow in so many instances from a spring of pure blood, is it not fair to infer a similar origin in cases where the blood can not be traced, especially as the universal experience of all times proves that in other paces the cases have been extremely rare in which a horse of impure blood has been known to keep up a great flight of speed ? A horse of mixed blood may be a great trotter at a long distance, because his speed at his best is greatly behind that of the best speed on the turf ; but it would, according to all principles of reasoning, be unreasonable to expect great excellence even as a trotter in horses altogether free from the blood which gives wind and foot to the East- ern coursers. Though we may not be able to trace it, and though in solitary cases a horse without it may possess great speed and lastingness in the trot, from excellent accidental confirmation in our possession we repeat that the possession of the two warrants the presumption of the third, however obscure the traces or remote the origin — this is our theory. But the action to be cul- tivated in the racer and the trotter is of itself sufficient to explain why a racer should not succeed at once on the turf and on the trotting course. All re- flecting and observant men will admit that "as there is no royal way to math- ematics," so there is but one way for a horse to excel in his business, and, with rare exceptions, there is but one in which any individual horse can excel ; whatever that business may be, to be perfect in it, he should be educated and kept to it and to it only. A trotting horse should do nothing but trot. — Amer- ican Turf Register, 184J.
We have thought it best to reprint the above as it comes from the highest authority of its day, and keeps within certain lines of common sense ; — that is, that merit comes from merit. But it is most noticeable that in every case
xxxiv INTRODUCTION
where guessing, founded upon superficial knowledge or no knowledge at all, is indulged in, the guessing is wrong. The trotters of Canada, came not from the old stock but the new. They came pre-eminently from the Morgan stock of Vermont. They came also from the best thoroughbred blood of the States, such as Sir Walter, by Hickory, and Cock of the Rock, by Duroc. Vermont is not indebted to Canada, but Canada to Vermont for her distinguished line of pacers and trotters. Of the first six trotters bred in Canada, all previous to i860, three were descendants of Sir Walter, two of the Dutch or Morgan stock, and one of Cock of the Rock.
CANADIAN HORSES.
THE Canadian is generally low-sized, rarely exceeding 15 hands, and oftener falling short of it. His characteristics are abroad forehead; ears somewhat wide apart, and not unfrequently a basin face ; the latter per- haps, a trace of the far remote Spanish blood said to exist in his veins ; the origin of the improved Norman or Percheron stock being, it is usually be- lieved, a cross of the Spaniard, Barb by descent, with the old Norman war- horse.
His crest is lofty, and his demeanor proud and courageous. His breast is full and broad ; his shoulder strong, though somewhat straight and a little inclined to be heavy; his back broad, and his croup round, fleshy and mus- cular. His ribs are not, however, so much arched, nor are they so well closed up, as his general shape and build would lead one to expect. His legs and feet are admirable ; the bone large and flat, and the sinews big, and nervous as steel springs. His feet seem almost unconscious of disease. His fetlocks are shaggy, his mane voluminous and massive, not seldom, if untrained, fall- ing on both sides of his neck, and his tail abundant, both having a peculiar crimpled wave, If I may so express myself, the like of which I never saw in any horse which had not some strain of this blood. He cannot be called a speedy horse in his pure state ; but he is emphatically a quick one, an in- defatigable, undaunted traveler, with the greatest endurance, day in and day out, allowing him to go at his own pace, say from six to eight miles the hour, with a horse's load behind him, of any animal I have ever driven. He is extremely hardy, will thrive on anything, or almost nothing, is docile, though high-spirited, remarkably sure-footed on the worst ground, and has fine, high action, bending his knee roundly and setting his foot squarely on the ground. As a farm horse and ordinary farmer's roadster, there is no honester or better animal ; and, as one to cross with other breeds, whether upward by the mares to thoroughbred stallions, or downward by the stallions to common country mares of other breeds, he has hardly any equal.
From the upward cross, with the English or American thoroughbred on the sire's side, the Canadian has produced some of the fastest trotters and the
HISTORICAL
XXXV
best gentlemen's road and saddle horses in the country ; and, on the other hand, the Canadian stallion, wherever he has been introduced, as he has been largely in the neighborhood of Skeneateles, and generally in the western part of the State of New York, is* gaining more and more favor with the farmers, and is improving the style and stamina of the country stock. He is said, although small himself in stature, to have the unusual quality of breeding up in size with larger and loftier mares than himself, and to give the foals his own vigor, pluck and iron constitution, with the frame and general aspect of the dams. This, by the way, appears to be a characteristic of the Barb blood above all others, and is a strong corroboration of the legend which attribute to him an early Andalusian strain.
THE INDIAN PONY.
The various breeds of Indian ponies found in the West generally appear to me to be the result of a cross between the Southern mustang, descended from the emancipated Spanish horses of the Southwest, and the smallest type of the Canadian, the proportions varying according to the localities in which they are found, those further to the South showing more largely of the Spanish and those to the North of Norman blood. On my first visit to Canada in 183 1, I had an opportunity of seeing great herds of these ponies running nearly wild on the rich meadow lands about the Grand River, belong- ing to the Mohawk Indians, who had a large reservation on that river, near the village of Brantford, which took its name, I believe, from the chief, who was a son of the famous Brant, Thayendanagea, of ante - revolutionary renown.
These little animals, hardly any of which exceeded 13 hands, had all the character of the pure Canadian, and except in size, were not to be distinguished from them. They had the same bold carriage, open countenance, abundant hair, almost resembling a lion's mane, the same gen- eral build, and above all, the same iron feet and legs. I hired a pair of these, I well remember, both stallions, and they took me in a light wagon, with a heavy driver and a hundred weight, or upwards, of baggage, over execrable roads, 60 miles a day, for days in succession, without exhibiting the slightest distress, and at the end of the journey were all ready to set out on the same trip again.
I was new at the time in America, and was much surprised and interested by the performance of this gallant little pair of animals. They were per- fectly matched, both in size and color, very dark brown, and twelve hands and a half in height ; and where the road was hard and good, could spin along at nearly nine miles in the hour. They were very merry goers.
It was their wonderful surefootedness, sagacity and docility, however, which most delighted me. They were driven without blinkers or bearing reins, and where, as was often the case, bridges seemed doubtful, the bot- tom of miry fords suspicious of quagmires, or the road otherwise dangerous, they would put down their heads to examine, try the difficulty with their
xxxvi INTRODUCTION
feet, and, when satisfied, would get through or over places which seemed utterly impracticable. In short, I became perfectly in love with them ; and, as the price asked for them was fabulously small — considerably, if I recollect aright, under $50 for the pair — I should certainly have bought them, had there been any way of getting them down from what was then almost a wil- derness, though it is now the very finest part of the province.
Whence this pony breed of Canadians has arisen I am unable to say ; but I believe it to be almost entirely peculiar to the Indian tribes ; wherefore I am inclined to think it may have been produced by the dwarfing process, which will arise from hardship and privation endured generation after gen- eration, particularly by the young animals and the mares while heavy with foal.
These animals had, I can say almost positively, no recent cross of the Spanish horse ; but I have seen since that time, ponies approaching nearly to the same type which showed an evident cross of the mustang ; and I have seen animals called mustangs in which I was convinced that there was Can- adian blood.
With this I take my leave of what I consider to be the last of the families of the horse now existing peculiar to America ; hereafter I shall proceed to give some statistics and general information, for which I am indebted to my friend, Col. Harris of The Ohio Cultivator, and to Messrs. A. Y. Moore and Joshua Clements of Michigan, and to Mr. J. H. Wallace of Muscatine, la., with various friends and correspondents of these gentlemen, concerning the breeds of horses and the general condition of the horse interests in the West. In none, however, of the newly-settled but vastly thriving agricultural States is there anything that can with the least propriety be claimed as a distinc- tive family of the horse.
I pass, therefore, briefly to the consideration of what was, while it existed in its purity — I fear one may now say, while it existed, in broad terms — a truly distinct and for its own peculiar use and purpose, a most valuable, as it was a most interesting, curious and beautiful variety or species — for it seems to me to almost amount to that — of the equine family.
THE NARRAGANSETT PACER.
This beautiful animal, which, so far as I can ascertain, has now entirely ceased to exist, and concerning which the strangest legends and traditions are afloat, was, I think it may be positively asserted, of Andalusian blood. The legends to which I allude tell in two wise ; or rather I should say there are two versions of the same legend — one saying that the original stallion whence came the breed was picked up at sea, swimming for his life, no one knew whence or whither ; and was so carried in by his salvors to the Provi- dence Plantations ; the other, evidently another form of the same story, stat- ing that the same original progenitor was discovered running wild in the woods of Rhode Island.
The question, however, thus far seems to be put at rest by the account of these animals given in a note to the very curious work "America Dis-
HISTORICAL
xxxvn
sected," by the Rev. James McSparran, D. E)., which is published as an appendix to the History of the Church of Narragansett, by Wilkins Updike.
Dr. McSparran was sent out in April, 1721, as their missionary by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to that venerable church of which he was the third incumbent, and over which he presided 37 years, generally respected and beloved until he departed this life on the 1st day of December, 1759, and was interred under the communion table of the church which he had so long served.
In his " America Dissected" the doctor twice mentions the pacing horse, which was evidently at that remote date an established breed in that province.
"To remedy this," he says — this being the great extent of the parishes in Virginia, of which he is at first speaking, and the distances which had to be traveled to church — "to remedy this, as the whole province, between the mountains, two hundred miles up, and the sea, is all a campaign, and without stones, they have plenty of a small sort of horses, the best in the world, like the little Scotch Galloways ; and 'tis no extraordinary journey to ride from sixty to seventy miles, or more, in a day. I have often, but upon larger pacing horses, rode fifty, nay sixty miles a day, even here in New England, where the roads are rough, stony and uneven." And elsewhere he speaks more distinctly of the same breed. "The product of this colony," Rhode Island, " is principally butter and cheese, fat cattle, wool, and fine horses, which are exported to all parts of English America. They are remarkable for fleetness and swift pacing ; and I have seen some of them pace a mile in a little more than two minutes, and a good deal less than three."
If the worthy doctor of divinity was a good judge of pace and had a good timing watch, it would seem that the wonderful time of Pocahontas was equalled, if not outdone, above a century ago ; at all events, he established, beyond a peradventure, the existence of the family and its unequalled powers, as well of speed as of endurance. To the latter extract is attached the fol- lowing note, which I insert entire, with all the quotations as they stand in the original. These, are, however, somewhat confused ; so that it is not altogether clear, at all times, who is the speaker.
The breed of horses called Narragansett Pacers, once so celebrated for fleetness, endurance and speed, has become extinct. These horses were highly valued for the saddle, and transported the rider with great pleasantness and sureness of foot. The pure bloods could not trot at all. Formerly they had pace races. Little Neck beach, in South Kingston, of one mile in length, was the race course. A silver tankard was the prize, and high bets were otherwise made on speed. Some of these prize tankards were remaining a few years ago. Traditions respecting the swiftness of these horses are almost incredible. Watson, in his Historical Tales of Olden Times, says : In olden times, the horses most valued were pacers, now so odious deemed. To this end the breed was propagated with care. The Narragansett pacers were in such repute that they were sent for, at much trouble and expense, by some who were choice in their selections.
The aged Thomas Matlock of Philadelphia was passionately fond of
xxxviii INTRODUCTION
races in his youth — he said all genteel horses were pacers. A trotting horse was deemed a base breed. All races were pace races.
Thomas Bradford of Philadelphia says they were run in a circular form, making two miles for a heat. At the same time they ran straight races of a mile.
Mr. I. T. Hazard, in a communication, states that 'within ten years, one of my aged neighbors, Enoch Lewis, since deceased, informed me that he had been to Virginia as one of the riding boys to return a similar visit to the Vir- ginians in that section, in a contest on the turf ; and that such visits were common with the racing sportsmen of Narragansett and Virginia when he was a boy. Like the old English country gentlemen, from which they were descended, they were a horse-racing, fox-hunting, feasting generation.
My grandfather, Gov. Robinson, introduced the famous saddle horse* the Narragansett pacer, known in the last century over all the civilized part of North America and the West Indies, from whence they have lately been in- troduced into England as a ladies' saddle horse under the name of the Spanish Jenette. Governor Robinson imported the original from Andalusia, in Spain, and the raising of them for the West India market was one of the objects of the early planters of this country. My grandfather, Robert Hazard, raised about a hundred of them annually and often loaded two vessels a year with them and other products of his farm, which sailed direct from the South Ferry to the West Indies, where they were in great demand. One of the causes of the loss of that famous breed here, was the great demand for them in Cuba, when that island began to cultivate sugar extensively. The planters became sud- denly rich, and wanted the pacing horses, for themselves and their wives and daughters to ride, faster than we could supply them : and sent an agent to this country to purchase them on such terms as he could, but to purchase at all events.
I have heard my father say that he knew the agent very well and he made his home at the Rowland Brown house at Tower Hill, where he com- menced purchasing and shipping until all the good ones were sent off. He never let a good one escape him. This, and the fact that they were not so well adapted for draft as other horses, was the cause of their being neglected, and I believe the breed is now extinct in this section.
My father described the motion of this horse as differing from others, in that its backbone moved through the air in a straight line without inclining the rider from side to side, as the common racker or pacer of the present day. Hence it was very easy ; and being of great power and endurance, they would perform a journey of ioo miles a day without injury to themselves or rider.
Those kept for family use were never used in harness, drafting stiffened their limbs. In the Revolutionary war, trotting horses became more valuable for teaming than pacers, and would sell better in market, and could be easier matched. After the war, trotters were more valuable for transportation and the raising of pacing horses consequently ceased. Only a few of the country gentlemen kept them for their own use. In the year 1800, there was only one living.
An aged lady, now living in Narragansett, in 1791, rode one of these pacers, on a ladies' side-saddle, the first day to Plainfield, 30 miles, the next day to Hartford, 40, staid there two days, then rode to New Haven, 40, from thence to New London, 40, and then home to Narragansett, 40 miles more She says she experienced no sensible fatigue.
Horses and the mode of traveling, like everything else, have undergone the change of fashion.'
HISTORICAL
XXXIX
The latter reasons, I presume, assigned for the extinction of this breed are probably the nearest to the truth ; for one would imagine, that how great soever the Spanish demand, and however large the prices the agent might be willing to pay, there would be some persons of sufficient foresight to retain animals enough to support a breed, which must naturally have become the more valuable the greater the demand for it.
The fact seems to be that, up to the beginning of the present century in this country, much as it was half a century yet further back in England, the roads were so bad as to be, except in the finest weather, wholly impracticable for wheeled carriages ; and that, except on the great turnpike roads and in the immediate vicinity of large cities, private pleasure vehicles were almost un- known. All long journeys, at that time, with few exceptions, and all excur- sions for pleasure, for ordinary business, such as calls a rural population to the post town on market days, and all visiting between friends and neighbors, were performed by both sexes on the saddle.
At that time there was, therefore, a demand, not as a matter of pleasure or display, but as an actual necessity for speedy and above all, for pleasant and easy-going saddle horses — since to ride a bone-setting trotter a journey of successive days over the country as it then was would have been a veritable peine forte et dure. No horse, kept constantly at harness work, particularly at farming work, can be an agreeable, if even a safe saddle horse to ride. For the use of hanging on the collar accustoms the horse to depend on it as if for support, although in truth it can afford none ; and when he cannot feel it, he is sure to bear heavily on the hand, and is likely, if not deli- icately handled, to come upon his head.
Hence persons who are particular — not to say fanciful — about their sad- dle horses never allow them to look through a collar ; and as, when the possession of an easy-going saddle horse was a matter of as much consid- eration as that of an easy-fitting shoe, every one was as particular about his riding horse ; pacers, whenever they could be found, were more than a luxury, and almost a necessity to men and women who were used to be much in the saddle.
The expense of this was, of course, considerable, since the pacer was useless for any other purpose. So soon, therefore, as the roads improved, in proportion to the improvement of the country and the increase of popula- tion, wheeled carriages came generally into use, and the draft horse sup- planted the saddle horse. At the same time, a property became subdivided among many heirs, the fortunes of the country gentlemen diminished and in process of time, country gentlemen resident on their own estates, in affluence approaching to luxury, ceased to be.
It was soon found that, whereas one Could not have a tolerable saddle horse if he was to work in the plow on the team, the same labor in no degree detracted from the chaise or carriage horse.
Hence the pacer was superseded by the trotter ; and the riding horse,
xl INTRODUCTION
from being an article of necessity, became one of exclusive luxury ; to such a degree that until comparatively a very recent period, when ladies again began to take up riding, there have been very few distinctively broken riding horses and still fewer kept exclusively as such, in the Northern States of America.
Probably there never was a country in the world, in which there is so large a numerical proportion of horses to the population, and in which the habits of the people are so little equestrian as the States to the East and North of Mason and Dixon's line.
In a day's journey through any of the rural districts one will meet, beyond a doubt, a hundred persons traveling in light wagons, sulkies or chaises for five — I hardly think I should err if I were to say for one — on horseback.
And this unquestionably is the cause of the decline, or rather the extinc- tion of the pacer.
For, although there have been, since my own recollection, pacing horses in this section of the country, professedly from Rhode Island, and called by names implying a Narragansett origin, and although it may well be that they were from that region, and possibly from that blood, in a remote degree, they did not pace naturally, because they were Narragansett pacers, but were called Narragansett pacers, because, coming from somewhere from that region of country, they paced by accident — as many chance horses do — or, in some instances, had been taught to pace.
It is a matter of real regret that the family has entirely disappeared, and I presume without any prospect or hope of its resuscitation. In England, notwithstanding what Mr. Hazard states, in the note I have quoted above, concerning the importation of these pacers under the name of Spanish jen- nets, I never saw or heard tell, having been among horses and horsemen since my earliest childhood, of any such race of ladies' riding horses • nor have I ever read, to the best of my memory, of pacers, in satire, poem or romance, as a feature of feminine luxury.
In Andalusia and Spain generally, I have no knowledge of a breed of horses to which that gait is native and characteristic ; and if it was so, all the English military and many of my own friends and relations in my younger days, being thoroughly familiarized to all the Spanish provinces during the course of the Peninsular campaigns, I could hardly have been ignorant of the fact, beyond which I well remember the question being mooted as to the actual reality of natural pacers when, by the mention of this particular breed of Narragansetts by Mr. Cooper in his "Last of the Mohicans " they were first introduced to the English horseman.
It would almost appear that various species of domestic animals have their own allotted period of existence contemporaneous with the dates of their greatest untility; and that when the requirement has ceased to exist the race itself speedily passes away. For it would seem to require further causes
HISTORICAL xli
than the mere cessation of care in preserving any given species to produce in so short a space the total extinction of a family, as has been the case within the memory of man with several varieties, both of the dog and of the horse.
Of the latter I may instance the true Scottish Galloway and the Narra- gansett pacer, which would, it seems, have some claims to be considered pure races, besides several of the coarser breeds already noticed — the former two entirely, the others nearly, obliterated from the list of horses now in use or even in being.
Of the former the pure Talbot bloodhound, the great Irish wolf dog, the genuine rough-haired Highland deerhound and the old English mastiff not crossed with bull, do not, it is believed, exist at all in their original purity ; yet on many of these much care has been expended, in the hope of perpetu- ating their breeds ; and efforts have been made to reproduce them by a course of artificial breeding.
At all events, even if it was possible, as I am satisfied it is not, to recreate these varieties of the horse, the attempt is not likely to be made, for the age of long journeys on horseback or in private vehicles has passed away forever in the civilized countries of the world ; and for riding horses of mere pleasure, speed, style, beauty, blood and action, not an easy gait, and the maintenance of a slow pace for many successive hours or days, are the desiderata at the present time. — The Horse of America, by Henry William Herbert {Frank Forester), i8j/.
DEATH OF CADWALLADER R. COLDEN.
Cadwallader R. Colden died May 17, 1839, aged 65. He first organized the present racing system in this country. He wrote under the name "An Old Turfman." He assisted Mr. Skinner in establishing the "Turf Register." Afterwards he withdrew from the Register and started a large quarto maga- zine. He abandoned this and started a smaller and which lasted to one or two volumes. He started another paper, "The Whip." He lived to issue only one number of The Whip.— Spirit of the Times.
DEATH OF CONSUL JARVIS.
Hon. William Jarvis, formerly Consul at Lisbon, died at his residence in Weathersfield, Vt., on the 21st of October, in the ninetieth year of his age. We have had prepared, by one who knew him well, an interesting sketch of his life, which will appear in the January number. — American Stock Journal, i8jg.
III.
BREEDING. REMARKS ON THE HORSE.
BY SANFORD HOWARD, EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN CULTIVATOR, DELIVERED AT THE STATE HOUSE IN BOSTON, APRIL I, 1 85 6.
THE horse is a native of the old Continent only. There wherever man has risen above the savage state, the horse has been held as his servant. He was possessed by the earliest civilized nations, and has been from time immemorial propagated in a domestic state, although he is still found in his original wildness and liberty, on the vast unpeopled wastes of Central Asia.
In point of usefulness the horse cannot claim a superiority over some other domestic animals, yet he has ever been regarded with peculiar interest. To the human tribes who were first able to command his services he must have been of immense importance in his warlike adventures, from the power he conferred in attack and escape. But he has been prized for various prop- erties. The beauty and gracefulness of his form, the nobleness of his demeanor, his strength and swiftness, have furnished a theme for poets from the days of Job.
The different varieties of the horse, although presenting striking external differences, are included in one species, in zoological arrangements. Yet some of these varieties are of such antiquity that we have no knowledge of their origin. Different countries, according to their geographical position, soil, etc., have always possessed breeds of horses having certain peculiarities — those of the greatest bulk belonging to level and fertile districts, and those of less size to more elevated and exposed situations. The contrast between the English or Flemish draft horse of more than a ton weight, and the Shet- land pony of less than two hundred pounds, excites our astonishment, and can hardly fail to raise doubts in regard to the position that both sprung from the same stock.
We cannot account for all the distinguishing traits of some varieties. The Arabian, for instance, has for ages been remarkable for his peculiar con- formation and properties. This conformation gives great speed in the gallop, combined with strength to carry weight on the back, and, united with the superior intelligence of the animal has placed him at the head of his species. We cannot tell for what length of time he has possessed these characters.
Washington Monument.
Thomas Circle and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
BREEDING xliii
Without giving any opinion as to the correctness of the genealogy given by the Arabians for their favorite tribes of horses, there can be no question as to the great antiquity of the race. There is evidence that they have been bred on the Assyrian plains, with little change of feature, for thousands of years. The late researches among the ruins of ancient Oriental cities, especially those of Ninevah and Babylon, have brought to light sculptured images of the horse, which might almost be taken as fac-similies of the Arabian of the present day, although they may have been designed to repre- sent the proud steeds of Senacherib or Nebuchadnezzar. From the descrip- tions given of ancient horses by the sacred writers, we are able to trace still further their affinity with the present Arabian. Job's sublime description of the war-horse would scarcely apply to an animal less noble than the Arab of the desert. The Prophet Habakkuk, in warning the Jews against the power- ful forces with which the Chaldeans were about to assail them, says : — "Their horses are swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves. * * * Their horsemen shall fly as the eagle hasting to eat."
As already intimated, the horse is not a native of America. The colon- ists from various parts of Europe, brought hither various stocks. The Spaniards brought horses from Spain, and from those introduced have sprung the half-wild stocks of Mexico and some South American countries. In the United States there are but few breeds. We have for many years had the English racer. The German settlers of Pennsylvania introduced the heavy draft horse of their fatherland, and it is still perpetuated. Specimens of the Norman horse have been introduced into New Jersey, but the stock has not become numerous. In Lower Canada there is a breed of French horses, somewhat deteriorated, probably, from the original imported stock, and in Upper Canada there are specimens of the Scottish Clydesdale and other breeds of the British draft horse, as well as those of the running breed.
So much for imported breeds. In one section of the country an import- ant advance has been made towards the origination of a breed, which deserves, and as we proceed will receive, further notice.
The horse may be called a machine. He performs certain actions cor- responding to his shape and proportions. In opposition to this principle, it may be urged, perhaps, that horses of different shape are distinguished for the same performances. This, by no means, invalidates the proposition. An imperfect engine may be made to run at high speed by the application of steam enough. The animal machine is set in motion by what we call nervous energy, or force. A large amount of this force may produce great results even with an animal whose form is defective. But suppose the same force had been applied to an animal constructed in every respect on the true prin- ciples of mechanics in reference to its movements. Would not the result have corresponded to the perfection of his conformation ? It may be safely assured that, other things being equal, the best horse, in the end, is that hav- ing the truest form, considered in reference to the kind of action required of him.
xliv INTRODUCTION
Horses are used for running or galloping, for trotting, and for slow draft at a walk. An animal of different shape and somewhat different tempera • merit is required for each of these purposes. If we wish to select an animal for running, we should regard his conformation in reference to this kind of action. And here we may derive some ideas to guide us, by studying the form and action of other animals. The hare, for instance, may be taken as a model for running or leaping. The muscular development of the hind-quarter is great in proportion to the fore-quarter. She moves, like the race-horse, by a succession of bounds, and she so poses her body that her weight is carried chiefly on her hind legs, which, also, furnish the principal propulsive power. Her mechanical structure is admirable for this movement. But who would think of taking the hare as a model for a trotter? The celebrated English horse, Eclipse, whose form and proportions were deemed nearly perfect for running, approximated to the hare-like model. He was two inches higher at the croup or rump, than at the shoulder or withers. His hind-quarter had great length and development, in proportion to the fore-quarter — a prepond- erance which is said to have given a wavering or side-ways motion to his walk and trot, his fore-end being at the same time carried very near the ground. His speed was such that, though he ran many races, he never found a competitor who was able to keep near enough to him to bring out his full power.
A long back is favorable to the racer, where mere speed is the object without regard to the weight to be carried, because from its greater flexibility it gives more play to the hind-quarters. But if heavy weight is to be carried for a long distance, a shorter back, the vertebra of which assume, in some degree, the form of an arch, is, from its greater strength, required. Hence some change of the form of the racer is necessary for running short distances, with light weights, or long distances, with heavy weights.
- For trotting, the machinery requires further modification. In this gait, locomotion, instead of being effected, mainly by a simultaneous spring of both hind legs, is the result of one fore leg and opposite hind leg working together. This action requires a more equal distribution of power between the fore-quarter, so that each division of the body may perform its share of labor. The comparatively light fore-hand, which is a merit in the racer, speed only being the object, would not answer here. An undue preponder- ance of the hind-quarter would destroy the balance of power necessary to a square trot. Obliquity of shoulder is of great importance in the trotter, to enable him to throw his fore-leg well forward and to admit of such action as will avoid the danger of stumbling. In the racer it is of less consequence provided the make of the animal in other respects admits of his carrying his weight on his haunches. It is well known that many good runners have not oblique shoulders ; good trotters always have them.
The points alluded to might be illustrated in detail, but time will not permit. From what has been said, it will appear that the shape required to
BREEDING xlv
produce the best racer or galloper, is not that which would produce the best trotter or roadster. It follows, therefore, that if horses of the two classes are to be bred, different standards of form are necessary — so different, indeed, as to result in the production of different breeds.
It may be remarked, that besides form, texture is of great importance. The density of the muscular tissue, as well as the density of the bones, varies in animals of the same species. This may be illustrated by comparing a well bred game cock with a Shanghai. On handling them, a striking difference is perceived — the game being much more solid, or heavier, in proportion to the bulk. He "handles like a glass bottle." The other feels more soft and flabby. We see the same thing in other animals. It is a common expression, that some horses are soft. They are literally so — there is a laxness of muscle and tendon. A close-knit horse is heavy for his bulk, and stronger in propor- tion than one whose weight is less condensed. Therefore, if the right quality of bone and muscle is obtained, a less quantity will answer the purpose. In gen- eral, the highest nervous energy accompanies the firmest and closest structure, making, for his size, the strongest, most enduring and smartest animal.
The trotting horse of the best character is of mixed blood. He com- bines the blood of the northern European horse with that of the Eastern horse, or English racer. And here it may not be irrelevant to digress, some- what, for the purpose of making a few remarks on the origin of the English race horse. According to authorities, he is derived from a mixture of the Turkish, Persian, Arabian, Barb or Moorish, and Spanish stocks, with, in some instances, the blood of the ancient British horse. These various Eastern stocks differ so much from each other, that in their native countries they are considered of different breeds. Hence the high claim which is sometimes set up for the English racer, in reference to purity of blood, cannot be main- tained. It may be safely asserted, that there is not a breed in Britain more mixed in its origin, or in which there is a stronger tendency to diversity of form and qualities, than the so-called thoroughbred horse. In regard to this varying tendency, the remark of an English writer may be quoted — that "though a powerful thoroughbred is the finest form of a horse, bring them at random, and I will engage that three out of four will be irredeemable rips."
The term thoroughbred was first used in England, to designate horses' of imported or Eastern blood — without particular reference to the blood being Turkish, Arabian, or Moorish — but it has sometimes been allowed to horses which were known to partake, more or less, of the native British blood. Till lately, it does not appear that the term was applied to any animals but horses ; and, indeed, even now, it is seldom applied to any other class of live stock, in English publications. Its use in this country is more common, especially as applied to cattle. In an American agricultural paper, considerable discussion has been had in regard to the meaning of the term, but without establishing any clear definition. As the term is frequently used, it is mere humbuggery.
The race horse is also called the blood horse. This term originated in a similar way as did the term thoroughbred, applied to the same kind of horse ;
xlvi INTRODUCTION
and in England its application to other stock does not appear to be recog- nized. It is not that the racer is actually purer in blood than any other breed, that he is called the blood horse ; for the English draft horse, Welch pony, and some other breeds are probably more pure. The term, seemingly without good reason, was long ago given to the racer and is now allowed be- cause it serves to designate him from other varieties.
It has already been stated that the best trotters or roadsters have been derived, in part, from the racer. The properties which have been obtained from the latter, are nervous energy, spirit or courage, and elasticity of move- ment. In reference to this combination of blood, we may quote the remarks of the distinguished English veterinarian, W. C. Spooner : — " We obtain from the thoroughbred horse, the small head, lengthy (hind) quarter, powerful thighs, and extended stride ; but it is from the Norfolk trotter, the old Eng- lish hunter or hack — descendants, to some degree, of the ancient Spanish horse — that we acquire the oblique shoulder, elevated withers, good fore- hand, safe walk and fast trot, accompanied by a larger and wider frame, greater bone, and more powerful digestive organs than the running horse possesses. { When once these varied qualifications are combined, it is a fact accomplished — the means in our hands for continued excellence, by which we can impart to the next generation the requisite amount of breeding, with- out that risk of weedyness which so often attends the first cross."
To say what is the precise amount of racing blood required to make the best trotters or roadsters, is obviously impracticable. There is, as has already been said, a great difference in racing horses. Some horses, in a higher degree than others, have the properties we desire in the roadster. Of course, we may obtain more of the blood of such an one without injury, than of one of different character. But it may be laid down as a fact, that in this coun- try, a very large majority of the best trotters and roadsters have been less than half-blood. It is worthy of remark, also, that at least one noted stock sprung from a race horse (Messenger) whose ancestors were not wholly of Eastern descent. Messenger traces from Sampson, who was acknowledged to have "a strain of vulgar blood" in him. The cross-bred descendants of Messen- ger have been noted as trotters, but the most noted of them have not been over a quarter and many of them not over an eighth.
Allusion has already been made to a stock of horses in this country possessing such peculiar characters that they approximate to a breed. The Morgan horse is meant. This stock has acquired a wide-spread reputation. It is said to have even attracted attention in England. Some cavalry horses having been purchased in Vermont, were taken to Canada and thence to England, where they were examined and highly praised by the late Duke of Wellington.
The origin of the Morgan stock cannot be ascertained in every particular, though some important facts are known in regard to it. It is known that the first Morgan horse was foaled at West Springfield, in this State, in 1789, the
BREEDING xlvii
property of Justin Morgan, who took him to Randolph, Vt., in 1793. He was got by True Briton, a horse stolen from the refugee or tory Col. Delancy, during the war of the American Revolution. His dam inherited the blood of the race horse Wild Air.
The first Morgan horse was extensively used as a sire in Vermont, living to an advanced age. His numerous progeny inherited his peculiar properties to such a remarkable degree, that they were readily distinguished ; and even those of the second and third generations retain, in a striking manner, the points and properties of their progenitor. Breeding mares got by the first Morgan were kept in large numbers, but only four of his male progeny were kept entire, viz : Sherman, Woodbury or Burbank, Chelsea or Bulrush, and Revenge.
The distinguished characteristics of the Morgan horses have been neat- ness and compactness of form ; hardiness of constitution, with general sound- ness of wind and limb ; strong digestive organs, enabling them to live on little food ; good action, making them fast travelers as all-day horses ; a high degree of intelligence and spirit-making, altogether, an economical class of horses, both in reference to the cheapness of their support and their lasting powers. Their height may be put at 14 }4 to 15 hands, and their weight at from 900 to 1000 pounds.
Such is a general description of the stock, or those having most of the Morgan blood. It is not intended to say that all horses called Morgans, have been marked by all the good qualities here enumerated. Errors in breeding have been committed, especially in breeding from animals wanting obliquity of shoulder, and having too broad a chest to allow the fore leg to be thrown forward in a sufficiently direct line with the centre of gravity, to give ease of motion or speed.
The well-known horse, Black Hawk, was got by Sherman Morgan. To the general properties of the Morgan stock, he unites more obliquity of shoulder and freer action of the fore leg. When he is bred to mares of the Morgan family, or to those of similar characters, the produce seems to possess properties, which, as roadsters or light carriage horses, it is not easy to excel.
As already intimated, different classes or breeds are required for different purposes. In this vicinity, and in the neighborhood of all large cities, the roadster or light carriage horse is required to a great extent. This is the kind mostly used by livery stable keepers, and are also kept as buggy or chaise horses. It is for such purposes that the Morgans, especially those having the Black Hawk strain, are so well adapted.
For heavy coaches — gentlemen's coaches — a different kind of horse is called for. Rather to correspond with the general equipage than from any object of utility, a horse of more height is wanted — a horse which, though he may be less calculated for use, is more fitted for show. In England the coach horse has always been different, and is bred in a different way from the roadster, or fast driving horse. It should be so here. It is idle to attempt breeding both in the same way.
xlviii INTRODUCTION
The true cause of breeding is to establish a standard or model for each class of horses, and constantly select for propagation those which most nearly conform to this standard. The idea of combining the properties of all horses in one horse, is preposterous. A horse of "all work" must be like a man who is "Jack at all trades ;" if he is not actually good at none, he cannot be perfect at any. The race horse is so well established that the introduction of the blood of other breeds is scrupulously guarded against. It is so with the heavy draft horse, and should be so with the roadster.
HORSES IN MAINE.
THE horse has been raised in Maine ever since the first settlement of the country, and for many years has been one of our staple products ; large numbers being annually sold in the markets of Boston, New York, and other Atlantic cities.
The early settlers probably derived their first breeders from Massachu- setts and from New Hampshire. Messrs. Gorges and Mason were the pro- prietors of New Hampshire, and Gorges also became proprietor of that part of Maine lying between Kennebec River and Piscataqua River. They first settled Portsmouth and Kittery, and Mason took great pains to introduce cattle and other stock into those plantations. From these the settlers of Maine, probably, obtained a part of their first breeders. We have no data to give us definite information on these points ; yet it may well be supposed that in this, as in every other new country where the roads were rough and wheel carriages scarce, horses were used as the principal means of locomotion from place to place. For this purpose it would be a desirable object to breed good roadsters ; indeed, what the farmers of England call, " horses of all work," and such have the horses of Maine been and still are, in an eminent degree.
In those days there were no Agricultural Societies, or in fact -any associa- tions for the promotion of improvement in farm stock, and, of courss, no documents can be found which will elucidate the history or the progress of our stock breeding. The whole business was left to individual enterprise of which no record has been made. The early records of York contain but one or two instances where horses were made the subject of public action. In 1653, we find the following order made for the valuation of horses :
At a General Court of Election held at Boston the 18th of May, 1653.
"Whereas the order made to regulate in point of rating for the countries use, provides how horses, mares and colts should bee vallued, which at present is farr below what they are worth, for redressing of which this court doth order that henceforth every mare, horse or gelding of Foure yere's old and upward shall bee vallued at Sixteen pounds, and of Three yere's old at Tenne pounds, and of Two yere's old and upwards at Seaven pounds, and at One
BREEDING xlix
yere old at Three pounds, tenne shillings, any Lawe or custome to the con- trary notwithstanding. And further it is ordered that this Lawe shall con- tinue for two yere's only. Except .the Generall Court shall see cause to con- tinue or alter it.
In 1682 another law was passed regulating the terms upon which horses should be kept in the public pastures, as follows :
At a Generall Assembly houlden at York, June 28, 1682.
LAW ABOUT HORSES.
It is ordered that any person keeping more than two horses or horse kind upon ye Commons shall pay five shillings a yeare, yearly for ye us' of ye Towne in which they dwell for every such horse or horse kind.
And all persons not being free houlders are prohibited from keeping any horse or horse kind upon ye Commons on penalty of paying tenn shillings for every tyme such horse or horse kind is found upon ye Commons one halfe to ye Town, the other halfe to the taker of them up.
It would be interesting had we the means, to trace the history of the various efforts made by our farmers in breeding this useful animal — to note the different breeds or families that have, from time to time, been introduced, and to learn the results derived from earnest, though desultory and not very systematic labors in this branch of our husbandry ; but this, for reasons above named, cannot be done with any reasonable show of certainty.
At present, there are three breeds of horses that may be considered as being predominant in Maine, viz. : Messengers, Morgans and Black Hawks. These breeds however, are not kept very distinct ; being crossed and mixed up in no very systematic manner, according as the fancy or the convenience of the farmers who wish to raise colts may dictate. It is not a little remark- able that, notwithstanding this lack of system in breeding, some of the fleetest trotters in the Union were raised in Maine.
The "old Messenger," or "Winthrop Messenger," as he is often called, and from whom all the "Messenger" horses in Maine descended, sprang from Messenger imported from England by Mr. Benger of Philadelphia, in 1788; and was probably a grandson of that horse. He (Winthrop Messen- ger) was purchased in Paris, Oneida County, New York, by Alvin Hayward, Esq., sometime about the year 1816, and brought to Winthrop, where Mr. Hayward then resided. He was a large, white, muscular horse, with a clumsy head, but well-proportioned body and limbs. His form and general appearance indicated a powerful animal, but. certainly would not be consid- ered one that was what is called a "a post horse," nor did we ever hear that he himself ever exhibited any remarkable speed, or that he was ever trained for the course. His colts however, when they came into action, were found to be superior roadsters, and very many of them fast trotters and of great endur- ance. On this account they became sought after in the markets, are now prized highly, and the breed considered by many as the best among us. He
1 INTRODUCTION
was kept for a stock horse until between twenty or thirty years of age, and died in the town of Anson, in 1833 or '34.
The good properties of the Messenger breed have been transmitted from generation to generation, even to the present time, a proof that fixed charac- teristics of the parents, in breeds of animals, do not easily become extinct.
Next in point of time, the Morgans were introduced among us.
This breed, so remarkable for their great family likeness, both as to form and docility of temper, sprang from a horse which was foaled in Springfield, Mass., and carried into Vermont by Justin Morgan. The following brief his- tory of the progenitors of this now numerous and wide spread race, was some- time since prepared and published by Sanford Howard, Esq., at that time editor of the Albany Cultivator, now of the Boston Cultivator, and will be interesting to many of our farmers in this State, who are owners of horses boasting of Morgan blood :
The first, or original Morgan horse was raised by Justin Morgan, Esq. (known by the name of Master Morgan, in those days), of Springfield, Mass. He was taken to Randolph, Vt., in the fall of 1793.
The sire of the original Morgan horse was the True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, raised by Gen. Delancy of Long Island, and got by his imported Eng- lish horse Traveler. True Briton was ridden by Gen. Delancy, who com- manded the British refugees, on Long Island ; was stolen at King's Bridge, taken to Hartford, Conn., and sold to Joseph Ward of Hartford. Traveler was by English Eclipse ; he by Markse ; he by Squirt ; he by Bartlet's Childers ; and he by the Darley Arabian ; one of the main sources of the most valuable variety of horses, both in England and America. The dam of Morgan was by Diamond ; he by Young Wild Air, son of Wild Air, by Cade ; and he by the renowned Godolphin, who got Flying Childers, one of the champions of the English turf.
Old Wild Air was imported by Gen. Delancy, and after remaining in this country a short time, was purchased for $2500 and taken back to England, on account of his superior excellence as a sire. The dam of the Young Wild Air was of the same blood as himself Thus it appears that the Morgan horse is of the choicest and best selected blood ; hence, a race of horses remarkable for symmetry, compactness, and great power of endurance.
The stock horses, begotten by the original, or Justin Morgan, as he was called, were four : the Woodbury, Sherman, Delano or Bulrush, and Revenge. Through the first three, the Morgan blood has descended from the original horse. It has been said, by those best able to judge, that more noted horses have descended from the Woodbury brands than any other ; from the fact, that greater pains were taken to sustain the blood in its purity. From the Woodbury came the old Green Mountain, the Gifford and the Burbank. From the Sherman came the Danville Gray, the Black Hawk and many others lesd noted, but still valuable horses.
Next in point of time, came the Black Hawk breed. This is a branch of the Morgan stock, he being by Sherman Morgan. Black Hawk is now in
BREEDING li
the zenith of his glory. He is owned by David Hill, Esq., and kept at his farm in Bridport, Vt. ; such is the excellence of his stock, which combines good size, symmetry, elegance of motion and great speed in trotting, that he commands $100 per mare for his services, and has as many as he can do jus- tice to, at that. There was at one time some doubt in regard to his origin, but through the exertions of Mr. Howard, who has taken great pains to obtain true pedigrees of the Messenger and Morgan breeds of horses, these doubts have been solved in good time, by living witnesses.
For the satisfaction of those in Maine who are in possession of Black Hawk horses, we copy the following letters, first published in the Boston Cultivator.
The first is an extract from a letter of Benjamin Thurston, of Lowell, who was for several years the owner of Black Hawk, under whose training he was brought on the trotting course, and by whom he was sold to Mr. Hill in 1844. Under date of Oct. 7th, 1847, he says :
" It gives me much pleasure to answer your letter, as I feel a great inter- est in anything which relates to Black Hawk. I will answer your questions in the order in which they are asked.
1st. — Black Hawk was raised by Mr. Twombly, of Greenland N. H. (formerly of Durham, N. H). 2d. — He was begotten by Sherman Morgan, owned by Mr. Bellows at that time. 3d. — His dam was represented to be a half blood English mare, raised in New Brunswick. She was finely propor- tioned, and of great speed. Although never trained, I think she could trot a mile in less than three minutes."
This letter, it will be noticed, was written nearly eight years ago. To show the estimation in which Black Hawk and his progeny were then held by Mr. Thurston, it will not be out of place to introduce another extract from the same letter, as follows :
" I bought Black Hawk when he was four years old ; for six years used him as my family horse, and think him, without exception, the finest horse I ever knew. I have owned a number of horses for the last twenty-five years, varying from ten to thirty-five at a time, — and have also been in the habit of purchasing the finest I could find for sale ; but if the choicest qualities of the best horses I ever owned were combined, I do not think they would produce an animal to surpass Black Hawk. In the first place he is the best roadster I ever drew rein over. I have frequently driven him fifty miles in half a day, and once drove him sixty-three miles in seven hours and fifteen minutes. He did it with perfect ease, and indeed I never saw him appear fatigued. At the time I owned him, I believe he could have trotted one hundred miles in ten hours, or sixteen miles in one hour, or one mile in two minutes and forty seconds. In the second place, he has the best disposition of any horse I ever knew, and is perfectly safe for a lady to ride or drive. Thirdly, he will draw as kindly as any team-horse. His stock is unequalled. There is in this part of the country some ten or twelve of his get, five or six years old. These can trot a mile in from two minutes fifty-five seconds, to two minutes thirty-five
lii INTRODUCTION
seconds, and sell at prices ranging from $500 to $1000. They are finely pro- portioned, good sized, nice gaited, hardy, compact animals."
We next introduce an extract from a letter written by John Bellows of Lancaster, N. H. (owner of the Sherman Morgan), to David Hill of Brid- port, Vt. It comprises an interesting description of the sire of Black Hawk. Its date is March 24, 1848 :
" In answer to inquiries relative to the origin of your famous horse Black Hawk, I state that he was foaled at Durham, N. H., the property of Ezekiel Twombly, now of Greenland, N. H. His dam was a good sized, fast trotting, black mare, resembling, in appearance, the Messenger stock of horses. His sire, old Sherman Morgan, was truly a prodigy among horses. He was four- teen and a half hands high; his greatest weight while owned by me, 925 pounds ; of chestnut color, well strung in cord, muscular, ; in action exhibit- ing wonderful strength and agility ; though apparently mettlesome yet easy of control ; sagacious and patient in trouble, and of matchless endurance. He had a lively countenance, with an amiableness of expression, captivating in effect beyond any horse I have ever seen. He was foaled at Lyndon, Vt., the property of James Sherman, Esq., and died at my stable, in January, 1835. But for this animal, Morgan horses would never have had the celebrity they enjoy. His dam was bought by Sherman Morgan of Dr. Fiske of Provi- dence, R. I., and was said to have been imported. She was of good size, and fine appearance ; of a chestnut color ; elegant in action, and a speedy trotter. His (Sherman Morgan's) sire was the Goss (or Justin) Morgan, brought to Randolph, Vt., by Col. Morgan." — Maine Agricultural Reports ; 1856.
BROOD MARES.
On page 260 of the Turf Register, Vol. 7, in an article on "The Age of Brood Mares," occurs this : " A reference to the accompanying tables will show that very many mares produce foals at 25 years old and some at 30." The tables are of 60 noted English mares that brought foals at 25 and up- ward, names and owners of mares given, when bred, and number of foals each brought. — Middlebury Register, February 18, 1887.
IN-BREEDING.
IN the article on " In-Breeding" published in our last, which suggests much that is valuable, we notice that it is stated : " A son of imported Messenger was bred to some unknown mare, and the result was Amazonia." It is well known that there is no certain knowledge what was the sire of Amazonia. Nobody has ever pretended to know who bred her. She was
BREEDING liii
bought in Philadelphia, and one man has. said that the party who bought her said, that the boy who sold her said, that she was by a son of imported Messenger. The man who says this adds that no one interested in the mare ever believed the story.
As we have copied the article, we feel called upon to caution our readers on this part of it. Also the article says : " From a mare known as Black Jin, Mes- senger produced a daughter called Silvertail." This is certainly incorrect. The only reliable information in regard to Silvertail comes from Dr. Townsend Seely, the oldest son of Jonas Seely, Sr., breeder of the mare, who says that he himself took old Black Jin, dam of Silvertail, to the horse, when Silvertail was begotten, and that the stallion used was owned or kept by Thaddeus Seely, a cousin of his father. This stallion was certainly not Messenger, nor do we believe it was a son of Messenger as claimed by the correspondent of the Turf, Field and Farm. That Mr. Townsend Seely did not give his name or breeder, or from whom he was obtained, is prima facie evidence that he either did not know or did not want to talk. If the last, because it might reflect against the pedigree given by those most interested in the horse. Had Dr. Townsend Seely been interviewed at the first, or the facts been sought from him by a competent interviewer, the true history of both One Eye and Silvertail would have been obtained. As it is, the only thing certain in the pedigree of Hambletonian is that he was got by Abdallah, son of Mambrino, by imported Messenger : dam by imp. Bellfounder. To this might be added : " 2d dam One Eye, bred by Jonas Seely, Sr. ; 3d dam Silvertail, bred by Jonas Seely Sr., and got by a stallion owned or kept by Thaddeus Seely ; 4th dam old Black Jin."
As the recorded pedigree of One Eye, " By Bishop's Hamiltonian " was given by the same parties that gave that of Silvertail, which was certainly wrong, we have no confidence in that of One Eye ; and this more espec- ially, as suggested above, because there has never been any circumstantantial statement made of what year she was foaled, who took the mare to horse, or where the horse was kept, etc., etc., which almost certainly would have been forthcoming if the statement as made had been true. Helm in "American Roadsters," makes Dr. Townsend say : " One Eye was a foal of Silvertail. She was a bright bay with a ewe neck, and carried her head very high ; was a splendid mare, and at twenty years old would move off with all the vigor of youth. I think her sire was Hamiltonian, but the record will inform you." This last is a quibble, which the poet, Watts, says, "has no place in the search after Truth."
We have interesting and important testimony concerning the maternal line of Hambletonian from several members of the family of Jonas Seely Sr., which at the proper time will be given to the public.
We have also discovered the following advertisement of a stallion kept by Thaddeus Seely in 1808, which certainly was about the time that Silvertail was begotten. And as we know that she was got by a stallion kept by Thad- deus Seely it is quite possible, if not probable, that she was got by this horse :
liv INTRODUCTION
Little Britain at stable of Thaddeus Seely, also in Canterbury and Cornwall, by imp. old Champion : dam by imp. Janus ; grandam imported by Gen. Heard, New Jersey, and got by old True Briton. Dark bay, 7 years old last grass, 15^ hands; remarkably active, good tempered, etc. Bred by Sam Seaman, Long Island, and has been kept by Noah Townsend. Terms $3 to $8. John Woodruff.
A stallion called Young Champion, 7 years old, is also advertised, 1807, in Bethlehem, New Windsor and Newburgh, N. Y., by Ebenezer Seely and John Ketcham.
The article on In-Bree.ding calls attention to its rendering of the dam of Goldsmith Maid, so that the reader is cautioned against accepting it. She is recorded without qualification in the Trotting Register "by Abdallah." Her breeding is absolutely unknown. The worse than folly of giving advice about breeding or anything else, from unknown facts, is so evident that it seems astonishing that there should be any to do it.
The breeding of both Top Gallant and Whalebone are very mythical. Again this article states " Harold is by Rysdyk's Hambletonian, son of Ab- dallah : dam Enchantress, a daughter of Abdallah." There is nothing and there never was anything known to the public about the breeding of Enchantress that is in any way reliable.
A Mr. John Wilson, a lumberman of Ohio, getting out of health, bought a stock farm and came East to buy a stallion of Mr. Rysdyk, priced at $3000. He did not buy this, but bought another got by Cassius M. Clay, and also bought at a livery stable in Brooklyn or Flatbush this mare Enchantress, and as he wanted her for a stock farm, they gave him a pedigree made to order, i. e., exactly the pedigree of Rysdyk's Hambletonian — by Abdallah, dam by Bellfounder. He could hardly have expected them to do better than this. They probably considered it the best there was. Soon after Mr. Wilson advertised this mare in The New York Herald for sale, and sold her to Mr. Dole, Chicago, with the same pedigree that he got from the liverymen.
Mr. Wallace says that another party afterwards looked this matter up and found that the part of the pedigree that Mr. Wallace fancied was correct — although Mr. Wallace states that the name of the man supposed to have bred the dam does not appear upon the books of Abdallah, which is the very best evidence possible that the statement that he bred such a mare is incorrect, — and that the part which he did not was erroneous. If anyone wants to believe this, they can ; we don't believe it. The Mr. Blakely said to have bred this mare had been dead many years before this tracing was attempted. We ourselves traced this mare from Mr. Dole back through the liverymen of Brooklyn, whom we interviewed, to the man of whom they bought her when four. This man was dead, but a near neighbor, a drover, and very intelli- gent horseman, was very positive she was by Fiddler.
So, too, as to Engineer. The suggestion of the advertisement of the horse when he first appeared upon Long Island in the fall of 1816, together with the testimony of individuals who knew him, is that the horse came from
BREEDING lv
Canada to Long Island. It is also said that in some way he was cap- tured from an English officer during the war of 1 812-15. Engineer is described as a very elegant gray horse. Of course he was not got by Messenger. Messenger didn't get that kind. One can guess his way pretty straight in this pedigree hunting. We were satisfied that the dam of Ethan Allen was not got by a Messenger horse and we proved it. We were satisfied that the trim built dam of Hotspur was not got by any Mess- enger horse, whether Abdallah or True John, both of which Mr. Wallace has given as her sire. We have the proof that she was got by Green Mountain Morgan. We were satisfied that the handsome dam of the great ten-mile trotter John Stewart was not by Harris' Hamiltonian, as given by Mr. Wallace. We have the proof that she was, instead, by a son of Black Hawk, and her dam by Black Hawk, son of Sherman Morgan. The evidence of breeding, that like follows like, points very straight in all of these cases to the real blood. The dam of Harold with her Arabian head and dishing face, it is safe to believe, was not by Abdallah. Amazonia we have always thought might have been by a son of Messenger. So, too, the dam of Myron Perry, the breeding of which nobody knows, but which Mr. Wallace gives as by Hopkins' Abdal- lah, might have been by anybody's Abdallah, as she was a coarse, big mare with large ears and slim tail ; but the handsome dam of Sea Foam, that was bought from a livery stable in Boston, where it was said that she came from Maine, and of which nothing else was ever known by her subsequent owners, but which again Mr. Wallace, with a fatuity for error that is most extraordi- nary, says was by Harris' Hamiltonian — could hardly possibly have been so. Ethan Allen, Fearnaught, Happy Medium, Almont, Belmont and Win- throp Morrill were the result of in-breeding ; but Blue Bull, George Wilkes, Daniel Lambert, Electioneer, Strathmore, Governor Sprague, Green's Bashaw, Swigert, Volunteer, Woodford Mambrino, Nutwood, Jay Gould, Sweepstakes Dictator, Godfrey's Patchen, Champion, Hiatoga and Pilot Jr., so far as we* know, were not. A quick glance over the trotters with records of 2 : 20 and bet- ter shows 137 not inbred to 47 that are. — Middlebury Register, Oct. 7, 1887.
COLOR IN HORSES.
MR. L. BRODHEAD does not believe that gray is a strong color, and likely to be reproduced. He contends that an impressive color, like chestnut, bay, black or dun, will lie dormant in a pedigree for several genera- tions and then assert itself. A gray will not do this. In a letter to the Ken- tucky Stock Farm, Mr. Brodhead says :
" My observations, after nearly twenty years' observative study of this subject, is that gray is the weakest of all colors, and least likely to be repro- duced. Gray stallions and gray mares may have gray progeny, but in no other way is the color produced. The sire or dam must be gray. It requires
lvi INTRODUCTION
a direct cross. When the gray is bred out of a pedigree by one cross, after generations will never throw back to the gray ancestor ; that is, if a bay mare has a bay or chestnut foal, none of this foal's produce will be gray. The gray is buried forever by one cross of the bay or chestnut. Pilot Jr., was a gray stallion, and his dam was gray ; but none of his progeny other than the gray ones ever had gray produce. His daughters, Waterwich, Crop, Bruna, Minerva and others were bay mares, but none of their numerous descendants were gray. Tattler and Pilot Mambrino were bay sons of Pilot Jr. I have never heard of any of their get being gray that are not from gray mares. Asteroid's dam, grandam and great grandam were gray. None of his get were gray. Alice Jones and The Gloaming were bay mares, from the same family as Asteroid ; neither of them produced gray foals, and for two gener- ations none of their fillies have produced grays. Sally Sherman and Sea- Breeze were from gray mares, but had no gray produce. The stud book is full of such illustrations. I have never known a single exception to this rule either from personal observation, reading or inquiry of other breeders. If there are exceptions I hope the discussion of the subject will bring them out. I think that chestnut is the compromise color between a bay and a gray ; that is, a pedigree with much gray in it is likely to produce chestnut." — Turf, Field and Farm, 1888.
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS AT PALO ALTO.
THE entire number of thoroughbred mares bred to Electioneer at Palo Alto is thirty-one, and many of these have dropped but one foal to that stallion. The careers of several of the colts were marred by the accidental element, which every prudent breeder takes into consideration, and other foals were either sold undeveloped or bred before they had a chance to obtain records. Senator Leland Stanford has had compiled for us a com- plete list of the mares with their produce by Electioneer up to Dec. 31, 1887, and here it is :
1. Ashland, ch. m. (1867), by Ashland, by Glencoe : dam by Collier, by Young Whip, by Cook's Whip ; 2d dam by Illinois Medoc.
1878, b. f., by Electioneer; dead.
1880, b. f., Easter, by Electioneer, trotted a quarter as a yearling in 40 seconds ; dead.
2. Victress (dam of Monarch, 2 128), by Belmont, son of American Boy.
1878, b. f., Violet, by Electioneer, trotted a quarter in 37 seconds at 4 years old.
3. Sallie Gardner, ch. m. (1873), by Vandal : dam Charlotte Thompson, by imp. Micky Free ; 2d dam Ada Tevis, by imp. Albion.
1879, b. f., Eleanor, by Electioneer. Not promising and worked but little in harness.
BREEDING lvii
4. Lillian, b. m., by Lodi, by imp. Yorkshire : dam by Billy Cheatem ; 2d dam by imp. Glencoe.
1879, br. f., by Electioneer. Was showing well in harness, but ran away as a yearling and not taken up again.
1880, br. c. (gelded), by Electioneer. Handled very little in har- ness.
5. Fleta, gr. m. (i860), by Billy Cheatem: dam Mary O'Neil, by St Louis ; 2d dam by imp. Monarch.
1879, gr. g., by Electioneer. Trotted a quarter in 38 seconds as a two-year-old.
1880, b. c. (gelded), by Electioneer. Trotted a quarter in 45 seconds as a three-year-old ; soid.
6. Annette, ch. m. (i860), by Lexington : dam by Gray Eagle; 2d dam Mary Morris, by Medoc.
1880, b. c, Ansel, by Electioneer. Record 2 : 20 at 7 years old.
7. Waxey, an unrecorded mare by a horse called Lexington, but known as the dam of Alpha. The owner of Waxey died in taking her across the Plains, and the pedigree thus was lost.
1880, b. f., Wave, by Electioneer. As a three-year-old trotted a mile in 2 127 ; quarter in 35 seconds.
8. Rivulet, blk. m. (1873), by Rivoli, by Revenue : dam Bosio, by imp. Eclipse ; 2d dam Young Gipsey, by imp. Mercer ; 3d dam Gipsey, by American Eclipse.
1880, br. f., Rachel, by Electioneer. Handled only as a yearling and no speed.
1 88 1, b. c. (gelded), by Electioneer. Handled little as a yearling and sold.
9. Miss Campbell, ch. m. (1870), by Endorser (he by Wagner, out of Fannie G., by imp. Margrave) : dam Cynthia Sue, by Joe Stoner ; 2d dam Sue Washington, by Revenue.
1880, b. c. (gelded), by Electioneer. Broken and turned out until sold.
1881, b. c. (gelded), by Electioneer. Broken and ran out until sold.
10. Lizzie Whips, br. m. (1874), by Enquirer : dam Grand Dutch S., by Vandal ; 2d dam by imp. Margrave.
1880, b. c, Whips, by Electioneer, 2:27^; trial 2 124 at 7 years old.
11. Hattie Hawthorne, br. m. (1875), by Enquirer (he by Leamington, from Lida, by Lexington) : dam Little Girl, by Endorser; 2d dam Fanny Holton, by Lexington.
1880, blk. c, by Electioneer (gelded) ; not very promising and did not handle.
Iviii INTRODUCTION
12. Florence Anderson, br. m., (1874), by Enquirer : dam Sally Ander- son, by imp. Glencoe ; 2d dam Chloe Anderson, by Rodolph.
1880, b. f., Florence, by Electioneer. Only handled as a yearling and sold.
13. Miss Peyton, b. m. (1876), by imp. Glengarry, son of Thormanby: dam Romping Girl, by Jack Malone ; 2d dam Fanny McAllister, by O'Meara.
1 88 1, b. c, Peyton, by Electioneer (gelded) ; trotted trial of 2 126 at 3 years old and sold.
1883, b. c, by Electioneer. Trotted at 4 years old, trial, 2:28; quarter 35 seconds.
1884, b. c, Pepin, by Electioneer. Sold and died in castration.
14. Esther, b. m. (1877), by Express, he by Endorser, from Nantura : dam by Colossus ; 2d dam by Vandal ; 3d dam by imp. Margrave.
1881, b. f., Extra, by Electioneer; trotted a 2 140 gait as a yearling. Now a brood mare.
1882, b. c, Express, by Electioneer (gelded) ; trotted as a five- year-old in 2 124. Now in training.
15. Fanny Lewis, ch. m. (1876), by imp. Buckden : dam Olmore, by Bay Dick; 2d dam Mary Farris, by Oliver.
1 88 1, b. f., Laura C, by Electioneer. Trotted a 2 140 gait as a yearling. Now a brood mare.
16. Dixie, ch. m. (1864), by Billy Townes : dam by Sir Charles.
1 88 1, b. c, by Electioneer (gelded) ; trotted mile in double har- ness in three minutes.
1882, b. f., Delia, by Electioneer. Not handled at all for speed. Bred.
17. Tippera, b. m. (1874), by Tipperary, he by Ringgold, by Boston: dam, Vic, by Austerlitz ; 2d dam Mark K., by Oliver.
1882, b. f., Thalia, by Electioneer. Handled very little and bred
18. Piney Lewis, b. m. (1873), by Longfellow, he by Leamington, from Nantura, by Brawner's Eclipse : dam Lew Lewis, by Endorser ; 2d dam Sue Lewis (sister of Asteroid), by Lexington.
1882, b. f., Piney by Electioneer. Worked little as a yearling and bred to Piedmont.
1883, b. c, by Electioneer. Died at weaning time.
19. Mamie C, b. m. (1872), by imp. Hercules : dam by Langford; 2d dam Fanny Fowler, by Uncle Fowler.
1882, b. c, Amoor, by Electioneer; 2:30^; trial 2:21. In training.
1883, b. f., Madaline, by Electioneer. Trotted a quarter in 36 seconds. In training.
1885, b. c, Monteith, by Electioneer. Trotted as two-year-old, mile in 2 133 ; quarter, 35 seconds. In training.
BREEDING lix
f
1886, b. c, by Electioneer. Not yet worked for speed.
1887, b. c, by Electioneer.
20. Mollie Shelton, b. m. (1872), by George Treat, he by Rifleman, by Glencoe : dam Eva Bascom, by Lodi ; 2d dam Ariadne, by Belmont, son of American Boy.
1882, br. f., Miss Shelton, by Electioneer. Dead; did not show- much speed.
21. Frolic, gr. m. (187 1), by Thunder : dam imp. Siskin; 2d dam Little Finch, by Hornsea.
1882, gr. c, by Electioneer; gelded; trotted at four years old quarter in 34 seconds.
22. Emma Robson, b. m. (1872), by Woodburn, he by Lexington: dam Lady Bell, by Bellmont, son of American Boy ; 2d dam by American Eclipse.
1882, b. c, by Electioneer; gelded; trotted quarter in 34 seconds.
In training. 1887, b. f., by Electioneer.
23. Eliaz Dolph, b. m. (1877), by Wildidle, he by Australia, from Idlewild, by Lexington : dam Mamie C, by Hercules ; 2d dam by Langford.
1882, b. f., Eloise, by Electioneer. Trotted quarter in 36 seconds. In training.
1883, b. f., Edina, by Electioneer. Trotted quarter in 35 seconds. In training. ,
24. Dame Winnie, ch. m. (1871), by Planet, he by Revenue (son of imp. Trustee), from Nina, by Boston: dam Liz. Mardis, by imp. Glencoe; 2d dam Fanny G., by imp. Margrave.
1882, b. c, Palo Alto, by Electioneer. Four-year record in 2 120^.
1883, b. f., Gertrude Russell, by Electioneer. Trial at 4 years, 2:21.
1886, b. f., Winnie S., by Electioneer. Not yet worked for speed.
1887, b. c, by Electioneer.
25. Blarney, br. m. (1873), by Blarney Stone: dam Geneva, by Lex- ington ; 2d dam by Glencoe.
1882, b. g., by Electioneer. Trotted trial as five-year-old in 2 = 24*4 •
26. Cuba, ch. m. (1874), by imp. Australian: dam Bettie Ward, by Lexington; 2d dam Mary Cass, by Whalebone.
1883, b. c, by Electioneer; gelded; trotted quarter at four years in 35 seconds. In training.
27. Camilla Urso, b. m. (1870), by Lodi : dam Annette, by Lexington; 2d dam by Gray Eagle ; 3d dam Mary Morris, by Medoc.
1882, br. f., by Electioneer; dead.
1883, br. f., Clariurso, by Electioneer. Trotted quarter in 36 sec- onds at 4 years old, then bred.
1885, br. f. by Electioneer; not worked; running out; had dis- temper and scarred up.
lx INTRODUCTION
28. Texana, ch. m. (1864), by Foreigner, son of Glencoe : dam Mary Woods, by imp. Yorkshire ; 2d dam Margaret Wood, by imp. Priam.
1886, b. c, by Electioneer. Died when a few days old.
1887, b. c, by Electioneer.
29. Miss Gift, br. m. (1880), by Wildidle : dam Gate Gift, by Lodi ; 2d dam Ruby, by Winnebago.
1886, b. c, Lord Gift, by Electioneer; not yet worked for speed.
30. Lady Amanda, b. m. (1871), by imp. Hurrah: dam Lady Lancas- ter, by Monarch ; 2d dam Lady Cannon, by Tranby.
1887, b. f., by Electioneer.
31. Helpmate, b. m. (1873), by Planet: dam Full Cry, by Vandal; 2d dam Springbrook, by Lexington.
1887, b. c, by Electioneer.
The 31 mares had produced up to Dec. 31 just 55 foals to Electioneer, 6 of which are dead and 9 of which were sold. The age classification is : Yearlings, 7 ; two-year-olds, 4 ; three-year-olds, 2 ; four-year-olds, 2 ; five- year-olds, 8; six-year-olds, n; seven-year-olds, 6; eight-year-olds, 10; nine- year-olds, 3 ; ten-year-olds, 2. But subtracting the 6 dead and 9 sold from the 55, we find that the entire number of foals at Palo Alto, by Electioneer, from thoroughbred mares, is 40. The 7 yearlings and 3 two-year-olds alive make 10 undeveloped foals, which will reduce the number owned at Palo Alto, and of sufficient age to be tried to harness, to 30. Of the number partially or fully tested in harness, 1 three-year-old trotted as a two-year-old in 2 :33 ; 1 four-year-old has shown a 2 :20, and another a 2 :24 gait; 1 five-year-old has trotted in 2 :2i, another in 2 :28; 1 has shown a 2 :20, 2 a 2 :24 and 1 a 2 132 gait; 1 six-year-old has a four-year record of 2 120^ ; 1 has trotted in 2 :2i, and 1 in 2 :24^ ; 2 have shown a 2 :20 gait and 1 a 2 =56 gait; 1 of the seven-year-olds trotted as a three-year-old in 2 -.26, and 3 of them showed in yearling form a 2 :4o gait; 1 of the eight-year-olds has a record of 2 :20, another a record of 2:27^ and another a trial of 2 127 in three-year-old form ; 1 of the nine-year-olds trotted a 2 132 gait as a two-year-old, and the only living ten-year-old trotted a 2:28 gait as a four-year-old. Of the 30, 18 have shown the ability to trot in 2 130 or better. Where is the establishment which is using exclusively what are called trotting strains that is not satisfied with 60 per cent of performers? Senator Stanford has demonstrated with Electioneer at Palo Alto that thoroughbred mares, possessed of good heads and having the right form can be mated with a harness stallion, potent in the control of action, with almost uniform success. The showing which he makes is wonderful and it will astonish the country. The nearer the trotter approaches the form of the substantial thoroughbred horse the greater is the reliance you put in him when heats are divided. The aim of the intelligent breeder is to produce not only a high rate of speed, but the ability to carry the speed. He wants lung capacity and nerve energy joined to action. The best of the fillies by Electioneer, from thoroughbred mares, have been
BREEDING lxi
retained at Palo Alto for the stud. They have been and will be bred to other trotting stallions in the full confidence that the produce will trot. While the Senator has proved that thoroughbred blood can be made available in harness in the first generation, it is preferable for general track work to have two trotting crosses on top of it, such as we find in Maud S. and Jay- Eye-See. Midnight, the gray mare by Pilot Jr., dam Twilight, thoroughbred daughter of Lexington, died at Palo Alto, and her only representative there is Electricity, by Electioneer. He is now four years old and in training. As a two-year-old he trotted a quarter in 35 seconds. Midnight produced Jay- Eye-See, 2:10, and Noontide, 2:20^. Avery successful brood mare at Palo Alto is Columbine, by A. W. Richmond (he by Blackbird, from a mare by Thoroughbred Rattler) : dam Columbia, by Imported Bonnie Scotland ; second dam Young Fashion, by imported Monarch, and third dam Fashion, by imported Trustee. She has already thrown two tried performers to Elec- tioneer : Antso, 2:16^, and Antevolo, 2:19^. Both of these have gone fast, but competent critics are of the opinion that their records would have been lowered had they been properly developed in harness. The stride of each was shortened by the use of tips. The breeders of America are largely indebted to Senator Stanford. He went to heavy expense to discover the philosophy and truth of motion, and in the face of sneer and hostile criti- cism he has calmly carried on his experiments with thoroughbreds and trot- ters. His labors have been crowned with success, and all interested in prob- lems of motion and breeding have been and will continue to be benefitted by his dearly acquired knowledge. — Turf, Field and Farm, 1888.
BREEDING TROTTERS.
THE subject of breeding fast trotters has taken deep root in the minds of many Northern farmers. It is surprising to note the large number that are interested in this subject. It is astonishing to note how rapidly the . interest is spreading. It is remarkably gratifying to see how closely those interested are studying the problem of producing first-class trotting and road stock. Men of all grades, and in all stations of life, are giving it their atten- tion. Business and professional men are entering upon the pursuit for relax- ation and pleasure. Farmers of limited means are engaged in it, hoping to get better returns for capital and labor than have been afforded of late years from neat stock or sheep. Fashionably bred stock horses are increasing in all sections of the North with alarming rapidity.
The most pressing want today is first-class brood mares. Fashionably bred mares were never in so good demand. Prices for same were never higher, and are still advancing. This is somewhat disheartening to breeders of small capital who are just entering upon the business. There are plenty of mares throughout the country, however, which possess the necessary
Ixii INTRODUCTION
qualities of first-class speed-producers that can be bought cheap. They may not be so fashionably bred as some, but they have just the nerve and courage required to insure speed in their offspring, provided they are mated with the right kind of stallions. Expert horsemen can pick them out almost at a glance. There are others well-bred which have met with accidents that ren- der them of little value for track or road purposes, which can be bought at a moderate figure.
It is and should be the aim of every breeder to use young, sound, unblemished animals. If a breeder lacks means to obtain such, he must use his brains and take his chances. As a rule it is best to discard animals suf- fering from all forms of hereditary unsoundness. There are some unsound animals, however, which possess qualities so valuable that they are likely to prove more successful than some of the higher-priced sound ones. Many of the most celebrated trotters and most successful sires in the past have been the product of just such mares. The Charles Kent Mare, dam of Hamble- tonian, was one of this class. It is stated by H. T. Helm, in his " American Roadsters and Trotting Horses," that in 1844 Jonas Seely purchased this mare with a foal at foot for $135 the two. The mare was very lame at that time. Five years later Mr. Seely sold the mare with a colt foal at foot, receiv- ing $125 for both. The colt was none other than Hambletonian
In 1865 a blind mare by Mambrino Chief was offered for sale at auction at Lexington, Ky., among a lot of other undesirable stock then owned by the proprietor of Woodburn Farm. When this mare was brought out it was impossible to get a single bid for her. She was offered for $100, but no one wanted her. The auctioneer finally decided to take her at that figure, and did so. After keeping her for a few weeks he sold her for $125. She had been bred to Alexander's Norman, and the next spring dropped a colt which became when three years old famous by beating all previous three-year-old trotting records, and scoring a mark of 2 :3i under the name of Blackwood. At that time he was owned jointly by two men, one of whom paid the other $12,500 for his interest, then sold the colt to Harrison Durkee, Esq., for $30,000, if report is correct. He is the sire of several fast trotters, including Proteline (2 :i8), and Blackwood Jr. (2 :22*4).
Somewhere along in the forties, one of a pair of bay mares, which were being driven on the road in a new section of country somewhere in New York State, stepped upon a small, sharp stump, which penetrated her foot and made her a cripple for life. In 1851 this cripple was bred to Hamble- tonian, then a two-year-old colt, and in 1852 dropped a foal now known as Alexander's Abdallah, and shown by the records to have been the most pre- potent son of his sire.
In 1857, Mr. Jonathan Hawkins of Orange County, N. Y., bred a fourteen-hand, spavined, black mare called Clara to Hambletonian. The produce was Dexter, king of trotters in his day, and the first to get a record of 2:17^ to harness. Five years later the same mare produced another colt
BREEDING lxiii
by Hambletonian, which is now known as Dictator, and distinguished as the sire of the wonderful trotters, Jay- Eye-See (2 :io), Phallas (2 :i3^), and Director (2:17). If we are correctly informed, Clara, before producing these foals, was sold for about $13.
The dam of the trotter Jack was so small that she was thought to be of no value for brood purposes, and was sold for about $60. Jack won more money last season than any other trotter on the turf. A few years since Mr. C. W. Williams bought a resolute, nervy mare of the Messrs. Stout of Dubuque, la., at a nominal figure. She was by Mambrino Boy, (2 126^), a son of Mambrino Patchen. If we are correctly informed, he bought two at the same time, paying only about $250 for them. Four years ago he took them to the farm of George Wilkes Simmons, Lexington, Ky., where he mated the one with a short pedigree on her dam's side with William L., and the other, which was much more fashionably bred, with Jay Bird. The produce of the former was the wonderful three-year-old trotting stallion Axtell, with a three-year-old record two and one-half seconds faster than any other trotter yet brought to light. The produce of the other mare was the stallion Allerton, which has won several good races this year, getting a record of 2 123.
The dam of Ethan Allen was spavined and well advanced in years when she brought this distinguished son of Black Hawk. Had it not been for a large puff on one hock of Lady Patriot, Volunteer would probably never have existed. This puff, which became a running sore, was, according to Helm, the cause for breeding at three years of age instead of breaking her.
The above facts show that there is a chance for breeders of limited means who are not able to pay fancy prices for choice brood mares. By selecting wiry, nervy mares of great courage and endurance, noted for excel- lent road qualities, and mating them with properly gaited trotting stallions, the produce will be pretty sure to prove valuable to all, even more so in many cases than the produce of more fashionably bred ones, which, though they possess excellent pedigrees, are themselves lacking in those essential qualities which constitute a superior animal. Of course it is always advisable to get the fashionably bred ones when the means of the purchaser will allow. It is not a wise policy to pay a high price for pedigree alone, however. Individual merit should always be kept in view. — American Cultivator, i88g.
SOME TENNESSEE PEDIGREES.
MR. F. G. BUFORD sends me the following compact and interesting contribution, which will straighten out several kinks in Tennessee pacing pedigrees, and can be depended upon as authority :
Buford, Tenn., Feb. 15, 1890. Dear Sir : — In reading over your list of 2 130 trotters and pacers under their sires, I notice several errors, also some places where I can assist you in
kiv INTRODUCTION
extending pedigree. Bay Tom, 2 •.25'%., by Bledso's Hal, dam by Knight's Snow Heels, sire of dam of Hal Pointer, 2 :i3. Bay Tom, 2 123^, is sire of Fred Neil, b. g., 2 =24^, and Bay Tom Jr. (p.), 2 :3c Lee H., 2 -.25 J^", and Major P., 2 -.30, belong to a different Bay Tom, whose breeding I will look up for you. Bay Tom Jr., 2 130, is sire of Duplex, 2 :i7^ (P-)> and Johnnie Woods, 2 :23^ (p-)- I am not sure OI Johnnie Woods' mark.
Blue Jay is not by the Ben Lomond you give him by, but is by a horse here called Ben Lomond Jr., by Ben Lomond, who, I think, was owned near Nashville, Tenn., by Talbert Fanning, and was probably by Vermont Boy, son of Pike's Morgan, by Gifford Morgan. This Ben Lomond Jr. was also the sire of Johnny A., 2 123^ : dam by Tom Hal. Most any of the horsemen about Nashville could probably give you the breeding of Ben Lomond.
You have Doctor M., 2 124 %, by Black Prince, by the Brooks Horse, dam by Brown Hal. In the first place, the horse you call the Brooks Horse has never been known here, where he was foaled and where he died, under any name except Brooks, or sometimes Tom Brooks. He should be recorded simply as Brooks. In the second place, there is no Black Prince by Brooks, and thirdly, Brown Hal has no daughter old enough to be the dam of Doctor M. I have some idea of the identity of this horse, Doctor M., and think he is by Black Prince, a horse of unknown breeding.
Little Tommie does not belong to Blackwood Jr., but was formerly known here as Jake, and is full brother to Minnie D., 2 125 (pacer), by Bed- ford Forest, dam standard, by Brown Pilot, sire of Brooks.
Bonesetter, by Brooks, etc.
Rattler Brooks, 2 :23j£, is not by Brooks, but by Earnhart's Brooks, whose breeding I hope to be able to give in definite form soon. I don't know anything about Queen of the West, 2 ".28^, but very much doubt her being by Brooks.
The dam of Architect, 2 123^, cannot be by Brown Hal.
Clipper should be recorded as Clipper Brooks, by Brooks, etc., as there are a great many Clippers here. Black Hal's dam is certainly unknown.
I send you also the following Tennessee pedigrees that may be of interest to you :
Gen. Hardee, by George Washington, by Taylor's Henry Hal, by Kit- trell's Hal ; Hardee's dam by Traveler, sire of Joe Bowers Jr., 2 =32, and grandsire of Joe Bowers Jr., 2:18, and Sam Jones, 2:18^. Gen. Hardee has the following in the 2 130 list: Thunder, ch. g. (pacer), 2 :22^; Steel Nail (pacer), 2:25, dam by Pat Malone ; George Gordon, ch. h. (pacer), 2 127, dam by son of Traveler; Blue George, rn. h. (pacer), 2 129, dam by Rainbow ; Hardee, rn. g., 2 :30.
George Gordon, 2:27, sire of Nettle McKimmin, b. h. (sometimes called Nettle Keeman, Kernan, etc.), dam by Blue John; second dam Dove, by Mogul; also sire of Rockdale, b. h., 2 129, dam Dove, by Mogul.
Rockdale, 2 129, sire of Rockbottom, b. h., 2 126.
Nellie O., (p.), 2 123^, by Henry Mambrino, dam by Brooks, sire of Bonesetter.
Headlight, 2 '.24^, by Warrior Jr., dam by Gibson's Tom Hal.
Black Henry, 2 127 ( ?) ; breeding certainly not as usually given, and is unknown.
Joe Braden, 2 : 15, by Gopher, dam by Puryear's Traveler, son of Stump- The-Dealer. Yours truly, F. G. Buford. — Turf, Field and Farm, i8go.
BREEDING lxv
SENATOR STANFORD ON HORSE BREEDING.
SENATOR STANFORD of California was sitting in the lobby of the Wind- sor Hotel one day last week talking to a representative of the New York Times on the subject of horses. He was enthusiastic, as he always is when talking horse, and he was telling of his successes, both with trotters and run- ners. The wonderful filly Sunol had been a disappointment to him as a three- year-old, but he had hopes that she would come around all right again, now that she had been taken back to California. The Senator is a thorough believer in the "glorious climate of California" as a producer of horses as well as men and vegetables.
He was also interested in the welfare of that fast sprinter Racine, the first horse to break the long standing mile record of the famous Ten Broeck, •and in the career of the beautiful and high-class Gorgo. Both of these horses are the property of Senator Stanford, although they have been trained in the stables and run in the colors of other men.
"Did you ever hear how I became interested in horses?" suddenly asked the Senator. "No ? Well, I'll tell you. It was several years ago, and I had been working very hard, so hard in fact, that my physician said that unless I took a rest I would break down altogether. My business interests were so great and so pressing at that time that I could not think of following this advice. I told my physician that a rest from business was impossible, and that he must prescribe something else. He thought awhile, and then said the next best thing was to occupy my mind in some other way, and to obtain the relief and rest to be found in diversion. He suggested driving. I had at this time one pretty good horse, a roadster, and I followed his advice. I quickly "became so interested in the animal I possessed that I bought another and a "better horse. I drove these and watched them carefully. I soon found my- self trying to develop them into something better than they were, and I suc- ceeded so well that I bought others and developed them. Almost before I realized it I had got together a fair stable and was deeply interested in the development of the horse. It was but a quick and natural step to breeding, and I made it with enthusiasm.
" In the old days, when we washed gold in the mines, there was a certain sort of dust that could not be separated from the sand except with the use of a magnet. We used to put the magnet in the dirt, and the iron would stick to it. In my leisure moments from mining I was wont to amuse myself by •experiments with my magnet. It was the- common horse-shoe kind, and I would dip into a heap of iron tacks and keep adding to its burden until the limit of its strength was reached. Then I would strip away the tacks and load the magnet again. I repeated this again and again until I found that the power of the magnet was seriously impaired. I succeeded in reducing that power to one-third of what it was originally, and I think that I could have destroyed it altogether by simply overtaxing it, although I never experi-
lxvi INTRODUCTION
mented that far. When I became interested in the development of the horse, I recalled those idle moments with the magnet, and I reasoned that the power of a horse could be destroyed just as readily by overtaxing as that of the magnet. At that time it was the custom in training horses to tax their endurance to the utmost. They were given miles of jogging and were worked until they were exhausted. This seemed to be all wrong. It was just what I had done with my old magnet, and I was convinced that it left the horse with impaired strength and endurance each time it was done. The more I thought about the matter the more I became convinced that the proper way to develop the horse was to keep every effort demanded of him well within his powers. He should not be worked until he was exhausted, but he should be trained to make one supreme effort when his powers were at their best.
I applied this theory, and I have not only had remarkable success my- self, but I have lived to see the whole system of training trotting horses revolutionized. There was a time when a trotter was supposed to be immature until he was nine or ten years old. Now we have three and four-year-olds trotting close down to record time, and even yearlings are trained. Personally, I am not a little proud of holding the two, three and four-year-old records, and I attribute that success entirely to the system of training suggested to me by the mining magnet and inaugurated by me as a relief from business cares.
From developing the horse by training it was but another step to devel- oping him by breeding, and my interest in the horse and my love for him be- came so great that I was impelled to add breeding to training. Now, I had seen that a horse possessed a power analogous to that of the magnet. I reasoned that this was an unintelligent though active force.
Any kind of a horse will trot until he is urged to a point beyond his trotting powers and then he will break into a gallop. This is true of anything from a Percheron to a thoroughbred. I conclude that if I could develop in the horse the intelligence necessary to make him trot instead of run, I had the problem solved. This had to be done by breeding as well as training, and so I undertook the task.
I bred the thoroughbred mares to standard-bred trotters that I might get the speed and gameness of the one and the coolness and endurance of the other, and then I bred again with a view to developing the trot as a natural gait. I am satisfied with the progress I have made so far, and I am convinced that eventually horses will be bred so that they will prefer trotting to running, and that their greatest speed will be brought out in trotting. In other words, the horse will be so bred that the trot will be his natural gait and consequently the easiest for him." — Middlebury Register, Nov. 14, i8go.
HOW THE TROTTER SHOULD BE BRED AND REARED.
I
Spring Station, Ky. T would take a very long article to give you a full and detailed history of Woodburn Farm, as asked for in your list of questions.
BREEDING lxvii
In the thoroughbred department, R. A. Alexander issued the first Wood- burn catalogue in 1857, Lexington, and imported Scythian being the stallions with 43 mares in the stud. Most all of the animals were purchased in the year 1856. The stallions in use since were Ruric, Ringgold, Imported Aus- tralian, Asteroid, Planet, imported Glen Athol, King Alfonso, Lisbon, Pat Molloy, Falsetto and Powhattan. A history of the race horses raised on the farm would cover the history of the turf for the past 34 years. As regards the treatment of thoroughbreds, every mare has a box stall at night during the winter. The yearlings have lots to themselves, and are put up at night and out of storms. They are allowed all the exercise and fresh air possible. They are sold when one year old at public auction to the highest bidder.
As regards the trotting department, it is almost contemporaneous with the thoroughbred. Edwin Forrest was bought in 1856, and Pilot Jr. in 1857. The first catalogue was issued in i860, with Norman included in the list of stallions and 23 brood mares. The stallions were selected with the idea that they had predisposition to trot, were related to trotters of their day, and had gotten speed commensurate with their opportunities.
In the selection of mares, those that had produced speed were early made prominent ; in fact, producing dams has been the keynote of Wood- burn success, both in thoroughbreds and in trotters. In these early days, in the first catalogue, No. 1, is Madam Temple, the dam of the renowned trot- ter Flora Temple. No. 2 is old Black Rose, the foundation of a great fam- ily. No. 3 is Gray Bacchante, who is celebrated at that time in a catalogue note as being the dam " of a gray colt by Mambrino Chief that won the stake mile heats at Lexington for two years old in 3 113, distancing his com- petitors." We were proud of speed-producers then as now, and emphasized it. Minerva, dam of Meander, Nugget and Egmont, traces to this mare. No. 4 was Gray Goose, in great brood mare list now. No. 5 was Croppy, the dam of John Morgan, 2 124, the fastest of Pilot Jr.'s get. Madam Dudley and Santa Maria were in the same catalogue. None of these animals had much breeding according to our present list, but they were producers of speed.
The next catalogue of 186 1 notes a growth in knowing by the addition of Pilot Jr., Mambrino Chief and thoroughbred mares.
The 1864 catalogue makes long strides in the right road to two-minute trotters. Alexander's Abdallah is added to the list of stallions, and Hamble- tonian blood was introduced at Woodburn. The foundation was laid to the pedigrees that have produced our two fastest trotters, by the transferring of Sally Russell, grandam of Maud S., 2 :o8^, and Twilight, grandam of Jay- Eye-See, 2 :io, from the thoroughbred to the trotting department. A num- ber of Mambrino Chief mares have been found in this catalogue who have since become celebrated, notably, Belle, the dam of Belmont ; Sally Ander- son, the dam of Almont ; Indiana, the dam of Indianapolis, and others too numerous to mention.
About this time the breeding of trotting horses began to assume some
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definite shape. Hambletonian, Mambrino Chief and Pilot Jr. began to be recognized as standing out prominently and indisputably superior to their competitors; and these strains were selected by Woodburn as best adapted to combine with the thoroughbred and build trotting pedigrees with. As time has passed a system of elimination has been followed, and we have endeavored to keep abreast of the times by introducing new blood from time to time of the strains we think best suited to cross with the families we have founded.
Harold was bought when a yearling. It was thought the blood of Ham- bletonian would be intensified by this inbreeding. Norman and Edwin For- rest were sold, and Harold, Belmont and Woodford Mambrino were the stallions used for a number of years. Bayard, Tattler, Wedgewood, Roscoe and other young horses were used to a limited extent before being sold. Woodford Mambrino was sold to go on the turf, where he proved himself a game, fast racehorse, though about 14 years old when sold. His blood will be found to be of the training and breeding on sort. He improved a little every year of his life. The story of Woodburn during these latter years is well known. Our present catalogue will indicate our failure or success in building pedigrees, and statistics would be out of place here.
For some years previous to 1886 I had noted the wonderful growth of Electioneer as a sire of precocious and extreme speed, and determined to secure a stallion by him as an outcross for our own mares and the great Wilkes family. Through the kindness of Gov. Stanford I was permitted to breed Lady Russell to him in 1886, and the next year sent out to California Miss Russell, Nutula (sister to Nutwood), Bicara (dam of Pancoast), and Russia (another sister to Maud S.). I kept these mares in California two years, and out of the eleven chances I had ten foals by Electioneer — six fil- lies and four stallions. One of the latter, a beautiful bay colt