Road, track, and stable

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Ethics of Horse-Keeping .... l

II. Trotting Families 23

II. Teotting Families

THE American trotting horse is derived from these sources : — The English thoroughbred.^ The Norfolk trotter.

The Arab and Barb.

Certain pacers of mixed breeding.

And just as the best running horses now extant in

1 A thoroughbred is one all of whose ancestors, back to the eighteenth century, are recorded either in the English or in the American Stud Book for running horses. The American work is a continuation for this country of the English. The first volume of the English Stud Book was issued in 1808, and an annual volume of each book is published.

A thoroughbred is, therefore, a horse of pure running stock. The orio-in of this stock, which is chiefly Oriental, will be found stated briefly at page 118.

England are descended from three or four animals foaled in the eighteenth century, and bred chiefly from Arab importations, so the American trotter of to-day can usually be referred to one or more of the following ancestors : Messenger, True Briton, and Diomed, thoroughbreds ; Bellfounder, a Norfolk trotter ; Grand Bashaw, a Barb ; Pilot, a Canadian pacer ; and Blue Bull, a pacer from the State of Ohio.

Of these horses Messenger has played the greatest part. He was a gray, foaled at Newmarket in England in the year 1780, and imported to this country in 1788. For a thoroughbred, he was a plain, almost coarse animal, with a big, bony head, low withers, upright shoulders, and a rather short, straight neck. But his shoulders were deep and strong, his loins and quarters very powerful, his legs flat and clean. He had big knees, big hocks ; and his windpipe and nostrils were described by a contemporary writer as being " nearly twice as large as ordinary." He stood 15| hands high, and, " whether at rest or in motion, his legs were always in a perfect position." The low withers, the upright shoulders, the plain head, Messenger inherited from Sampson, his great-grandsire,^ a black horse ; and these peculiarities, as well as the black color, were so extraordinary in a horse of Oriental breeding, that suspicions have been entertained as to Sampson's pedigree, and some writers have asserted that his dam was a Lincolnshire cart mare. But the best authorities do not appear to share these painful doubts, and Sampson may safely be regarded as a true thoroughbred, close to the

1 Messenger was by Mambrino, by Engineer, by Sampson, by- Blaze, by Flying Childers, by the Parley Arabian. Messenger's dam was by Turf, by Matchem, by Cade, by the Godolphin Arabian.

Arab foundation. At all events, he was superlatively excellent both as a race horse and as a sire, and Messenger inherited most of his good qualities, but not his extreme speed. Messenger, though running bred, was a natural trotter, — the more so, perhaps, on account of his somewhat straight shoulders and low withers. It is true indeed that certain of our very fastest trotters, notably Axtell and Palo Alto, have sloping shoulders and fairly high withers ; but the Messenger or Sampson conformation is that of the typical trotter. Maud S.,^ Sunol,^ and Nancy Hanks ^ are built thus.

Messenger was an animal of great soundness and vigor. One who saw him taken off the ship was accustomed to relate that three other horses, his companions on the long voyage, " had become so reduced and weak that they had to be helped and supported down the gang-plank ; but when it became Messenger's turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, rushed down, with a negro on each side holding him back, and dashed up the street at a stiff trot, carrying the grooms along in spite of all their efforts to bring him to a standstill." "When Messenger charged down the gang-plank," Hiram Woodruff declared, " the value of not less than one hundred million dollars struck our soil."

Messenger died of colic, at Oyster Bay on Long Island, in January, 1808, being then twenty-eight years of age, and having attained such a height of equine reputation that he was buried with military honors, and a charge of musketry was fired over his grave.

1 Her record is 2.08f .

2 Her record is 2.08^ on a kite-shaped track. 2 See page 87.

Nearly fifty years later, in ISTovember, 1854, an old bay horse called Abdallah was turned out on the sands of this 3ame Long Island, and abandoned to die of cold and starvation. He had been sold for thirty-five dollars to a fisherman, who attempted to put him in harness. But Abdallah had never been broken to harness, and being of a vicious temper he kicked the fish-wagon to pieces, and thereupon the fisherman cruelly cast him adrift. Abdallah was a grandson of Messenger,^ and, so far as we know, the best of his descendants in that generation. He was an ugly, rat-tailed horse, but big, strong, tough, and a fast trotter. Unlike the Messenger stock in general, he had fine sloping shoulders. Abdallah was the sire of Rysdyck's Hambletonian,^ who founded the noted trotting family called the Hambletonians.^

The dam of Rysdyck's Hambletonian, known to fame as the Charles Kent mare, was of a lineage entirely different, for her sire was Bellfounder, a Norfolk trotter. Bellfounder was imported in 1822 by Mr. James Boott, a rich merchant of Boston, Massachusetts, who paid seven hundred pounds sterling for

1 Abdallah Avas sired by Mambrino. Mambrino was by Messenger, out of a mare by imported Sour-Crout. Abdallah's dam was said to be by another son of Messenger.

'^ The sire of his grandam was called Bishop's " Hamiltonian," after Alexander Hamilton. The name was however corrupted to "Hambletonian," which was also the name of an English race horse bred in Hambleton, a district of Yorkshire.

3 Of the twenty trotting stallions who stand highest on the list, judging by the records of their sons and daughters, all but two are descended from Tlysdyck's Hambletonian, either on the paternal or maternal side ; and of those two one is also a descendant of Messenger (in a different line), and the breeding of the other is unknown on the dam's side.

him. He was a handsome round-built bay horse with black poiuts, and he is said to have trotted in England nine miles in twenty-nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds, and two miles in six minutes. Bellfounder was of the same blood from which the modern hackney is derived, and of much the same origin as that famous Marshland Shales whose name is preserved in the works of George Borrow. An old advertising card was discovered some years ago, in which it is stated that Bellfounder's dam was Velocity. In 1806 Velocity was matched to trot sixteen miles within an hour on the Norwich road, and although she broke into a gallop fifteen times, '' and as often turned round ^' (that being the penalty), she won the match.

Bellfounder was described as " plump in form and muscular ni all his parts," and as having "a fine, slashing gait." He contributed to the Hambletonian family that mildness of temper for which, unlike the earlier Messengers, they have always been distinguished.

Eysdyck's Hambletonian was an animal of extraordinary appearance, looking very much as a locomotive might look if it were turned into a horse witli no more changes than were necessary to effect the transformation. He had a long, round body, like the boiler of an engine, of almost the same girth throughout. His neck was short and straight, and he had a big, ugly head, surmounted by ears which, though large and coarse, were a little too well shaped to be positively ill-bred. His expression was good, phlegmatic but amiable, and full of character. He stood very firm and solid, on feet perfect in shape and texture ; and his legs were flat, clean, heavily muscled, and free from gumminess or swelling even in his old age. It is hardly necessary to add that his tail was set low and carried low, for there was nothing ornamental about Bysdyck's Hambletonian. His hind quarters were very powerful, and he had great length from hip to hock. The rump was rather round than sloping. Altogether he presented the appearance of a serviceable, practical beast, lit, when well warmed up, to trot for a man's life, as the phrase is, but neither beautiful nor lively. In color he took after the Bellfounder strain, being a rich, deep bay with black points, and this color was transmitted to his descendants with singular uniformity.^

The Hambletonians, indeed, have a marked family resemblance. They are almost always big bay horses, with large ears, drooping tails, a long, wide gait, and a sleepy disposition. Thus it appears that they are ill adapted for roadster purposes, whether in form, in action, or in character ; and the predominance of the family is, on the whole, to be regretted. It has increased the speed, but lessened the beauty and dulled the spirit of our average harness horse. Hambletonian himself had no record, but he was undoubtedly fast. His chief points of excellence were his long trotting gait, his muscular development, the fine quality of his bones and sinews. It is estimated that he sired about 1,340 foals, and of these only forty made records of 2.30 or better. Hambletonian's reputation is

1 The following measurements of Hambletonian may interest certain of my readers. He stood 15.1 at the withers, and 15.3 at the rump. His knee was 1.3| inches in circumference, his hock 17|^ inches. From the centre of the hip-joint to the point of the hock he measured 41 inches ; from the point of the stifle to the point of the hock, the length of his thigh Mas 24 inches.

established by his more remote descendants, in whom the cart-horse qualities inherited from the Bellfouuder strain were overcome by an infusion of thoroughbred or Arab blood. His best sons were invariably from high-bred mares. Perhaps the best of all was Alexander's Abdallah.^ This grand horse came to an end more untimely and no less cruel than that suffered by his grandsire Abdallah. In Februar}^, 1865, just before the Civil War closed, Alexander's Abdallah was stolen by a Rebel guerilla from his owner^s farm at Woodburn, Kentucky. The next day he was recaptured by a Federal soldier, ridden fifty miles unshod, and then abandoned at the roadside without food or shelter. He died a few days later of pneumonia. Among his few descendants are Belmont,^ Almont, and Thorndale, all of whom founded subordinate trotting families, and the famous Goldsmith Maid, whose career will be glanced* at in a subsequent chapter. Other noted sons of Rysdyck's Hambletonian are George Wilkes and Electioneer, both of whose dams were of the Clay family (presently to be described). Volunteer (whose dam was a high-bred mare called Lady Patriot), Happy Medium, Harold (the sire of Maud S.), Strathmore, Dictator, and Aberdeen. At present, the two most popular trotting families are those founded by George Wilkes and Electioneer, respectively. Both of these horses were bred in ISTew York State, but Wilkes passed the greater part of his life in Kentucky, and Electioneer stood for many

1 His dam was a small, wiry bay mare, who showed signs of high breeding. Her pedigree is untraced, but she is said to have descended from Mambrino, son of Messenger.

'^ Sire of Nutwood niid of \Ve(]c>:ewood.

years at the head of Governor Stanford's famous farm in California. He is the sire of Sunol, of Palo Alto, whose dam was a thoroughbred, of Arion, and of many other fast trotters.

Neither the Wilkeses nor the Electioneers pure and simple are possessed of much style or beauty, nor are they suitable for roadster use ; but some of the younger branches in each family where other blood has been introduced excel in these respects, as well as in trotting speed.

There is another strain descended from Messenger scarcely inferior to the Hambletonians in speed, equal to them in soundness, and far superior in point of elegance and spirit. This is the Kentucky famil}^ of Mambrino Chief,^ and more especially of his son, Mambrino Patchen. The dam of Mambrino Patchen was the Kodes mare, by Gano,^ a thoroughbred. Mambrino Patchen himself was a very beautiful black horse, about sixteen hands high, with sloping shoulders, high withers, a fine arched neck, a tail well put on and well carried. In fact, this whole family is noted for the proud and graceful carriage of its tails, so much so that some detractors have insinuated that artificial means were used to produce this effect. An own sister of Mambrino Patchen was Lady Thorne, perhaps the best trotting mare, all things considered, ever bred. She was a blood bay, 16^ hands high, with the marks

1 Foaled in 1844; by Mambrino Paymaster, he by Mambrino, a thoroughbred son of Messenger. The dam of Mambrino Chief cannot be traced, but she was a fine, strong, courageous animal, and a great roadster.

'^ Gano was a son of American Eclipse. The grandam and greatgrandam of Mambrino Patchen were also half-bred horses of much quality, sound and long-lived.

of a thoroughbred. Her record is only 2.184, ^^^ she beat all the fastest horses of her day, including Dexter, Mountain Boy, Goldsmith Maid, American Girl, Lucy, and George Palmer, and had it not been for an injury to her hip received while she was being taken from a car she would doubtless have lowered this record. The accident compelled her retirement from the turf. There is a tradition that Dan Mace once drove Lady Thorne a mile in 2.08 and a fraction, and it is fairly well established that she trotted a trial mile in 2.\oi.

The best son of Mambrino Patchen is Mambrino King,^ now twenty years of age, but still a prize winner at horse shows. There is a singular unanimity of opinion about this animal, for, so far as I can ascertain, all who have seen him pronounce Mambrino King to be the handsomest horse in the world. Such is the judgment of Mr. Eobert Bonner, for example, in this country, of Mr. Burdett-Coutts in England, and of those Continental connoisseurs in horse-flesh who have visited this country. Among the latter is Baron Pavorot de Kerbeck, a Prench Colonel of Dragoons, who, with tAvo other officers, was sent to the United States by his government, a few years ago, to inspect our horses. He reported : —

" Mambrino King is the most splendid specimen we have had an opportunity of admiring. Imagine an Alfred de Dreux, a burnt chestnut, whole colored, standing 15.3 hands, with an expressive head, large, intelligent, and spirited eyes, well opened lower jaws, well set ears, the neck and shoulders splendidly shaped,

1 His dam was by Edwin Forrest, a half-bred horse raised in Kentucky.

long, and gracefully rounded off, the shoulders strong and thrown back well, the withers well in place and top muscular, the ribs round and loins superb, the crupper long and broad, limbs exceedingly fine, the joints powerful, the tail carried majestically, and all the movements high and spirited, — imagine all this, and you will have an idea of this stallion. He is as fine, if we look at him in front, as he is in his hind quarters, the whole animal being an embodiment of purity of lines, elegance, and elasticity. He is in fact perfection."

Some years ago Mambrino King was stigmatized by many practical horsemen, whose ideal trotter was a coarse-bred brute, as the Dude Stallion ; but since his sons and daughters have displayed both speed and gameness in numerous hard fought races, Mambrino King's solid qualities are no longer questioned. .

Having, then, such horses as Mambrino King, as Quartermaster,^ Alcantara,^ Ivy wood,^ and many others like them, it seems absurd that we should import for our driving hackneys from England, which do not surpass the American horses just mentioned in any respect, and are far inferior to them in speed. In this connection I will quote a remark from the present Duke of Marlborough's account of his visit to the stock farms of Kentucky. "The small farmer," he says, " drives an animal that would leave the English farmer on his way to market in the last parish, while the amateur can buy for £150 to £200 a pair of animals which could not be obtained in England for double the

1 A great-grandson of Mambrino Patchen, sired by Alcyone, a son of George Wilkes.

- A grandson of Mambrino Patchen, own brother to Alcyone. 3 A son of AVedgewood.

money, and are able to go at a speed far greater than our best Norfolk trotters can manage."

I have now indicated the two most important trotting families descended from Messenger, and there are others but little inferior. Vermont had the Harris Hambletonian, a grandson of Messenger, out of a gray " English mare." He was a gray himself, and so were most of his descendants. This horse was the sire of Sontag, who once beat Flora Temple in a match race, and grandsire of the Morse horse, among whose descendants was Lulu, with a record of 2.14^, and Governor Sprague, a trotting stallion of high reputation.

Maine had Winthrop Messenger and the Bush Messenger. The Bush Messengers were almost invariably chestnuts. Fanny Pullen, dam of Trustee,^ the hrst horse to trot twenty miles within an hour, was a Bush Messenger.

Still another Messenger strain, and one of more "quality" than the rest, is that of the Champions. In the first quarter of this century, one Mr. John Tredwell of Long Island had a pair of extraordinarily fast and enduring road mares, called Amazonia and Sophronisba, the former being of Messenger descent, and the latter a granddaughter of imported Baronet.^ In 1823 both of these mares produced foals by Mambrino, son of Messenger. Amazonia's foal was Abdallah, sire, as we have seen, of the famous Rysdyck's Hambletonian, and Sophronisba's foal was Almack, sire of Grinnell's Champion,^ first of the name, and

1 His sire was inipoi-ted Trustee, a thoroughbred.

- By Vertuniiius out of Peuultima. Barouet, a bay liorse. was noted for his beauty.

3 The dam of Griunell's Champion was by Engineer, and his grandam by the famous American Eclipse.

founder of the family. This horse was thus described by one who had seen him : —

"He was a golden chestnut, about sixteen hands, with a perfect diamond on his nose, and two white socks behind. In his general make-up he partook much of the thoroughbred appearance : the lightness of his head and neck, his wiry leg and elastic movement, his glossy coat and waveless mane and tail, shaded from a darker hue to a bright tint on the edge, — in all a perfect type of the high-bred runner. He was exhibited at the State Fair at Auburn, Kcw York, in 1848. I can never forget, though I was very young at the time, this eventful show, as he assumed a position among his rivals which bade defiance to the artist. He seemed to realize the admiration with which he was regarded by the immense throng about him."

The rich chestnut color, the high spirit, the well-bred look, displayed by Grinnell's Champion, distinguish the family to this day, and it is probably owing more to accident and mismanagement than to any deficiency that the Champions are few in number, vand of less reputation than the Hambletonians. The fastest of the family was the Auburn horse, who belonged to Mr. Eobert Bonner.^

The Auburn horse was the last of those famous trotters which, as one writer remarks with pardonable extravagance, were stabled in Hiram Woodruffs brain. 2 In the autumn of 1864, just before winter

1 He was a son of King's Champion, his dam being by Ked Bird, son of liilly Duroe, by Duroc, son of imported Diomed.

2 Mr. Woodruff, a genius in the art of horsemanship, and a very honest man, was the author of " The Trotting Horse of America," b}- far the most interesting work upon the subject.

closed in and the ground became frozen, the Auburn horse showed a flight of speed that set Mr. Woodruff's household and stable in commotion. On alighting from the sulky, he declared that he had just been carried faster than he ever rode before in his life, and he made the same remark to ]\Ir. Bonner later in the day, when that gentleman paid the stable a visit. "But," said Mr. Bonner, "you rode at the rate of two minutes to the mile behind Peerless for a quarter. Do you mean to say that you rode faster behind the Auburn horse than behind the gray mare ? " Woodruff answered, "Faster than behind the gray mare, — faster than I ever rode before behind any horse." This was probably true, for he was a man not given to overstatement ; but early in the following spring, before the season opened, Hiram Woodruff died, and the Auburn horse did not long survive him. So much for the chief strains of trotting blood derived from Messenger. Next in importance among founders of the trotter comes the Barb or Arab, Grand Bashaw, who was imported from Tripoli in 1820. He is described as a very beautiful little black horse, about 14.1 high, with a small star in his forehead. He died in Pennsylvania in the year 1845. Among his sons was Young Bashaw, a larger and much coarser animal, and gray in color like his dam, who was Pearl, by Bond's First Consul ; his grandara was a Messenger mare. Young Bashaw sired Andrew Jackson,^ the fastest trotting stallion of his day, a black horse, strong, compact, and short4egged. When Andrew Jackson was foaled, his dam was the property of one Daniel Jeffreys, a brickmaker, and the

1 His dam was a pacer, and nothing more is known of her.

first act of the little colt was to tumble into a pit where clay had been mixed for making bricks. He was rescued from this hole in a very sorry condition, and either on account of the accident, or from natural weakness, he was unable to stand upright. His pastern joints bent under his weight, and altogether he appeared to be so wretched and worthless a creature that Mr. Jeffreys gave orders to have him killed. But his wife interceded, begged that the foal's life might be spared, and undertook to look after him herself. The colt was accordingly permitted to live, a little careful nursing soon brought him round, and thus, through the pity of a woman, did the ancestor of all the Clays escape being murdered in his infancy. It is an odd fact that Vermont Blackhawk, founder of the trotting branch of the Morgan family, and one of the handsomest horses that ever lived, was also condemned to death by his owner because of the weak and ugly appearance that he first made in the world. In his case it was the groom who successfully interceded for his life. The same thing is true of Santa Claus, one of the best grandsons of Eysdyck's Hambletonian. Andrew Jackson was the sire of Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family, his dam being a Canadian trotting mare called Surrey, of unknown breeding.

Some writers assert that Henry Cflay's good qualities as a trotter were derived from the Messenger element in his composition ; but it is a striking fact, that in form, in disposition, and in color he resembled his great-grandsire Grand Bashaw very closely. He was a coal-black horse with a beautiful white crescent on his face, " very perfect, the line of it extending up and down, that is, one horn above the eyes, the other belo\y." He had the curved neck, the fine sloping shoulders, the round swelling barrel, the small ears, the springy pasterns, the tough, round feet of a Barb or Arab horse. In the hind parts, however, he took after his dam. His hips were sharp, the rump was long and drooping. He had great length from hip to hock, the invariable formation of a trotter, and his tail was thick and wavy, with a few white hairs at the dock.

" In disposition and temper," writes Mr. Kandolph Huntington, '' he was a very lovable horse. The last time I went to see him was in October, 1865. Henry Clay was then twenty-eight years old. Mr. Fellows, who owned him, knew that I loved the old horse, and asked me if I would not like to see him out. However, not wishing to trouble him, and knowing that Henry Clay had long been blind, I answered, ^Xever mind,' but the door of his box was swung wide open, and after a cheerful, '• Come, Henry,' from his master, the old horse sailed out into the barnyard with as lofty and as sure a step as though he could see every spot in which it was possible to place a foot."

Henry Clay was a horse of great bottom and of sound constitution, as is sufficiently proved by the fact that he lived to be twenty-nine 3^ears old, notwithstanding the hard usage to which he was subjected. There is a tradition that he was once driven ninety miles in a single day, and started the next afternoon in a race which he won. However this may be, it is certain that for many years Henry Clay belonged to an owner who cruelly abused him. It seems to be the natural amusement of a drunken man to ill-treat a horse, and Henry Clay was one of that innumerable company of dumb beasts whose fate it has been to supply this kind of entertainment for the superior animal. When his " peculiar turns were upon him,"

writes one who knew both horse and man, "W

always wanted to drive Henry Clay. At such times the city of Rochester, which is twenty-eight miles by road from Geneseo, was the objective point. When ready to return, after an experience that tries men's nerves, he would get into the wagon, take out his whip, and, giving it a wide swing, exclaim, ' One hour and a half into my barn,' — which the horse had to do. Sometimes his carriage would break down. The President of the Livingston Agricultural Society, the late M. L. Cummings, wishing at one time to

see W on some important matters, waited for

him in his barn, and AV finally drove in hanging to the dashboard, the hind axle dragging, both hind wheels gone. The horse was dripping wet, and panting so that Mr. Cummings (a first-class horseman) thought that he would never recover his wind. W took out his watch, looked at it, and exclaimed, ' He did it, or I would shoot him. One hour and a half, twenty-eight miles ! ' "

On another occasion W struck Henry Clay

with a club, breaking one of his ribs, and the injury left its mark on the skeleton of the horse, which is still preserved in the National Museum at Washington.

The Orloff trotters of Russia were bred in much the same way as the Clays, and there is a resemblance between the two families. Some years ago there was an exhibition of Orloff trotters at a State fair held in

Central New York, near the former home of Henry Clay, and many farmers who saw the Enssian horses there protested at what they considered an imposition. '• These are not foreign horses, they are nothing but Clays," was their criticism.

For many years, while the Hambletonian star was rising, the Clay family were undervalued and misrepresented ; but finally, when it became apparent that the most successful Hambletonian sires, George Wilkes and Electioneer, were out of Clay mares, and that in many other cases Clay blood had helped to produce extreme speed, this prejudice was dissipated. It seems to be true, however, that there is a slight tendency in the family to sulk at critical moments, '^t was undoubtedly," says Mr. H. T. Helm,i "a mental quality, which, when they were collared by an antagonist, and likely to be forced to the utmost, caused them to sulk and refuse to do their best." And Mr. Helm adds that Boston, the famous four-mile racer, and Harry Bassett, his grandson, both exhibited the same trait.

I have stated already the maternal lines coming from Clay stock in which chiefly distinction has been won. There is also an important California family descended from the Clays in the paternal line. This is the family founded by The Moor, among whose descendants are Sultan, and the son of Sultan, Stamboul, whose record is 2.11. These California Clays are very beautiful horses, having almost the finish and quality of thoroughbreds.^

^ "American Eoadstcr?: and Trotting Horses." A vakiable work, of which I sliall make frequent use.

^ The breeding of this family is as follows : Henry Clay sired

It is an interesting fact that the Hambletonians, the Mambrino Chiefs, and tlie Clays all have a hall-mark, so to say, of their own, not found of course in every individual belonging to their blood, but still extremely common. In the Hambletonian family this is a white hind foot, mottled w^ith black; in the Mambrino Chief family, especially in the Mambrino Patchen branch, it is one hind leg gray from foot to hock ; in the Clays, it is a few gray hairs at the root of the tail.

Having now indicated in a general way three of the main sources of trotting speed, — namely, the Messenger strain as exhibited especially in the Hambletonian and Mambrino Chief families, the Bellfounder or Norfolk Trotter strain as represented in the Hambletonian family, and the Grand Bashaw or Barb strain preserved in the Clays, — I come to the fourth main source of trotting speed, namely, the Morgans, a New England breed.