THE INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HORSE


The Legacy of the Horse

Chapter Four

A Chronological History of Humans and Their Relationship With the Horse


Table of Contents

1718 - 1876
Stage Travel in America - Polo in America






THE GOLDEN A GE OF THE TROTTING HORSE

Rysdyk's Hambletonian, Father of the Trotting Horse
1849 - A Famous Bay Colt is Born of an Injured Mare and a Mean and Ugly Sire

One of the most interesting stories of man and horse is that of William Rysdyk and Hambletonian, the great progeniter of the Standardbred horse. Rysdyk was employed as a farm hand by Jonas Seeley of Sugar Loaf, New York, in 1849. Seeley acquired the Charles Kent Mare, named after her previous owner, a butcher in New York City. This mare had been permanently injured and was used only for breeding. Sired by Bellfounder, she was of Norfolk Trotter ancestry, a breed noted for its smooth gait. Seeley bred his mare to Abdullah, who was a grandson of Messenger, but a mean and ugly horse. The offspring of the Charles Kent Mare and Abdullah was a bay colt who was to be a keystone in the future of harness racing.

Rysdyk persuaded his employer to sell him the colt and his dam for $125. Rysdyk named his colt Hambletonian, who quickly began to reveal his handsome appearance. Rysdyk showed his beautiful horse to enthusiastic admirers at the local race track in Goshen, New York. At the young age of two, Hambletonian was bred to four mares. As a three-year-old, he was matched against his older half-brother, Abdullah Chief, in his first race at the Union Course on Long Island. Hambletonian won easily. Seeley Roe, owner of Abdullah Chief, wanted another match, and again his horse was beaten by Hambletonian, who turned a 2:48 1/2 mile, then a very fast time for a three-year-old trotter.

Hambletonian's owner soon capitalized on his horse's reputation. Rysdyk put his horse to stud for lucrative fees, beginning at $25 a leap (i.e. one mating). In the last years of Hambletonian's life, Rysdyk got $500 a season due to the prepotency of his horse. Hambletonian earned some $200,000 at stud. In all, Hambletonian was bred to some 1,900 mares resulting in 1,331 foals. Forty of these foals trotted the mile in less than 2 minutes 30 seconds. Among Hambletonian's many distinguished heirs were Dexter, Happy Medium, George Wilkes, Dictator, and Electioneer. The blood of Hambletonian is in most of today's distinguished trotters and pacers.



Horses of Song and Legend

1833 - LadySuffolk, the Old Gray Mare
Lady Suffolk, who is the "Old Gray Mare" of song and legend, was foaled in Smithtown, Long Island, in 1833. She was a great-granddaughter of Messenger, and was the first trotter to go the mile in less than 2:30. She did it in 2:29.5 at the age of twelve. Her reputation lasted well after her death in 1853.

June 28,1853 - Flora Temple, the Bob Tail Nag
Another lady brought the best trotting time in under 2:30. Flora Temple was the "bob tail nag" of Stephen Foster's "Camptown Races." Between 1853 and 1859 she lowered the record for the mile six different times, her best time being 2:19 ¾ set in 1859 when she was fourteen years old.

June 21,1867 - Ethan Allen Versus Dexter
On June 21, 1867, some 15,000 people gathered at the Fashion Course on Long Island to see one of the great races in the country. A match was set between Ethan Allen, the great-grandson of Justin Morgan, and Dexter, the son of Hambletonian. Ethan Allen was then eighteen years old and Dexter half the age. Dexter was heavily favored at post time. This was a match between Morgan and Hambletonian blood. Ethan Allen was the victor in three straight heats, but the days of Morgan supremacy on the track were numbered.



The Standardbred Horse

The ancestry of the Standardbred reaches back to the Darley Arabian, whose blood was brought to America in 1788 by his noted descendant, Messenger. The influence of Messenger was finally manifested in Hambletonian 10, the dominant sire in the history of the Standardbred. The Hambletonian family quickly surpassed Morgan challengers, as well as the Clay, Mambrino, and Blue Bull families of trotters. Foaled in 1856, Hambletonian's first great son, George Wilkes, defeated the celebrated Morgan, Ethan Allen, in three straight heats. Another son, Dexter, was foaled in 1858, and set a record mile as a gelding. Other important sons of Hambletonian, who affected subsequent harness racing, were Dictator, Happy Medium, and Electioneer. The Standardbred gains its name from the fact that registered horses must meet specific standards, first stipulated in 1879 by the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders. The registry is based on lines of breeding, performance, and age. The basic characteristic of the Standardbred is that it is bred to either trot or pace in harness.

July 9, 1872 - The Grand Circuit
In the 1860s most tracks in America operated independently. There was a need for a coordinate schedule of racing, whereby leading horses would move from one track to another on a regular basis. In 1871, representatives of three tracks met in Cleveland, Ohio, to discuss the possibility of what was ultimately known as the "Grand Circuit." The first year of "Circuit" racing was 1873, and the total purse was $169,300. In all, some 60 tracks across the country were represented on the Grand Circuit and the schedule lasted most of the year.




HORSE RELATED INDUSTRIES AND CRAFTS

The Demand for "Horse Power"Steadily Increased, Producing a Great Need for Horse-Related Crafts

The 1800s enjoyed an unprecedented pace of economic growth. As new markets for manufactured goods were opened, the need for horse transportation increased dramatically. As a result, many horsedrawn vehicles were built by local carriage makers or by large wagon factories. The need for new harness and constant repairs on the old created a demand for skilled harness makers. Wheelwrights, farriers, and blacksmiths were essential to the livelihood of every city and town. Other horse-related crafts and occupations included saddlers, grain farmers, feed merchants, veterinarians, grooms, coachmen, horse breeders - the list is extensive. In all, the Industrial Revolution and the growth in economy and population created a zenith of inter-dependence between man and horse.

The Farrier
The blacksmith was a prominent member of nearly every community. He supplied the local population with articles ranging from simple nails and chain to skillfully created axes, carriage hardware, and door latches. In fact, he created nearly every metal object in the community. The blacksmith who specialized in shoeing the town's horses and oxen was called a farrier. In the days before the veterinarian, he cared for sick and injured animals as well. The farrier made a horse shoe from a straight bar of iron, which he heated white hot and then cut and shaped on the anvil. The nails were cut from rods of soft iron. The farrier kept a stock of variously shaped and sized shoes on hand to suit the needs of specific horses. Occasionally, horses' hooves were either malformed or had painful cracks which required the skilled application of corrective shoes.

Harness Making
The harness maker was a valued member of the community in the 1800s. he was kept busy providing new harness to his many customers, as well as repairing and reconditioning used harness. The harness maker started with tanned hides and transformed these into harness of exacting specifications. The United State census for 1870 reported 7,607 harness businesses operating throughout the country, employing 23,557 harness makers. Of the 258 industries listed, harness making and saddlery ranked 34th in the number of people employed. This fact points to the vital role harness makers played in the Golden Age of the Horse.

Carriage Makers
Most sizable towns had a carriage and wagon company. Carriage and wagon making was usually conducted by companies rather than individuals. A team of men was necessary to build vehicles profitably. A carriage or wagon required the skills of a blacksmith, carpenter, joiner, upholsterer, and painter, as well as a managerial and sales staff. A carriage required an average of 1,171 fittings, 84 carriage bolts, 50 to 60 screws and 8 to 12 feet of chain. A wheel required some 145 hand forged iron parts, in addition to the painstaking labor of assembling its wooden elements in a perfect fit. The firm of James Brewster and G.D. Cook in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Abbot Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire, were very large and well-known firms.




AMERICAN SADDLEHORSE

For many years the vast, rough American terrain required traveling by horseback. Americans therefore placed great stock in a horse which could carry them smoothly yet swiftly on their journeys. Cross-breeding horses of various origins led to the creation of a class of horses known as saddlers. These were mostly Southern horses and were similar only in that they possessed an excellent lateral four-beat gait, the rack. In 1891, an attempt was made to register the pedigrees of the most important Saddle Horses in America. A group of representatives of prominent breeding localities created a list of 17 major stallions. In 1902, the list was reduced to 10. In 1908, only one stallion, Denmark remained on the list.



Denmark, 1839 - Foundation Sire of the American Saddle Horse

Foaled in Kentucky in 1839, Denmark was a pure Thoroughbred sired by imported Hedgeford and out of an outstanding saddle mare named Betsy Harrison. Little is known about Denmark, other than the fact that he was a brown horse and a successful four-mile racer. In 1851, Denmark sired an important son named Black Denmark-registered as Gaines' Denmark 61. Of the 7,311 entries in Volumes I thru IV of "The Saddle Horse Register," 7,291 trace to Gaines' Denmark 61. Denmark's blood was ultimately combined with the descendents of Mambrino Chief (1844). This combination produced the unique and brilliant qualities which are associated with the American Saddle Horse as we know it today.




CIVIL WAR

Southern Cavalry Superior to the North

The Civil War was largely a bloody slugging match of infantry and artillery which left 600,000 men dead. The cavalry lent some of the few moments of glory to this otherwise brutal war. The South's cavalry remained superior to the Union's for the first two years of the war. The reason for this was threefold: first, in the rural South, boys grew up riding horses, whereas in the North, horses were usually driven, not ridden. Southern cavalrymen, therefore, were better horsemen at the beginning of the war than were their Union counterparts. Second, Confederate policy had cavalrymen supply their own mounts which were vastly superior to the horses of the Union cavalry supplied by the Army. And third, the Confederate cavalry was divided into larger units (brigades and divisions) compared to the small Union cavalry units (no larger than regiments) which were scattered among the infantry. With experience, however, the North improved their organization, training and caliber of horses which drasticly closed the gap in quality between the two forces. Also, the leadership of such brilliant generals as J.E.B. Stuart, Wade Hampton, and Nathan Bedford Forrest was matched by such Union generals as Philip Sheridan and James Wilson.

1825 - 1864, John Hunt Morgan
One of the most colorful cavalry leaders of the American Civil War was John Hunt Morgan, a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. In September, 1861, he joined the Confederate army in Tennessee. In April Morgan led a mounted raiding party of 800 men into Kentucky. In 24 days he covered more than 1,000 miles and took 1,200 prisoners. In the summer of 1863, Morgan led a troop of 460 men into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Each day he and his men spent an average of 21 hours in the saddle. In July of 1863 his exhausted force was finally trapped on an island in the Ohio River. Morgan and his officers were confined in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. However, in November of 1863, they tunneled out of the prison. The summer of 1864 found Morgan back in the saddle raiding Kentucky. Morgan died on a raid in Tennessee on September 4, 1864, when his troops were surprised by Union cavalry and refused to surrender.




THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS

More than 180,000 African-Americans served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Of these, more than 33,000 died. After the war, the future of African-Americans in the U.S. Army was in doubt. In July1866, however, Congress passed legislation establishing two cavalry and four infantry regiments (later consolidated to two) whose enlisted composition was to be made up of African-Americans. The majority of the new recruits had served in all Black units during the war. The mounted regiments were the 9th and 10th Cavalries, soon nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers by the Cheyenne and Comanche. Until the early 1890s they constituted 20 percent of all cavalry forces on the American frontier.

To learn more, visit our special exhibit, The Buffalo Soldiers on the Western Frontier.




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