Table of Contents
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.