Chapter I: Preface

The study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history, sacred and profane, and tracing him from his original home through his migrations until all the peoples of the globe had received their initial supply, may not be a new idea, but it is certainly a new undertaking. Horse Books without number have been written, mostly in the century just closing, but in the history of the horse they are all alike—merely reproductions of what had been printed before. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore, this volume is the first attempt, in any language, to determine the original habitat of the horse and to trace him, historically, in his distribution.

The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse into Egypt, and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as the plebeian blood from which the English race horse has derived his great speed, will be a shock to the nerves of the romanticists of the old world as well as the new. Taking the facts of history and well-known experiences together, my readers can determine for themselves whether the claims for the superiority of Arabian blood is not pure fiction. For my own part I cannot recognize any blood in all horsedom as “royal blood” except that which is found in the veins of the horse that “has gone out and done it,” either himself or in his progeny.

In our own country there has always remained a blank in horse history that nobody has attempted to supply. This blank embraced a century of racing of which we of the present generation have been entirely ignorant. Believing that a correct knowledge of the horse of the Colonial period, in his size, gait, qualities and capacities was absolutely essential to an intelligent comprehension of the phenomena presented on our trotting and running courses of the present day, I have not hesitated to bestow on this new feature of the work great labor and research. In this I have felt a special satisfaction in the fact that while the field is old in dates, this is the first time it has ever been traversed and considered.

In the chapters which follow, many historical questions are treated at such length as their relative importance seems to demand, embracing the different families that have contributed to the building up of the breed of trotters; and the question of how the trotting horse is bred is carefully considered in the light of all past experiences and brought down to the close of 1896. These chapters will not surprise the old readers of the _Wallace’s Monthly_, for they will here meet with many thoughts that will not be new to them, but they will find them more fully elaborated, in more orderly form, and brought down to the latest experiences.

It is not the purpose of this book to furnish statistical tables covering the great mass of trotting experiences, nor to consider the mysteries of the trainer’s art that have been so ably discussed by experienced and skillful men. But the real and only purpose is to place upon record the results of years devoted to historical research, at home and abroad; to dispel the illusions and humbugs that have clustered about the horse for many centuries; and to consider with some minuteness, which of necessity cannot be impersonal, the great industrial revolution that has been wrought in horse-breeding, and all growing out of a little unpretentious treatise written twenty-five years ago, which contained nothing more striking than a little bit of science and a little bit of sense intelligently commingled. The battle between the principles of this treatise and selfish prejudices and mental sterility, was long and bitter, but the truth prevailed, and in the production of the Driving Horse the teachings of that little paper have placed our country first among all the nations of the earth.

JOHN H. WALLACE.

NEW YORK: 40 WEST 93D STREET.

_September 1, 1897_

CONTENTS.

PAGES

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

General View of the Field Traversed 1-23

CHAPTER II.

ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE.

No indications that the horse was originally wild—The steppes
of High Asia and Arabia not tenable as his original home—Color
not sufficient evidence —Impossibility of horses existing in
Arabia in a wild state—No horses in Arabia until 356 A.D.—Large
forces of Armenian, Median and Cappadocian cavalry employed
more than one thousand seven hundred years B.C.—A breed of
white race horses—Special adaptability of the Armenian country
to the horse—Armenia a horse-exporting country before the
Prophet Ezekiel—Devotion of the Armenian people to agricultural
and pastoral pursuits through a period of four thousand
years—All the evidences point to ancient Armenia as the center
from which the horse was distributed 24-35

CHAPTER III.

EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES.

First evidences of horses in Egypt about 1700 B.C.—Supported
by Egyptian records and history—The Patriarch Job had no
horses—Solomon’s great cavalry force organized—Arabia as
described by Strabo at the beginning of our era—No horses
then in Arabia—Constantius sends two hundred Cappadocian
horses into Arabia A.D. 356—Arabia the last country to be
supplied with horses—The ancient Phœnician merchants and their
colonies—Hannibal’s cavalry forces in the Punic Wars—Distant
ramifications of Phœnician trade and colonization—Commerce
reached as far as Britain and the Baltic—Probable source of
Britain’s earliest horses 36-50

CHAPTER IV.

THE ARABIAN HORSE.

The Arabian, the horse of romance—The horse naturally
foreign to Arabia —Superiority of the camel for all Arabian
needs—Scarcity of horses in Arabia in Mohammed’s time—Various
preposterous traditions of Arab horsemanship—The Prophet’s
mythical mares—Mohammed not in any sense a horseman—Early
English Arabians—the Markham Arabian—The alleged Royal
Mares—The Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—The Prince
of Wales’ Arabian race horses—Mr. Blunt’s pilgrimage to the
Euphrates—His purchases of so-called Arabians—Deyr as a great
horse market where everything is thoroughbred—Failure of Mr.
Blunt’s experiments—Various Arabian horses brought to America
—Horses sent to our Presidents—Disastrous experiments of A.
Keene Richards—Tendency of Arab romancing from Ben Hur 51-66

CHAPTER V.

THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE.

The real origin of the English race horse in confusion—Full
list of the “foundation stock” as given by Mr. Weatherby one
hundred years ago—The list complete and embraces all of any
note—Admiral Rous’ extravaganza—Godolphin Arabian’s origin
wholly unknown—His history—Successful search for his true
portrait—Stubbs’ picture a caricature—The true portrait alone
supplies all that is known of his origin and blood 67-78

CHAPTER VI.

THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (_Continued_).

England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred
for different purposes—Markham on the speed of early native
horses—Duke of Newcastle on Arabians—His choice of blood to
propagate—Size of early English horses—Difficulties about
pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Early
accumulations very trashy—The Galloways and Irish
Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The pacers
wiped out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book 79-89

CHAPTER VII.

THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE.

Antiquity of American racing—First race course at Hempstead
Plain, 1665—Racing in Virginia, 1677—Conditions of early
races—Early so-called Arabian importations—The marvelous
tradition of Lindsay’s “Arabian”—English race horses first
imported about 1750—The old colonial stock as a basis—First
American turf literature—Skinner’s _American Turf Register and
Sporting Magazine_, 1829—Cadwallader R. Colden’s _Sporting
Magazine_, short-lived but valuable—The original _Spirit of
the Times—Porter’s Spirit of the Times—Wilkes’ Spirit of the
Times_, 1859—Edgar’s Stud Book—Wallace’s Stud Book—Bruce’s
Stud Book—Their history, methods and value—Summing up results,
showing that success has followed breeding to individuals and
families that could run and not to individuals and families
that could not run, whatever their blood 90-107

CHAPTER VIII.

COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—VIRGINIA.

Hardships of the colonists—First importations of horses—Racing
prevalent in the seventeenth century—Exportations and then
importations prohibited—Organized horse racing commenced 1677
and became very general—In 1704 there were many wild horses
in Virginia and they were hunted as game—The Chincoteague
ponies accounted for—Jones on life in Virginia, 1720—Fast
early pacers, Galloways and Irish Hobbies—English race horses
imported—Moreton’s Traveler probably the first—Quarter racing
prevailed on the Carolina border—Average size and habits of
action clearly established—The native pacer thrown in the
shade by the imported runner—An Englishman’s prejudices 108-119

CHAPTER IX.

COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.

Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of
Dutch and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size
of horses—Horses to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands
not to run at large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English,
1664—First organized racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement
in speed—First advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction,
contestants must “be bred in America”—Great racing and heavy
betting—First importations of English running horses—Half-breds
to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half-bushel
of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress
against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and
trotting contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost 120-127

CHAPTER X.

COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW ENGLAND.

First importations to Boston and to Salem—Importations
from Holland brought high prices—They were not pacers and
not over fourteen hands—In 1640 horses were exported to
the West Indies—First American newspaper and first horse
advertisement—Average sizes—The different gaits—CONNECTICUT,
first plantation, 1636—Post horses provided for by law—All
horses branded—Sizes and Gaits—An Englishman’s experience
with pacers—Lindsay’s Arabian—RHODE ISLAND, Founded by Roger
Williams, 1636—No direct importations ever made—Horses largely
exported to other colonies 1690—Possibly some to Canada—Pacing
races a common amusement—Prohibited, 1749—Size of the
Narragansetts compared with the Virginians 128-134

CHAPTER XI.

COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, MARYLAND,
CAROLINA.

Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s
newspaper—Conestoga horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish
origin—Acrelius’ statement—NEW JERSEY—Branding—Increase of
size—Racing, Pacing and Trotting restricted—Maryland—Racing and
Pacing restricted 1747—Stallions of under size to be shot—NORTH
CAROLINA—First settler refugees—SOUTH CAROLINA—Size and gait in
1744—Challenges—No running blood in the colony, 1744—General
view 135-141

CHAPTER XII.

EARLY HORSE HISTORY—CANADA.

Settlement and capture of Port Royal—Early plantations—First
French horses brought over 1665—Possibly illicit trading—Sire
of “Old Tippoo”—His history—“Scape Goat” and his
descendants—Horses of the Maritime Provinces 142-153

CHAPTER XIII.

ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE.

The mechanism of the different gaits—The Elgin Marbles—Britain
becomes a Roman province—Pacers in the time of the
Romans—Bronze horses of Venice—Fitz Stephen, the Monk of
Canterbury—Evidence of the Great Seals—What Blundeville
says—What Gervaise Markham says—What the Duke of Newcastle
says—The amble and the pace one and the same—At the close of
Elizabeth’s reign—The Galloways and Hobbies—Extinction of the
pacer—The original pacer probably from the North—Polydore
Virgil’s evidence—Samuel Purchas’ evidence—The process
of wiping out the pacer—King James set the fashion—All
foreign horses called “Arabians”—The foreigners larger and
handsomer—Good roads and wheeled vehicles dispensed with the
pacer—Result of prompting Mr. Euren—Mr. Youatt’s blunder—Other
English gentlemen not convinced there ever were any pacers 154-171

CHAPTER XIV.

THE AMERICAN PACER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE AMERICAN TROTTER.

Regulations against stallions at large—American pacers taken
to the West Indies—Narragansett pacers; many foolish and
groundless theories about their origin—Dr. McSparran on the
speed of the pacer—Mr. Updike’s testimony—Mr. Hazard and
Mr. Enoch Lewis—Exchanging meetings with Virginia—Watson’s
Annals—Matlack and Acrelius—Rip Van Dam’s horse—Cooper’s
evidence—Cause of disappearance—Banished to the frontier—First
intimation that the pace and the trot were essentially one
gait—How it was received—Analysis of the two gaits—Pelham,
Highland Maid, Jay-Eye-See, Blue Bull—The pacer forces
himself into publicity—Higher rate of speed—Pacing races
very early—Quietly and easily developed—Comes to his speed
quickly—His present eminence not permanent—The gamblers
carried him there—Will he return to his former obscurity? 172-189

CHAPTER XV.

THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE.

The saddle gaits come only from the pacer—Saddle gaits
cultivated three hundred years ago—Markham on the saddle
gaits—The military seat the best—The unity of the pace and
trot—Gaits analyzed—Saddle Horse Register—Saddle horse
progenitors—Denmark not a thoroughbred horse 190-195

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA.

The romances of fifty years ago—Was the horse indigenous
to this country?—The theories of the paleontologists not
satisfactory—Pedigrees of over two millions of years too
long—Outlines of horses on prehistoric ruins, evidently
modern—The linguistic test among the oldest tribes of Indians
fails to discover any word for “Horse”—The horses abandoned
west of the Mississippi by the followers of De Soto about 1541
were the progenitors of the wild horses of the plains 196-204

CHAPTER XVII.

MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.

Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of
pedigrees in English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable
sources—Messenger’s right male line examined—Flying Childers’
“mile in a minute”—Blaze short of being thoroughbred—Sampson,
a good race horse—His size; short in his breeding—Engineer
short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at least two pacing
crosses; distinguished as a progenitor of coach horses and fast
trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified—Among
all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one
that founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by eminent
writers in attempting to find others 205-221

CHAPTER XVIII.

HISTORY OF MESSENGER.

Messenger’s racing in England—His breeder unknown—Popular
uncertainty about the circumstances and date of
his importation—The matter settled by his first
advertisement—Uncertainty as to his importer—Description of
Messenger by David W. Jones, of Long Island—Careful consensus
of descriptions by many who had seen Messenger—His great and
lasting popularity as a stock horse—Places and prices of his
services for twenty years—Death and burial 222-231

CHAPTER XIX.

MESSENGER’S SONS.

Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader
R. Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville,
N. Y.—Some of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse
in appearance—Failure as a runner—Good natural trotter—His
most famous sons were Abdallah, Almack, and Mambrino
Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his pedigree and
history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly
a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree
and description—Noted as the sire of coach horses and
trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam
thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga,
Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander,
Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury, Hotspur,
Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of the name
“Messenger.” 232-254

CHAPTER XX.

MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.

History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam,
Amazonia—Speculations as to her blood—Description of
Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion line—Mambrino
Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino
Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’
Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam 255-266

CHAPTER XXI.

HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.

The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s
description, and comments thereupon—An analysis of
Hambletonian, structurally considered—His carriage and
action—As a three-year-old trotter—Details of his stud
service—Statistics of the Hambletonian family—History and
ancestry of his dam, the Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson,
Green’s Bashaw, and his dam 267-283

CHAPTER XXII.

HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS AND GRANDSONS.

Different opinions as to relative merits of
Hambletonian’s greater sons—George Wilkes, his history
and pedigree—His performing descendants—History and
description of Electioneer—His family—Alexander’s
Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and
Belmont—Dictator—Harold—Happy Medium and his dam—Jay
Gould—Strathmore—Egbert—Aberdeen—Masterlode—Sweepstakes—Governor
Sprague, grandson of Hambletonian 284-314

CHAPTER XXIII.

MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY.

Description and history of Mambrino Chief—The pioneer trotting
stallion of Kentucky—Matched against Pilot Jr.—His best
sons—Mambrino Patchen, his opportunities and family—Woodford
Mambrino, a notable trotter and sire—Princeps—Mambrino
Pilot—Clark Chief—Fisk’s Mambrino Chief Jr.—Ericsson 315-320

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.

The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior
individual —His greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter
and pacer—His history—His noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island
Black Hawk—Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius
M. Clay—The various horses named Cassius M. Clay—George M.
Patchen—His great turf career—George M. Patchen Jr.—Harry
Clay—The Moor, and his son Sultan’s family 321-337

CHAPTER XXV.

AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.

Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding
really unknown—A trotter of some merit—His stud career—His
daughters noted brood mares—Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing
Pilot—History and probable origin—Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training
and races—Prepotency—Family statistics summarized—Grinnell’s
Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing
descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse
Horse—Swigert and Blackwood 338-351

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.

Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His
family rank—The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom
Rolfe—Young Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal Family—The various
Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin
Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas 352-365

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BLACK HAWK, OR MORGAN FAMILY.

Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original
Morgan—The fabled pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin
Morgan’s breeding hopelessly unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black
Hawk—His disputed paternity—His dam called a Narragansett—Ethan
Allen—His great beauty, speed, and popularity—The Flying Morgan
claim baseless—His dam of unknown blood—His great race with
Dexter—Daniel Lambert, the only successful sire of the Black
Hawk line 366-389

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.

Orloffs, the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis
Orloff, founder of the breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff
began breeding in 1770—Smetanka, Polkan, and Polkan’s son,
Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire—The Russian
pacers—Their great speed—Imported Bellfounder—His history
and characteristics—Got little speed—His descendants—The
English Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The old Norfolk
trotters—Hackney experiments in America—Superiority of the
trotting-bred horse demonstrated in show ring contests 390-408

CHAPTER XXIX.

INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.

Tendency to misrepresentation—The Bald Galloway and
Darley Arabian—Godolphin Arabian—Early experiences with
trotting pedigrees—Mr. Backman’s honest methods—Shanghai
Mary—Capt. Rynders and Widow Machree—Woodburn Farm and
its pedigree methods—Victimized by “horse sharps” and
pedigree makers—Alleged pedigree of Pilot Jr. conclusively
overthrown—Pedigrees of Edwin Forrest, Norman, Bay Chief and
Black Rose—Maud S. pedigree exhaustively considered—Captain
John W. Russell never owned the mare Maria Russell—The deadly
parallel columns settle it 409-431

CHAPTER XXX.

INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES (_Continued_).

How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree
making in that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas
Jefferson—True origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts
about the old-time gelding Prince—The truth about Waxy, the
grandam of Sunol—Remarkable attempts to make a pedigree out
of nothing—How “Jim” Eoff worked a “tenderfoot”—Pedigree of
American Eclipse—Pedigree of Boston—Tom Bowling and Aaron
Pennington—Chenery’s Grey Eagle—Pedigree of George Wilkes in
doubt 432-455

CHAPTER XXXI.

HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED.

Early trotting and pacing races—Strains of blood in the
first known trotters—The lesson of Maud S.—The genesis of
trotting horse literature—The simple study of inheritance—The
different forms of heredity—The famous quagga story not
sustained—Illustrations in dogs—Heredity of acquired
characters and instincts—Development of successive generations
necessary—Unequaled collections of statistics—Acquired injuries
and unsoundness transmitted 456-479

CHAPTER XXXII.

HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (_Continued_).

Trotting speed first supposed to be an accident—Then, that it
came from the runner—William Wheelan’s views—Test of powers of
endurance—The term “thoroughbred” much abused—Definition of
“thoroughbred”—How trotters may be made “thoroughly bred”—How
to study pedigrees—Reward offered for the production of a
thoroughbred horse that was a natural pacer—The trotter
more lasting than the runner—The dam of Palo Alto—Arion as
a two-year-old—Only three stallions have been able to get
trotters from running-bred mares—“Structural incongruity”—The
pacer and trotter inseparable—How to save the trot and reduce
the ratio of pacers—Development a necessity—Table proving this
proposition—The “tin cup” policy a failure—Woodburn at the
wrong end of the procession 480-507