The Foundation Stallions of Australia.
All told, there were forty-seven blood stallions imported into Australia
between the beginning of things and the end of 1838, and, considering
what state the world had been in, politically and socially, during a
great part of that period, and remembering the weary length of the
voyage, the risk of capture by the French, and all the dangers incident
to a sea voyage of some twelve thousand miles in small vessels, ships
which could only be described as cockleshells, we did not do so very
badly after all. It is interesting, and valuable, too, to mark the
chronological order of the advent of such of these as have left a name
behind them, in spite of the great gulf of time and all the tremendous
events which have taken place on the earth since their brief day.
Blood Stallions of Note That Were Imported Between 1799 and 1838.
1799. Young Rockingham, by Rockingham.
1810. Hector, or Old Hector.
1817. The Governor.
1822. Stride, still alive through Princess, by Gratis from Roan Kit, by
Stride out of a daughter of Camerton, from Cleodora, by Hector.
1824. Camerton. (No. 2.)
Steeltrap (chestnut), by Scud—Prophetess. Sire of Jorrock’s dam.
Satellite (a bay Arab); got great weight carriers and police
horses.
1826. Buffalo (chestnut), by Fyldener—Roxana. (No. 13.)
Peter Fin (bay), by Whalebone—Scotina.
1827. Skeleton (grey), by Master Robert—Drone’s dam. (No. 2.)
1828. Emigrant (Rous’) (brown), by Pioneer—Ringtail. (No. 4.)
Theorem (chestnut), by Merlin—Pawn. (No. 1.)
1829. Toss (bay), by Bourbon—Tramp’s dam. (No. 3.)
1830. Romeo (chestnut), by Partisan—Vice. (No. 1.)
1831. Wanderer (bay), by Wanderer—Ogress. (No. 2.)
1832. Little John (bay), by Little John—Anna. (No. 11.)
1835. Gratis (bay), by Middleton—Lamia. (No. 42.)
1836. Dover (bay), by Patron—Maid of Kent. (No. 15.)
1837. Operator (chestnut), by Emilius—Worthless. (No. 11.)
1838. Lawson’s Emigrant (brown), by Tramp—dam by Blucher.
Rubens (chestnut), by Priam—Sister to Portrait.
1838 or 9. Cap-a-pie (bay), by The Colonel—Sister to Cactus. (No. 5.)
Emigrant was the king of them all. If ever you run out the pedigree of
an Australian-bred horse of to-day, whose ancestors have dwelt for some
generations in Australia, there crops up the name of Rous’ Emigrant. It
forms a memorial, far more enduring than brass or iron, to that very
gallant sailor and splendid judge of all things connected with the
racehorse, the Hon. H. J. Rous, “The Admiral.”
Rous’ Emigrant was a black brown, according to one who actually saw him,
although some authorities, including the General Stud Book, describe him
as having been a bay. In my own eyes I always frame a mental picture of
a rich, glowing, mahogany brown horse, with a bold, generous, manly
head, a great full eye, a noble crest, deep, fine shoulders, a barrel as
round as any cask, and a tremendous loin. “He carries his flag like a
Russian duke” of the olden time, and his quarters and gaskins are
immense, with hocks straight, flat and strong. Old Mr. Gosper, of
Windsor, N.S.W., is reported to have given the following verdict
concerning Emigrant, and in the vernacular, “I never seed an ’orse that
I liked better than Rous’ Emigrant. ’Is ’oofs looked as though they war
made o’ granite, and at eighteen there wasn’t a blemish of no sort on
’is legs.” A rare horse.
But if the tide of emigration had been a somewhat weak one up to 1839,
something had evidently occurred in the history of the colony, or in the
world’s politics, so as to entirely alter that state of affairs, and I
am not quite sure what that something might have been. The prosperity of
Australia about this period was not very startling. The price of cattle
was low, the population was not increasing in a satisfactory manner,
“boiling-down” had already been resorted to, and yet, between 1839 and
the commencement of 1844, fifty-three blood stallions were brought into
the country. And the bustle and boom of the gold rush was still in the
womb of futurity.