“2. Is the sire of two other animals with a record of 2.40 or
better.
“3. Has a sire or dam, grandsire or grandam, that is already a
standard animal.
“_Fifth_—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of
2.30 or better.
“_Sixth_—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard
mare.
“_Seventh_—The progeny of a standard horse out of a mare by a
standard horse.
“_Eighth_—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare whose
dam is a standard mare.
“_Ninth_—Any mare that has a record of 2.40 or better; and whose
sire or dam, grandsire or grandam, is a standard animal.
“_Tenth_—A record to wagon of 2.35 or better shall be regarded as
equal to a 2.30 record.”
Before much had been accomplished under these rules, Wallace, who was as
militant as he was ingenious, got into a dispute with the Kentucky
breeders over methods of breeding, the value of thoroughbred blood, the
genuineness of his published pedigrees and about anything else that came
along. So the Kentuckians started the “Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book,”
the standard for it being a little modified. In a year or so, Wallace,
seeing that the war was going against him, sold out his register and
retired from the field. Then new rules were adopted, as follows:
“THE TROTTING STANDARD
“When an animal meets these requirements and is duly registered,
it shall be accepted as a standard-bred trotter:—
“1. The progeny of a registered standard trotting horse and a
registered standard trotting mare.
“2. A stallion sired by a registered standard trotting horse,
provided his dam and grandam were sired by registered standard
trotting horses, and he himself has a trotting record of 2.30 and
is the sire of three trotters with records of 2.30, from different
mares.
“3. A mare whose sire is a registered standard trotting horse, and
whose dam and grandam were sired by registered standard trotting
horses, provided she herself has a trotting record of 2.30, or is
the dam of one trotter with a record of 2.30.
“4. A mare sired by a registered standard trotting horse, provided
she is the dam of two trotters with records of 2.30.
“5. A mare sired by a registered standard trotting horse, provided
her first, second, and third dams are each sired by a registered
standard trotting horse.
“THE PACING STANDARD
“When an animal meets these requirements and is duly registered,
it shall be accepted as a standard-bred pacer:—
“1. The progeny of a registered standard pacing horse and a
registered standard pacing mare.
“2. A stallion sired by a registered standard pacing horse,
provided his dam and grandam were sired by registered standard
pacing horses, and he himself has a pacing record of 2.25, and is
the sire of three pacers with records of 2.25, from different
mares.
“3. A mare whose sire is a registered standard pacing horse, and
whose dam and grandam were sired by registered standard pacing
horses, provided she herself has a pacing record of 2.25, or is
the dam of one pacer with a record of 2.25.
“4. A mare sired by a registered standard pacing horse, provided
she is the dam of two pacers with records of 2.25.
“5. A mare sired by a registered standard pacing horse, provided
her first, second, and third dams are each sired by a registered
pacing horse.
“6. The progeny of a registered standard trotting horse out of a
registered standard pacing mare, or of a registered standard
trotting mare.”
And these are the rules that obtain to-day in keeping a register of
which the rat-tailed semi-Conestoga Abdallah is No. 1.
It will be seen by the rules certain features of the great breeding
principle: “Like begets like” are followed, and there is no doubt that
some intelligent breeders have tried most sincerely to embrace in the
mating of stallions and mares all of the principles; but, as a rule, the
speed test alone was considered instead of similarity of blood,
similarity of conformation (for nature abhors great contrasts), and also
performance. The importance given to the time tests and the public
records and the disregard of pure and similar blood has detracted, in my
opinion, most seriously from the success of the experiments and the
effort to create a type of fast trotting horses. Why, the Standard Bred
Trotter is not a type at all. They come in all sizes and shapes, they
have no fixed gait, and not more than three per cent of them can trot
fast enough to be considered even a good roadster. The visitors to the
Speedway in New York have opportunities to see the best and fastest
trotters in the world. There are certainly some fine animals shown
there, a few that are splendid. But they are of all sorts in
conformation and method of going. It cannot be a reproducing type under
such circumstances. When a hundred colts and fillies are bred we want
many more than three of that number to be able to accomplish the purpose
of their creation. At least half of the progeny of the Standard Bred
Trotters should be trotters themselves and more than half of the
remainder should be good general utility horses. That is the case with
the Morgans and the Denmarks, the two true American types, for these
types have substance and character, besides a systematic method of
breeding is pursued where lineage and conformation rather than
performance count. And even with the Standard Bred Trotters that go
fast—the three per cent of them—quite half of them are pacers rather
than trotters. Gen. Benjamin F. Tracy said in a letter to the _Turf,
Field and Farm_, February 15, 1901, that the greater proportion of fast
Standard Bred Trotters are not trotters at all, but pacers. There has
been no one to dispute this statement, which was not one merely of
opinion, but of compilation.
The trotting men, however, avoid this by saying that trotting and pacing
are the same gait, because many horses both trot and pace and because a
pacer can be converted into a trotter. This theory is beyond my
intelligence. I know that the natural gaits of a natural horse are walk,
trot, and gallop. Many that do these gaits, as in the case of the
Denmarks, can do several others besides—the rack and the running walk,
for instance. Yet no one will say that these gaits are all the same. It
is too preposterous to discuss. Besides, the pace is not a fit gait for
a gentleman’s roadster. It may be well enough for butchers, barkeepers
and gamblers, but a gentleman should have a gentleman’s horse.
It has not been a pleasure to say these things of what some call the
great light harness horse of America; but when breeders, through false
principles, go a wrong road it ought not to be considered an unkindness
to call their attention to the fact. A few years ago in a magazine
article I told the truth about Hambletonian’s breeding, and received
many indignant letters of protest. One kind gentleman up in
Massachusetts, asked me to visit him, saying he should like to have the
pleasure of kicking me across the state. I requested him to have a
survey made so that I might know how far I would have to be propelled by
the toe of his boot, as I did not care to put him to an undue amount of
trouble. He has not replied, so, I presume the survey is not yet
completed. But breeders in Kentucky, in Vermont, and in Illinois wrote
in complimentary terms, saying that they had paid dearly for their
belief in false pedigrees and false principles of breeding. I am
thoroughly persuaded that these false notions have cost the breeders of
America millions and millions of dollars, for a Standard Bred Trotter
that does not go fast is a pretty poor specimen of a horse and worth
very little, while the amounts spent in trying to develop speed which
does not exist are colossal.
But the records have unquestionably been lowered until the horse that
can trot a mile in two minutes is one of the wonders of the world. Look
at the record of progression.
Boston Blue, black gelding 1818 3.00
Bull Calf, bay gelding 1830 2.47¾
Edwin Forrest, black gelding 1838 2.36½
Dutchman, bay gelding 1839 2.32
Lady Suffolk, gray mare 1845 2.29½
Pelham (converted pacer), bay gelding 1849 2.28
Highland Maid (converted pacer), bay mare 1853 2.27
Flora Temple, bay mare 1856 2.24½
Flora Temple, bay mare 1859 2.19¾
Dexter, brown gelding 1867 2.17¼
Goldsmith Maid, bay mare 1871 2.17
Goldsmith Maid, bay mare 1874 2.14
Rarus, bay gelding 1878 2.13¼
St. Julien, bay gelding 1879 2.12¾
Maud S., chestnut mare 1880 2.10¾
Maud S., chestnut mare 1881 2.10¼
Jay-eye-See, black gelding 1884 2.10
Maud S., chestnut mare 1884 2.09¼
Maud S., chestnut mare 1885 2.08¾
Sunol, bay mare 1891 2.08¼
Nancy Hanks, brown mare 1892 2.04
Alix, bay mare 1894 2.03¾
The Abbot, bay gelding 1900 2.03¼
Cresceus, chestnut horse 1901 2.02¼
Lou Dillon, chestnut mare 1903 1.58½
[Illustration:
LOU DILLON (STANDARD-BRED TROTTER)
Owned by J. G. K. Billings. First horse to trot a mile in less than
two minutes
]
This table shows that three minutes was reduced in forty-one years to
two minutes and twenty seconds—that is in that time forty seconds were
lopped off the record. It took forty-four years to take off the next
twenty seconds. In the meantime the bicycle, ball-bearing sulky had been
invented, and the last half of this twenty seconds were cut off when
this weightless and frictionless vehicle was used. The Standard Bred
Trotter had also been created. My idea is that the Dutchman, Henry Clay,
and Lady Suffolk could either of them gone a mile in from ten to fifteen
seconds faster than they did under modern conditions of training,
driving, shoeing and harnessing and hitched to the modern vehicle. These
experiments have all been very interesting, but I believe the same
results might have been achieved at a very much less cost and
loss—indeed, with a profit.
Exceeding high prices for trotting-horses have been very injurious to
the horse-breeding industry. Whenever a trotting-horse brings twenty,
forty or a hundred thousand dollars it sets the breeders, even the small
ones wild with a desire to breed a colt that will bring such a price.
Mr. Bonner began this with his purchase of Dexter, and followed it up by
buying many others at very high figures, including Maud S. and Sunol. He
doubtless found this an excellent advertisement for himself and his
paper, but it was a bad thing for the horses of the country. The
purchase of Axtell at $105,000 and Arion at $125,000 was even more
demoralizing. No trotting-horse was ever worth that much and none
probably ever will be. However, it is an excellent thing for very rich
men to breed horses. They can afford to make experiments, and if their
experiments are successful the men of moderate means can imitate them
and succeed also. But this trotting horse breeding business is a rich
man’s divertisement just as yachting is. The men who breed for profit
should confine themselves to types which are reproducing, to types which
come true more frequently than they prove false.
I firmly believe that if these trotters are ever made a consistently
reproducing type, it will be by constant infusions of a mixture of
trotting blood—Morgan or Clay—with that of the Thoroughbred. The first
cross will probably not produce it, but if the mares of such unions be
bred back to stallions of the blood mentioned, the result ought to be
more satisfactory in the way of making a type, even though the
experiments may not result in phenomenal speed; but there is no reason
why there should not be a satisfactory percentage of phenomenal speed as
well.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE CLAY AND CLAY-ARABIAN
Henry Clay was one of the greatest horses that ever lived in this
country. He was very fast, very strong and as game as it was possible
for a horse to be. He founded a distinguished family, and from that
family Mr. Randolph Huntington, of Fleetwood Farm, Oyster Bay, Long
Island, by crossing Clay mares with Arab and Barb stallions, has created
a type of as splendid horses as ever touched the earth. And it is a
great pity that the United States Government has not long ago taken over
all of Mr. Huntington’s horses, so as to perpetuate this new and useful
type into a great national horse. On the sire’s side Henry Clay was a
closely inbred Messenger. He was by Andrew Jackson, the greatest
trotting horse of his day, and absolutely unbeaten during all his long
career. Andrew Jackson was by Young Bashaw, and his dam was by Why Not,
by imported Messenger, the grandam also being by imported Messenger.
Young Bashaw was by the imported Arabian Grand Bashaw, the dam being
Pearl by First Consul (Arab bred) out of Fancy by imported Messenger out
of a daughter of Rockingham. Henry Clay’s dam was the famous mare, Lady
Surrey. She was bred in the neighbourhood of Quebec, Ontario, and was
brought with twelve other horses into New York. With her mate, “Croppy,”
she was sold to one of the Wisner family in Goshen, New York. The class
to which Lady Surrey belonged was then called Kanucks, though some
called them “Pile Drivers,” because of their high-knee action. Records
of breeding were not kept in Quebec, but all the external evidence
points to an Oriental origin of the horses that were taken there from
France. But the strong admixture of Arab and Barb blood in Henry Clay is
evident from the recorded part of his pedigree and disregarding the
blood of his dam.
[Illustration:
CLAY-KISMET (CLAY-ARABIAN)
Bred by Randolph Huntington
]
Henry Clay was foaled in 1837, and lived until 1867. He was bred by Mr.
George M. Patchen, of New Jersey, and afterwards passed into the hands
of Gen. William Wadsworth, of Geneseo, New York. Probably, if he had
remained the property of Patchen, he would have had a better chance as a
sire, for there were times during the Wadsworth ownership, when this
horse suffered alternately from neglect and abuse. When General
Wadsworth wanted to buy the colt, he asked Mr. Patchen to put a price on
him. Mr. Patchen, not anxious to sell, finally put on a price which he
thought prohibitive. “We will give the horse all the water he can
drink,” he said to General Wadsworth, “and then weigh him, and you may
give me one dollar a pound for him.” General Wadsworth promptly
accepted, and the horse weighing 1050 pounds, that fixed the price,
which was paid immediately, and the horse was sent at once to Livingston
County, New York.
Once when General Wadsworth had a match at mile heats, best three in
five, he drove his horse ninety-eight miles the day before the race,
rather than pay forfeit, and then won the race, one heat being trotted
in 2.35. This was in 1847. Consider the clumsy shoes, the heavy sulkies,
and other impedimenta of that time, in comparison with the wire-like
plates, ball-bearing, pneumatic-tired sulkies, and cobweb-like harness
of to-day, and decide whether even the most phenomenal of our trotters
is better than that.
Another performance shows the stoutness of heart of this great horse.
General Wadsworth needed a doctor for his sister. Henry Clay was
harnessed to a two-seated wagon, did the journey from Geneseo to
Rochester, thirty-eight miles, and then back again, the whole
seventy-six miles being covered in less than five hours. A horse that
could do that was worthy to found a family. He did this through his son,
Black Douglas, his grandson, Cassius M. Clay, and his grandson, George
M. Patchen. His female descendants are conspicuous in the trotting-horse
pedigrees, the most conspicuous among them being Green Mountain Maid,
the dam of Electioneer, and conceded by the Standard Bred Trotter
element to be the greatest dam in American horse history. She was got by
Harry Clay,[7] a great grandson of the founder of the family.
Footnote 7:
It has been said that the Star mare, the dam of Dexter, was served
both by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian and Harry Clay the spring before
Dexter’s birth, and that it is more likely that Harry Clay was the
sire of Dexter because of Dexter’s resemblance to the Clays rather
than the Hambletonians, and also because of his stoutness of heart. As
Dexter was a gelding and incapable of leaving progeny this question is
more interesting than important. I have no opinion in the matter, but
as I am convinced of the general inaccuracy of the records of the day,
I am not at all prepared to believe that Dexter’s pedigree as put in
the books is accurate. About the time he became famous the
Hambletonian party was numerous and powerful and by no means
scrupulous in claiming everything in sight.
The dam of the trotting stallion George Wilkes was also said to be by
Henry Clay. The Hambletonian advocates—George Wilkes was sired by
Hambletonian—were so bitter in their opposition to the Clay blood,
that they refused to accept this and preferred that the breeding of
George Wilkes’ dam should be set down as unknown. I have read a good
deal that has been written on the subject and can only say that the
statements pro and con are equally unconvincing and only illustrate
over again the utter untrustworthiness of the early records, together
with the partizan discourtesy of the disputants.
Mr. Huntington has long believed that the Clay was the best trotting
blood in America, and when this blood was spoken of contemptuously by
Mr. Robert Bonner and called “Sawdust” Mr. Huntington’s indignation knew
no bounds. However, the blood could never become unpopular after the
record of the Green Mountain Maid in producing trotters. All of her
colts could trot—she had sixteen—and trot fast. But Mr. Huntington’s
opportunity to utilize this Clay blood came when General Grant received
a present of two stallions from the Sultan of Turkey. When General Grant
took his famous trip around the world, the Sultan entertained him at
Constantinople. Among the things that particularly interested the
General there were the Sultan’s stables. The Sultan hearing of this,
selected two of the best stallions in his collection and gave them to
the General. The stallions were Leopard, an Arab, and Linden Tree, a
Barb. Mr. Huntington at once set about getting General Grant’s consent
to use these horses for breeding. He got the consent and set about
securing what he considered proper mares. It seems a pity that General
Grant had not turned these horses entirely over to Mr. Huntington. He
was not himself a breeder, and after he reached middle life was only
interested in driving horses. So these stallions were really white
elephants on his hands. But Mr. Huntington might have made a more
extensive use of them than he did. His theory was that these horses
should be bred to virgin Clay mares. And he secured several of them. As
a breeder Mr. Huntington is one of those who hold to the theory that a
mare once pregnant to a horse is liable, if not likely, in later foals
to “throw back”, as it is somewhat technically expressed, and show in
these later foals the characteristics of the sire of the first
pregnancy. This is a matter of dispute among breeders. The theory has
been proved, so far as dogs are concerned, in my own experience. I had a
fox terrier bitch. She was accidentally served by a spaniel. When she
was next bred it was to a proper fox terrier and there was no chance of
error. The ensuing litter of puppies was a mongrel lot, showing spaniel
traces, and all of them had to be destroyed. Then, as to horses. Mr.
Bruce said that Dr. Warfield, the breeder of Lexington, had had
thoroughbred mares served by Jacks for the producing of mules, and later
had got winning colts from the same mares by Thoroughbred stallions. It
is an interesting matter with breeders and by no means settled. But Mr.
Huntington did not want to take any chances in making this new venture,
so he sought and obtained virgin mares, that the progeny might not be
tainted with other than the blood of the sires.
Mr. Huntington also holds to the theory that when breeding with
homogeneous blood that the degree of consanguinity between sire and dam
may be very much closer than is the usual practice. In other words, he
is an advocate of inbreeding so long as the experiments be not between
horses of heterogeneous and unmixable blood. Under the latter
circumstances he thoroughly agrees with the rest of the world that the
mongrelization of the product is increased. Indeed, it can be increased
in no way more surely, for the prevailing characteristics of an animal
type are increased by inbreeding and when the animals are mongrels to
begin with, that which is bad in them becomes more and more exaggerated
in the offspring. Mr. Huntington has been a breeder and a writer on
breeding for more than half a century. In a controversy he is, what may
be called, without any offense to him, I am sure, decidedly militant. It
has, therefore, been the case that not unfrequently his discussions as
to the breeding of horses have been fast and furious. If I disagreed
with him in his conclusions I should refrain from saying this—indeed, I
should not remark his personal characteristics at all. But I feel that
the misrepresentations to which he has been subjected should be spoken
of, for they have been cruel and continuous, and have done great
injustice to one of the most sincere, most honest and most capable horse
breeders who has ever lived and worked in this country. Moreover, he has
had more than a due share of misfortune in one way and another.
When he had got well along with his experiments with the Clay mares and
the Grant stallions, and proved to his own satisfaction and that, also,
of many of the friends who were observing his operations, it was
considered desirable to enlarge the plant. There were few sales, for the
obviously wise course was to keep the collection together for
observation and until the type sought after should be fixed and
reproducing. So more capital was taken in, and a man considered one of
the chief financial lawyers of New York, organized a company and became
its treasurer. In a year or so this lawyer was apprehended in some of
the most far reaching financial rascalities ever perpetrated in the
metropolis. He ruined estates in his charge, and corporations with which
he was connected. Mr. Huntington’s horse-breeding company among the
others. Here was a blow. The collection had to be dispersed just as it
had arrived at success. Though at that time Mr. Huntington was an old
man, he did not give up. He bought what of the collection he could, and
started in again. His second attempt proves that he is entirely right,
as he produces with an absolute certainty two classes of as admirable
horses as I have ever seen. The first, and the one that ought to be most
useful, is represented in the illustration in this book of Clay-Kismet,
and the other by Nimrod. Clay-Kismet is 16½ hands high, and is as
perfectly adapted for a carriage horse as any I have seen—as well
adapted even as the Golddust, of which I spoke in the Morgan chapter.
His symmetry, finish and high breeding adapt him particularly for this,
while the cleanness of his action gives a final perfection that cannot
fail to excite admiration in those who know and love horses. He is by an
Arab stallion 15 hands in stature, out of a closely inbred Clay mare,
the union resulting in a horse larger than either sire or dam. It is a
singular thing that even the purely bred Arabs, mated by Mr. Huntington
and bred on his place, increase very much in size and action. For
instance, Khaled, when I last saw him was 15.3½ hands, which is
something like a hand taller than either Naomi, his dam, or Nimr, his
sire. Here was an interesting instance of inbreeding, as Naomi was the
grandam of Nimr, the sire of Khaled. Whether this increase in size was
due to inbreeding or to transplantation to a different climate than the
desert, with different and better food, I am not prepared to say. But it
is a striking change for the better. The other horse I alluded to is
Nimrod, now, I am sorry to say, in the Philippines; he is more of a pony
or cob type—something, indeed, like the earlier generations of Morgans,
this type is most admirable in light harness, or to use in the stud in
the creation of polo ponies. This horse was sired by Abdul Hamid II, son
of General Grant’s Leopard out of Mary Sheppard, an inbred Clay mare.