docility as are the Morgans. Their action is as clean and elegant and
their bottom cannot be surpassed. If this double accomplishment of a
single private owner be suffered to be wasted it will be a pity indeed,
as well as a national reproach.
[Illustration:
NIMROD (CLAY-ARABIAN)
Bred by Randolph Huntington
]
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE DENMARK, OR KENTUCKY SADDLE-HORSE
The assessed value of horses tabulated by States would make it appear
that Kentucky horse-flesh was not more precious than in other parts of
the Union. And yet Kentucky horses have a fame that is not approached by
those of any other state. This is due to the fact that in a small
section of the state, none but horses of high breeding are reared. A few
counties give to the whole state a reputation which, I am afraid, the
whole state does not deserve. But in the famous Blue Grass region the
noblest horses of several types and kinds have been bred for more than a
hundred years. It is distinctively the breeding place in America of the
English Thoroughbred, and comparatively few men who have gone into the
reproduction of these interesting and fleet animals have refrained
sooner or later from buying or renting farms in Central Kentucky to
carry on their operations. So, also, with the trotters. Indeed, it has
been maintained that in this lime stone region, where blue grass is
indigenous and where it was found in abundance in the park-like woods by
the early explorers that the very bones of horses that had grazed upon
it from infancy were harder, stouter and less sponge-like than those
from anywhere else. This much for the virtue of the lime stone nurtured
merits of the blue grass.
But the people have had much to do with the excellence of Kentucky
horses. They seem to have been by nature interested in the breed of
horses from the beginning of their settlement there. One of the first
records of the Colonial era is that of a Kentuckian who was killed by an
Indian while training a race-horse on a frontier race-course. And among
the seven first statutes enacted by the Colony when in preparation to
become a state of the Union, was one to regulate the range and improve
the breed of horses. They were horse lovers in Kentucky in the beginning
as they are to-day. And to-day there is no crime that is looked upon
with more contempt than to misrepresent the breeding of a horse. In
Kentucky a gentleman may kill another gentleman if his cause be just,
and suffer no reproach save that of himself; but if he palter with the
pedigree of a horse he trifles with his caste, and is ranked with the
sneak thieves and the pickpockets who take their victims unaware, and
achieve at once a petty and cowardly advantage. This love of the horse
and knowledge of him has gone on from generation to generation until it
has become a part, and no inconsiderable part of the heritage of every
Kentuckian who considers himself well born.
Some twenty years ago a Kentucky horse-breeder was in Boston, visiting a
gentleman with whom he had business. The Bostonian, with the
characteristic hospitality of those Dr. Holmes catalogued as of the
“Brahmin caste,” showed the Kentuckian about. He pointed out to him the
equestrian statue of Washington at the head of Commonwealth Avenue.
“There is the Washington statue,” remarked the Bostonian. “And what was
the breeding of the horse?” the Kentuckian inquired. The horse to him
was almost everything. And, later in the day, when dinner was over at
the hospitable Bostonian’s home, and the ladies and children were
retiring, the Kentuckian leaned over to his host and said, with
enthusiasm: “By Gad, Colonel, you have outbred yourself.” That was a
heartfelt tribute expressed in the natural way in which a Kentuckian
should speak. No wonder that they have fine horses when they give so
much thought to this subject of breeding.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF DENMARK MARES AT PASTURE IN KENTUCKY]
But for all this Kentucky has produced only one distinctive reproducing
type. Her trotters—if type they be—belong as much elsewhere as to
Kentucky; her runners are purely English. Her Denmarks, however, belong
to Kentucky. They have been bred there for more than sixty years, and as
a distinctive American type, they are second only in this country to the
Morgans of Vermont. It is a singular fact and not unworthy of note that
only two states have produced distinct American reproducing types,
Vermont and Kentucky, and those were the first two states admitted to
the Union after the original thirteen got ready to embrace other
sisters.
It is most curious how a type happens. The Morgans, as has been shown in
a previous chapter, came from a horse whose pedigree was not even
considered, and to this day is known only by conjecture and not at all
by established fact. He was considered a good horse in his day, but it
was not until his sons begat colts of exceptional merit that it was
thought worth while to inquire into his origin, and that of his
antecedents. With Denmark it was, in a degree, different. Denmark was a
Thoroughbred, though some who are over-critical, quarrel with the
pedigree of his dam. Let that be as it may. In 1839, when he was foaled,
begat by Imported Hedgeford out of Betsey Harrison, he was about as good
a Thoroughbred as the generality of those we had in America. Moreover,
he was a successful contestant on the turf and a good horse at four-mile
heats. These disputes as to the purity of the blood of our early horses
are rather academic than practical. In all of the early race-horses, not
purely English, there were infusions of the American basic blood; and
for that matter this was the case also in England, where the
Thoroughbred at that time was only newly evolved with the aid of
Oriental blood from the native strains. Here, however, is his pedigree
of Denmark traced back for several generations:
PEDIGREE OF DENMARK
┌── Highflyer
┌── Sir Peter
│ └── Papillon
┌── Haphazard
│ │ ┌── Eclipse
│ └── Miss Hervey
│ └── Clio
┌── Fihlo-da-puta
│ │ ┌── Pot-8-os
│ │ ┌── Waxy
│ │ │ └── Maria
│ └── Mrs. Barnet
│ │ ┌── Woodpecker
│ └── Daughter
│ └── Heikel
Imp. Hedgeford
│ ┌── King Fergus
│ ┌── Benningbrough
│ │ └── Daughter
│ ┌── Orville
│ │ │ ┌── Highflyer
│ │ └── Evelina
│ │ └── Termagant
└── Miss Craigie
│ ┌── Dungannon
│ ┌── Lurcher
│ │ └── Vertumus
└── Marchioness
│ ┌── Phenomenon
└── Miss Cogden
└── Daughter
┌── Imp. Fearnaught
┌── Symmes' Wildair
│ └── Jolly Roger Mare
┌── Director
│ │ ┌── Harris' Eclipse
│ └── Eclipse Mare
│ └── Daughter
┌── Aratus
│ │ ┌── Sir Peter Teazle
│ │ ┌── Imp. Sir Harry
│ │ │ └── Matron
│ └── Betsey Haxall
│ │ ┌── Imp. Saltram
│ └── Saltram Mare (Timoleun's dam)
│ └── Daughter
Betsey Harrison
│ ┌── Florizel
│ ┌── Imp. Diomed
│ │ └── Sister to Juno
│ ┌── Potomac
│ │ │ ┌── Pegasus
│ │ └── Fairy
│ │ └── Nancy McCullock
└── Jenny Cockracy
│ ┌── Eclipse
│ ┌── Imp. Saltram
│ │ └── Virago
└── Saltram Mare (Timoleun's dam)
│ ┌── Symmes' Wildair
└── Daughter
└── Daughter
That is pretty good breeding, even though the ancestors of Potomac might
not pass muster with those who look very closely back through the
sixteen generations. It may be that this so-called “cold-streak” in
Denmark, through his maternal great grandsire, was just what was needed
when he was mated with the Kentucky mares whose produce has given him
enduring fame.
In England the Thoroughbred is thought to be the ideal saddle-horse. I
confess that I have had the Thoroughbred fever pretty badly. But that
was a long time ago; and maybe that fever was contemporaneous with
Anglo-mania; indeed, the former may have been due to the latter.
Personal preferences, however, have properly little weight in a judicial
inquiry. My whole effort in this book has been to be entirely fair.
Personally, I care for a very few gaits in a saddle-horse. I am quite
content with the walk, the trot and the gallop. The Thoroughbred does
all of these with, to say the least, a reasonable satisfaction. But it
is unquestionably true that a well-formed, well-trained, well-bred
Denmark will go all three of these gaits with better style and more
finish than any Thoroughbred. Besides, he can readily be taught the
amble or pace, the running-walk, or fox-trot, and the rack or single
foot. That some do not care for these gaits is not in the least a
reproach upon the capacity of the horse that can do them at the bidding
of the rider. Moreover, this multiplicity of gaits does not in the least
detract from the complete finish of each and all. This fact has become
so apparent that there is a kind of hostility between New York and South
and Western horse-show standards as to what a saddle-horse shall be
like. A thoroughly gaited horse, trained in all the paces, would look
absurd in the eyes of those who like such horses if he were shorn of his
tail. It is considered by many who care only for the three gaits that a
saddle-horse must have a docked tail. A few years ago a man with a
thoroughly gaited horse could show him, long tail and all, in the
Southern and Western circuit, and then bring him to New York and
Philadelphia where he would tie up the horse’s tail and only exhibit the
walk, trot and gallop. Now, this still may be permissible; but, if not
absolutely denied, it is sternly frowned upon. So really the question
has become the highly absurd one of tail or no tail. It is about as
absurd as to deny the place to an applicant for a position where
knowledge of French was required because he also knew Italian and
Spanish. The breeders and trainers of Denmarks are too practical,
however, to shed tears over such foolishness. They breed their horses
the same as before, but they train this one for the East and that one
for the West and South. The quality tells wherever they go, and a horse
in any section that takes a blue ribbon away from a Denmark is more than
lucky, he is almost unique.
For several years past, however, at the Horse Show in New York, a
gentleman from England has come over to judge the saddle classes. In
England he is, no doubt, as good a judge of such classes as may be had,
for there the Thoroughbred is the one type, except the cob, that is
considered as filling the requirements for the saddle. Before the advent
of this gentleman, a great master in training, exhibiting and judging
saddle-horses, had acted for a good many years. He had, by his awards,
established a standard that made it almost impossible for other horses
to compete with the Denmarks. He appeared to think—I have never spoken
with him on the subject—that symmetry, good manners, good mouth, style
of action both in front and behind, sure-footedness, docility, and
intelligence were the requisites to be aimed at. Now, these are all
characteristics of the Denmark. Not all are characteristics of the
Thoroughbred. For instance, in the slow gaits a Thoroughbred,
particularly one that has ever been in training, is not sure-footed; he
travels too close to the ground. Again, he is not docile, as he becomes
very easily excited, and when his blood is up, wants to gallop at full
speed. His mouth, owing to this easily aroused excitement, more
frequently than not, gets all wrong, and he responds more to force than
to that sympathy which makes a good saddle-horse, and his rider seem to
be one. His style of action is inferior to that of the Denmark both in
front and behind and, as a general thing, he lacks the symmetry of
substance which is really the most remarkable thing about a Denmark. It
is surely a pity that there should be in our show rings this confusion
as to standards. The Thoroughbred type as a saddle-horse standard does
not obtain away from New York. In Philadelphia, in Boston, in Chicago
and all over the South and West, the Denmark is still the saddle-horse
par excellence, as he deserves to be. A friend of mine, in upholding the
New York authorities for getting an English judge for American
saddle-horses, says that the substitution was wise, because the Kentucky
horses hammer themselves all to pieces on the hard roads in the parks of
the East. If the park roads in the East are harder than the Kentucky
turnpikes, I have yet to see them. His idea seemed to be that every
Kentucky horse was sure to rack. But that is not so at all. He racks
when he is taught, and he is taught so easily that he acquires the gait
by what might be called second nature; but the Denmark can be turned out
whenever desired to go only the three gaits—walk, trot, and canter—and
he does these with a finish that the Thoroughbred cannot approach.
[Illustration:
MONTGOMERY CHIEF, JR. (CLOSELY INBRED DENMARK BY MONTGOMERY CHIEF)
Bred by Allie Jones, owned by Philippine Government
]
But these other easily acquired Kentucky gaits are not to be despised.
The running-walk is not hard upon the horse, and it is the easiest of
all on the rider. When men on business, or soldiers on a march both have
to go great distances in the saddle, the running-walk is about as great
an excellence as a horse can be endowed with. It came into being in this
country when most journeys were made on horseback. In those days, when
about to take the long road from Lexington to Washington and
Philadelphia, a man would have been considered lacking in intelligence
who expressed contempt for either the amble or the fox-trot. And when
Morgan’s men, during the Civil War, were making those wonderful
raids—now here, now there, and the next day out of sight—they were
generally mounted on these Kentucky-bred horses—not Thoroughbreds, but
Denmarks and others of the saddle-class type, the one type that
particularly belongs to Kentucky, and one of the very few types that we
can call American.
Long before Denmark came to Kentucky—fifty years and more—there had been
good saddle-horses there. There was an urgent need for them, and men of
enterprise usually get what they need. They had been brought from
Virginia by the early settlers, they had come from Canada and from
Vermont. They were excellent horses for the purposes of the time, but
they lacked the fine finish that came to them from Denmark and other
Thoroughbred crosses that were made about his time. It was not
appreciated to the full what an excellent cross Denmark made on those
old time mares until after his death, and the appearance of his sons as
sires—particularly Gaines’s Denmark. From this latter horse the best
saddle-horses that Kentucky has produced have descended and, in many
instances, they breed back to him two, three and four times. To my mind,
here is the strongest proof that the Denmark is a fixed reproducing
type. Inbreeding is fatal among mongrels of any sort; but where the type
is fixed it may be done with most excellent results and strictly, too,
according to the rule of “like begetting like.”
Here is another peculiarity of the Denmark. His excellence as a driving
horse is only exceeded by his virtues under the saddle. I am well aware
that men of fortune, who can keep as many horses in their stables as
they choose, rather scoff at the “combination horse.” All right for
them. All of us, however, are not so fortunately situated. When a man
whose means only enable him to keep a few horses—or even one horse—and
he wants both to ride and drive, the “combination horse” is the only
animal that will enable him to go how and when he chooses. The Denmarks
make splendid combination horses. They trot in harness with quite
reasonable speed and very good action, and the road is seldom too long
for them. My personal experience has not shown me that this change from
saddle to harness worked any great harm. I once had a Denmark that won
first prizes at the same show in the rings for saddle-horses, for
combination horses and for roadsters; all these winnings in two days. It
seems only reasonable that horses with the activity, the adaptability,
and the intelligence to acquire the various gaits that are within a
Denmark’s range would not necessarily be injured by driving in harness.
At any rate, a man who has only a small stable can get more kinds of fun
out of a Denmark than out of any other type of horse.
This type of horse is bred in five or six counties grouped about
Lexington. There are several large breeders, but pretty nearly every
farmer has a saddle mare or two that are regularly bred. But the supply
is not up to the demand. The dealers and trainers have their eyes open
all the time for promising individuals to train for the show rings, and
supply to wealthy customers in various parts of the country. They get
first choice because they are willing, when they come across a
particularly fine specimen, to take it even as a yearling. As these
animals are usually not salable until four years old, it will be seen
that the disposal of the yearling is an attractive thing for the breeder
and risky for the dealer. But there are still a good many of them needed
for use at home, as the young Blue Grass Kentuckian must have his
saddler so that he can range the country-side at will. Most men,
unacquainted with the easy gaits of a Kentucky saddle-horse, as used in
his native counties, would think it rather strange to go courting on
horseback, and arrive at one’s destination hot and mussed up. But these
easily gaited horses do not muss one up any more than a hansom cab does.
This easiness of gait reminds me of another use for which they are
invaluable. The planters in the South, as a general thing, go about
their places on horseback, also visiting the village and their neighbors
in the same way. In that generally warm climate a Thoroughbred or
trotting horse would get the rider so warm that a change of clothes
would be necessary; but these Southern gentlemen do not find such a
need. Indeed, I have been told that one accustomed to the saddle and the
climate can attend to business and social duties, plus two or three mint
juleps, without any great inconvenience.
When I was asked last year by the Civil Government of the Philippines to
select some mares and stallions for transportation there for breeding
and the improvement of the ponies in the Islands, I bought as many
Denmark mares as the conditions of my commission permitted. As my time
was limited I had to scour several counties very thoroughly. The
gentlemen I first consulted were rather discouraging, but I got in a few
weeks as fine a lot as ever left Kentucky, and the picture that is in
this book shows a group of them at pasture just before they were started
on their long journey to the other side of the world, where they
arrived, I am glad to say, with a loss of only two per cent. It was more
difficult to find Denmark stallions. The scarcity of these is due to the
efforts of the dealers and trainers to get males for their customers. So
many of the most promising are sold as yearlings and gelded. The
greatest stallions of the day are, I should judge, Montgomery Chief,
belonging to the Ball Brothers, Highland Denmark, belonging to the Gay
Brothers, and Forest Denmark, belonging to Colonel Woodford. These are
all closely-inbred Denmarks, and are most successful as sires, their
progeny winning blue ribbons wherever shown.
These horses have found their way into Tennessee, Illinois, and
Missouri, where the stock is most highly esteemed; but they flourish
most in Kentucky. I have heard army officers say that in the hard riding
days, when the Indian was still a frontier menace, that a troop of
cavalry mounted on horses from Kentucky would find their horses in
first-class condition when other troops on horses say from Iowa,
Missouri, or Illinois would be completely worn out and unable to
continue. These horses are singularly free from blemishes. I noticed
this particularly when making the Philippine purchases just alluded to.
Here every horse had to be absolutely sound, or, as they say in
Kentucky, “without a pimple.” The small percentage of rejection for
unsoundness really surprised me. This was testimony to the careful
selection in breeding that is practised there. One other word as to this
experience. When a breeder was asked whether his offering were broken or
trained, he either looked bewildered or treated the question as a joke.
This was because all of them are perfectly broken and, as a mere matter
of course, both to saddle and harness.
The prevailing size of the Denmarks, I should say, is 15.2, the weight
1050 pounds. In color they are usually bays or chestnuts, though there
are browns, blacks and grays. I never saw a dun; but I have seen a few
roans. The usual practice is to handle them at two years old, train them
gently at three, and give them a complete education at four.
The American Saddle Horse Breeders’ Association keeps and publishes a
register affirming that the following sires are the founders of the
type:
Denmark (Thoroughbred), by Imp. Hedgeford.
John Dillard, by Indian Chief (Canadian).
Tom Hal (Imported from Canada).
Cabell’s Lexington, by Gist’s Black Hawk (Morgan).
Coleman’s Eureka (Thoroughbred and Morgan).
Van Meter’s Waxy (Thoroughbred).
Stump the Dealer (Thoroughbred).
Peter’s Halcorn.
Davy Crockett.
Pat Cleburne, by Benton’s Gray Diomed.
This wide inclusion is hospitable and probably just, for the blood of
all these horses commingling with the old stock has made the Kentucky
saddle-horses what they are, but among them all the Denmarks are
pre-eminent. That they should be a reproducing type is, no doubt, due to
the Oriental blood in the Thoroughbreds and the fresh infusions that
came with the Jefferson Barbs, Keene Richards’s Arabs and from other
more recent sources.
[Illustration:
HIGHLAND EAGLE (A CLOSELY INBRED DENMARK BY HIGHLAND DENMARK)
Owned by Thomas K. Ryan
]
CHAPTER NINE
THE GOVERNMENT AS A BREEDER
The United States as a government has never until now conducted any
horse-breeding experiments. Army officers have frequently tried to
induce the War Department to start a breeding establishment so that
remounts of a proper kind could be supplied to the cavalry. But the idea
has never appealed to Congress, and in this particular direction nothing
has been done. Dr. D. E. Salmon, the accomplished chief of the Bureau of
Animal Industry of the Agricultural Department, has inserted what may be
the “entering-wedge” for at the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station
a few mares and stallions have been assembled, and an effort will be
made to breed a type of carriage horses, a type badly needed. Of this
experiment Dr. Salmon says:
“In the countries of the world where horse breeding has been encouraged
by government assistance the foundation has been native stock, and the
key to successful work has been selection according to a certain type.
Furthermore, with all due respect to Godolphin Arabian, the Darley
Arabian and their contemporaries, the great factor in developing the
Thoroughbred horse was the method of the English breeder, and more
credit is due to native English stock and to environment than has
generally been acknowledged. The Thoroughbred has been the great
leavening power in developing English breeds of light horses; the
trotter may bear the same relation to the horse stock of America.
“The trotter is found throughout the country wherever horses are raised,
and any improvement in this breed affects in time the entire horse
industry. The light harness classes can be supplied from this source,
and there is no more effective way to provide a supply of suitable
cavalry horses for the United States army than by showing how the native
horse may be improved.