The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

CHAPTER XXI.

Chapter 547,631 wordsPublic domain

HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.

The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s description, and comments thereon—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.

HAMBLETONIAN, 10.—It has been a matter of constant regret that in the compilation of the first volume of the Register I attached the name “Rysdyk’s” to this horse, and this misstep has served as a kind of apparent justification for very many men to seize upon the name “Hambletonian,” with their own name as a prefix. This has led to great confusion and annoyance to all that body of men who have anything to do with records and correct pedigrees. Fortunately, however, the evil has become so apparent that many writers are beginning to use the numbers, and we now very frequently hear men speak of “Hambletonian, 10,” as the true designation of this horse.

As no horse of any blood or period in this or any other country has excited an interest so universal, or represented such a vast sum of money in his offspring and descendants, I must try to give an account of him and his family—ancestors and descendants—as full and accurate as the materials at hand will enable me. He was a beautiful bay color, bred by Jonas Seely, of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York, foaled 1849, got by Abdallah; dam the Kent Mare, by imported Bellfounder; grandam One Eye, by Hambletonian, son of Messenger; great-grandam Silvertail, by imported Messenger; great-great-grandam Black Jin, breeding unknown. He was sold with his dam, when a suckling, to Mr. William M. Rysdyk, of Chester, in the same county, and he remained his till he died in March, 1876. He has been described by a great many writers, but the most minute and accurate description I have ever seen is from the pen of “Hark Comstock” (Peter C. Kellogg), which I will here present, and after it note any point upon which my own judgment differs from his. It should be remembered that this description was made when the horse was breaking down with the weight of years:

Hambletonian, now twenty-six years old, is a rich deep mahogany bay, with black legs, the black extending very high up on the arms and stifles. His mane was originally black, and in his younger days very ornamental; rather light, like that of the blood-horse, and of medium length, never reaching below the lower line of the neck, but uniform throughout. His foretop was always light. At the present time not a vestige of either remains, they having gradually disappeared until crest and crown are bald. His tail is long and full. When we first knew him it was very full, but is also thinning with his advancing years. The hair of both was black as a raven’s wing, and entirely devoid of wave or curl. His marks are a very small star and two white ankles behind, but the coronets being dotted with black spots, the hoofs are mainly dark. Muzzle dark. Head large and bony, with profile inclining to the Roman order; jowl deep; jaws not as wide apart as in some of his descendants, yet not deficient. Eye very large and prominent, and countenance generally animated and expressive of good temper. We found him to measure 10½ inches across the face. Ear large, well set, and lively. Neck rather short and a little heavy at the throatlatch, but thin and clean at the crest. His shoulders are very oblique, deep and strong; withers low and broad; sway very short, and coupling smooth. The great fillets of muscle running back along the spine give extraordinary width and strength to the loin, which threatens to lose the closely-set hip in the wealth of its embrace. But it is back of here that we find lodged the immense and powerful machinery that, imparted to his sons and daughters, has ever placed them in the foremost ranks of trotters. His hip is long and croup high, with great length from hip-point to hock. Thighs and stifles swelling with the sinewy muscle, which extends well down into his large, clean, bony hocks, hung near the ground. Below these the leg is broad, flat, and clean, with the tendons well detached from the bone, and drops at a considerable angle with the upper part of the limb, giving the well-bent rather than the straight hock. Pasterns long, but strong and elastic, and let into hoofs that are perfection. In front his limbs in strength and muscular development comport with the rear formation. His chest is broad and prominent; his forelegs stand wide apart (perhaps in part the result of much covering), and he is deep through the heart; yet notwithstanding this, and the fact of his roundness of barrel, there is no appearance of heaviness or hampered action.

Taken at a glance, the impressive features of the horse are his immense substance, without a particle of coarseness or grossness. No horse we can recall has so great a volume of bone, with the same apparent firmness of texture and true blood-like quality. Though short-backed, he is very long underneath. Indeed, he is a horse of greater than apparent length. We found his measurement from breast to breeching, in a straight line, greater by four inches than his height at the withers—a very unusual excess. We also found him two inches higher over the rump than at the withers, and the whole rear, or propelling portion of the machinery, would upon measurement seem to have been molded for an animal two sizes larger than the one to which it is attached; yet so beautifully is its connection effected with the whole that there is no disproportion apparent, either in the symmetry or the action of the horse. As an evidence of the immense reach which this admirable rear construction enables him to obtain, it is often noticed by visitors that in his favorite attitude, as he stands in his box, his off hind foot is thrown forward so far under him as to nearly touch the one in front of it—an attitude which few horses of his proportionate length could take without an apparent strain, yet which he assumes at perfect repose. When led out upon the ground his walk strikes one as being different from that of any other horse. It cannot be described further than to say that it shows a true and admirable adjustment of parts, and a perfect pliability and elasticity of mechanism that shows out through every movement. Many have noticed and endeavored to account in different ways for the peculiarity, some crediting it to the pliable pastern, others to surplus of knee and hock action, etc., but the fact is, there seems to be a suppleness of the whole conformation that delights to express itself in every movement and action of the horse. “In his box,” said a Kentucky horseman, who recently looked him over, “I thought him too massive to be active, but the moment he stepped out I saw that he was all action.”

There is so much in the foregoing description that is intelligent and just that I hardly feel like reviewing a single phrase. In judging of the conformation of a horse and determining whether it is good or bad, at different points, we must have in our mind some ideal standard, by which we mentally compare one thing with another. The popular conception of the perfect horse is the picture of the “Arabian,” painted by artists who never saw an Arabian horse. The next approach to perfection is the English race horse, but others may insist that the Clydesdale comes nearer perfection and that he should be the ideal with which the standard of comparison should be made. It is unfortunate that Mr. Kellogg should have described Hambletonian as possessing “immense substance, without a particle of coarseness, or grossness.” He had a remarkably coarse head in its size and outline, but this is greatly softened by saying “with a profile inclining to the Roman order.” The ideal muzzle of the English race horse is so fine that, figuratively speaking, he can drink out of a tin cup, but Hambletonian could not get his muzzle into a vessel of much smaller dimensions than a half-bushel measure. “Ear large, well set and lively.” This is true as to the size of the ears, but not correct, in my judgment, as to the setting on. As they habitually lopped backward when in repose, giving a sour and ill-tempered expression, I could not concede that they were “well set.” The hocks were good and clean, but the abrupt angle at that point was certainly a coarse feature. The round meaty withers and the round meaty buttocks were both “coarse and gross” when looked at from the point of good breeding. His two great, meaty ends, connected with a long and perfect barrel, two or three sizes too small for the ends, showed such a marked disproportion that I often wondered at it. Not one of these criticisms is made in the sense of a criticism of Mr. Kellogg’s description, but merely as the expression of a different view on some points, and on those points not mentioned I most heartily agree with him. He has omitted to give the height of the horse for the reason that he had shrunken from his normal height just one inch. When at his best he measured fifteen hands one inch and a quarter. This shrinkage, in addition to the ordinary results of great age, is thus explained by Mr. Guy Miller, who knew him better than any other man except his owner. “His splendid fore hoofs had been ruined by an operation whereby the arch was lost and the horse during the remainder of his days stood on his frogs.” He was two inches higher on the hips than on the withers.

When the horse was led out his movements were so frictionless and faultless that he impressed me as the most wonderful horse that I had ever seen. He seemed as supple as a cat with the power of an elephant. As he walked he kept pushing those crooked hind legs away under him in a manner that gave him a motion peculiarly his own, and suggested the immense possibilities of his stride when opened out on a trot. Plain and indeed homely as he was he was a most interesting and instructive study whether in his box or taking his daily walks. The question has been asked a thousand times whether the speed of Hambletonian had been developed and how fast he could go. This question I considered very important, in a philosophical and breeding sense, and in starting in to investigate it I found two statements, one that the time made at the Union Course was honest and true, and the other that it was a “put up job” to make Mr. Rysdyk feel good, and that the time in fact was much slower than that announced. Each side had its advocates, and it did not take long to discover that the enemies of Mr. Rysdyk were all on one side and the more bitter their enmity the more blatant they were in denying the truth of the time given out for the performance. This party was headed by one “J. M.,” long distinguished, and will be long remembered in Orange County, for the virulence of his dislike to Mr. Rysdyk, and as the most unreliable of all unreliable horsemen.

In the autumn of 1852 Mr. Rysdyk and Mr. Seely C. Roe, the owner of Roe’s Abdallah Chief, then four years old, concluded to exhibit their sons of Abdallah at the fair of the American Institute, in New York, and after the fair to take their colts, three and four years old respectively, for a light training for a few weeks. The programme was carried out, and after reaching the course they started the two colts together, and much to Mr. Roe’s surprise Hambletonian beat his colt in 3:03. In a short time Mr. Roe gave his colt another trial in 2:55½. A few days later Mr. Rysdyk drove his colt in 2:48. Believing then he had the making of the best trotter in the world and being thoroughly homesick, he packed up his traps and started for Orange County, and this was the first and the last training that Hambletonian ever had. When we consider the age of the colt and how few of that age had then ever reached that mark, the little then known by amateurs of the arts of training and driving, and the very limited preparation, we must conclude that this was a remarkably good performance.

Was it honestly made? Mr. Roe has been dead a good many years, but the next day after he returned from Long Island with Mr. Rysdyk he called at the house of his brother-in-law, David R. Feagles, a very responsible man, and in the course of the conversation he asked Mr. Feagles if he had heard the news? “No,” said Mr. Feagles, “what is it?” “Rysdyk’s colt trotted the Union Course in 2:48. I held my watch and I know it is true.” Mr. Roe was always steadfast and immovable in this declaration while he lived. Mr. W. H. Wood, the breeder of Abdallah Chief, says he told him the time was 2:48, and he had several times heard it disputed in Mr. Roe’s presence and he had always settled the dispute by giving the same fact. Mr. David R. Seely said he could not remember the time made, but he had heard the matter disputed, and Mr. Roe settled it by saying it was true, that he saw it and held the watch on him when he did it. These men were as reliable as any in Orange County and their statement of Mr. Roe’s assertions cannot be doubted. Considering the circumstances, it will occur to any mind that Mr. Roe was the very best witness to the truth of this performance that could be produced. He was not only disinterested, but in building up the reputation of a rival stallion he was testifying to his own hurt.

There are other evidences of Hambletonian’s development and speed, but nothing so definite as the foregoing. He was driven in double team sometimes with the great trotter Sir Walter. Mr. Kinner, at one time owner of Sir Walter and other good ones, a horseman of experience and knowledge of trotting affairs, assured me that Sir Walter had shown a trial at Centerville track to wagon in 2:32, and this was before he was driven double, occasionally, with Hambletonian; and that Hambletonian could out-foot Sir Walter for the first half-mile, but as the young horse was green and unseasoned, he could not keep up the clip to the finish. He did not hesitate to express the belief that the team could have trotted the mile in considerably less than 2:40. There is one fact in connection with the trial at Union Course that I have omitted in its proper place. Mr. Rysdyk was a remarkably careful man and always aimed to be inside of the truth rather than beyond it. He advertised his horse as having made the trial in 2:48½, as it is probable some of the watches gave that as the time, instead of 2:48 flat.

Like all the Abdallah family, Hambletonian matured early, and at three years was as well advanced as many colts a year older. His stud services commenced early. When two years old he was allowed to cover four mares without fee and he got three colts, one of which was afterward known as the famous Alexander’s Abdallah. When three years old he was offered for public patronage at twenty-five dollars to insure, and he covered seventeen mares and got thirteen colts. The next season, at the same price, he covered one hundred and one mares and got seventy-eight colts. The next season (1854), being then five years old, the price was advanced to thirty-five dollars, and he covered eighty-eight mares, getting sixty-three foals. The price remained at thirty-five dollars till 1863, when it was advanced to seventy-five dollars. At which price he covered one hundred and fifty mares. The next season the price was advanced to one hundred dollars, and he covered two hundred and seventeen mares, getting one hundred and forty-eight foals. In 1865 the price was advanced to three hundred dollars and one hundred and ninety-three mares were covered. In 1866 the price was put at five hundred dollars and one hundred and five mares were covered. At this price his services remained ever afterward—one hundred dollars down and the remainder when the mare proved in foal. In 1867 he covered seventy-seven mares and got only forty-one foals. This large percentage of failure indicated beyond question that his procreative powers had been overtaxed and that there was a general letting down of his vital energies. In 1868 he was not allowed to cover any mares. In 1869 he again manifested his usual vigor and he covered twenty-one mares, getting fourteen foals. In 1870 he covered twenty-two mares and got thirteen foals. From this time forward his procreative powers dwindled, and in 1875, I think, he got but two foals, and died the following March.

It has been estimated that he got about one thousand three hundred foals, and for several years it was one of the amusing features of horse literature to see how many writers were able to demonstrate that as a progenitor of speed he was a failure. This item of one thousand three hundred foals was taken as the basis of computation, and then with the small number of forty trotters out of the one thousand three hundred, the percentage of trotters was very small. The next step was to find some unknown horse, generally a pacer, that had only two or three foals to his credit and one of them had made a record of 2:30, thus showing a much larger percentage than Hambletonian, and by that much he was a greater sire than Hambletonian. All this foolishness has now subsided in the face of the fact that the great mass of the trotters of today have more or less of his blood in their veins, and in a very short time that blood will abound in greater or less strength in every American trotter. The tables which here follows will make this fact evident to all who will study them.

[Prefatory to these tables and to the other statistics concerning the present rank of the trotting families given in the pages following, an explanatory paragraph is in order so that they may not be misunderstood. (1) They are based on the tables given in the Year Book for 1896, and I regret to say that these tables are so emasculated, incomplete, unsatisfactory and in many cases contradictory one of the other that it is literally impossible to compile from them statistics that may be accepted as absolutely correct and letter perfect. However, as this work is not intended as one for statistical reference, the tables being approximately correct serve my purpose, which is merely to show _relatively_ and with substantial accuracy the standing of the sires and families embraced to the close of 1896. (2) By the term “standard performers” is meant horses that have acquired trotting records of 2:30 or better, or pacing records of 2:25 or better. The Year Book no longer gives a 2:30 pacing list, and it should be noted that pacers with records between 2:30 and 2:25 are not credited in these tables. (3) The tables are designed to show (_a_) the number of standard performers got by each sire named. (_b_) The number of his sons that are sires of standard performers. (_c_) The number of his daughters that are dams of standard performers. (_d_) The number of standard performers produced by these sons and daughters, and finally, in the last column, the total number of standard performers produced in the two generations—_i. e._, by the sire himself, and by his sons and daughters. The dates of foaling and death are important in considering the opportunities of the families embraced.]

The first table following gives some idea of the supremacy of the Hambletonian family over all others. When we seek a rival to Hambletonian as a trotting progenitor we must do so among his sons; and by turning to the second table it will be noted that many of these outrank the founders of any and all the other great trotting families.

FOUNDERS OF THE GREAT TROTTING FAMILIES.

In this table Ethan Allen is given as the representative of his family in preference to his sire, Black Hawk, the real founder, for the reasons that he was a far greater horse, and makes a better showing than his sire, and further because he was a contemporary of Hambletonian. For exactly the same reasons George M. Patchen is given as the representative progenitor of the Clay line.

The next table demonstrates what the Hambletonian family has done in the second and third generations, and the relative standing of the leading sub-families of the greatest trotting line. It embraces separately every sire that has to his own credit and to the credit of his sons and daughters an aggregate of fifty or more standard performers, twenty-three in all, while the totals to the credit of all the other sons of Hambletonian are grouped in the last line:

FAMILIES OF HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total No. Standard performers in two generations. ------------------------------------------------------------------+ Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. | -----------------------------------------------------------+ | Producing daughters. | | -----------------------------------------------------+ | | Producing sons. | | | -----------------------------------------------+ | | | Standard performers. | | | | -----------------------------------------+ | | | | Year died. | | | | | ----------------------------------+ | | | | | Year foaled. | | | | | | ---------------------------+ | | | | | | Name. | | | | | | | ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+----- George Wilkes | 1856 | 1882 | 83 | 94 | 81 | 1801 | 1884 Electioneer | 1868 | 1890 | 154 | 65 | 43 | 493 | 647 Happy Medium | 1863 | 1888 | 92 | 51 | 47 | 272 | 364 Harold | 1864 | 1893 | 44 | 43 | 45 | 248 | 292 Dictator | 1863 | 1893 | 52 | 44 | 42 | 234 | 286 Volunteer | 1854 | 1888 | 34 | 40 | 48 | 221 | 255 Strathmore | 1866 | 1895 | 71 | 26 | 54 | 158 | 229 Abdallah (15) | 1852 | 1865 | 5 | 14 | 29 | 199 | 204 Aberdeen | 1866 | 1892 | 45 | 25 | 19 | 110 | 155 Egbert | 1875 | —— | 75 | 25 | 18 | 74 | 149 Messenger Duroc. | 1865 | 189- | 23 | 24 | 41 | 125 | 148 Edward Everett | 1855 | 1878 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 112 | 125 Administrator | 1863 | 1892 | 14 | 20 | 44 | 93 | 107 Jay Gould | 1864 | 1894 | 29 | 14 | 28 | 76 | 105 Victor Bismarck | 1867 | 189- | 31 | 13 | 13 | 64 | 95 Cuyler | 1868 | 1894 | 15 | 15 | 36 | 74 | 89 Masterlode | 1868 | 189- | 28 | 17 | 16 | 57 | 85 Sweepstakes | 1867 | 189- | 35 | 4 | 20 | 39 | 74 Sentinel | 1863 | 1873 | 8 | 9 | 14 | 57 | 65 Middletown | 1860 | 1891 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 49 | 63 Squire Talmage | 1866 | 1891 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 35 | 58 Dauntless | 1867 | 189- | 31 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 51 Echo | 1866 | 189- | 16 | 9 | 15 | 34 | 50 Other sons (125) | —— | —— | 618 | 229 | 412 | 980 | 1600 ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----

This table shows what each horse himself produced, and how his blood is breeding on through his sons and daughters; and above all it demonstrates the stupendous fact that in three generations the Hambletonian family has produced upward of seven thousand standard performers, and all facts and all experience now beyond cavil justify what I ventured to declare in _Wallace’s Monthly_ many years ago: “The Hambletonian line stands above all other lines and must survive because it is the fittest.”

THE CHARLES KENT MARE, dam of Hambletonian, was a bay, fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with a star, left forward ankle roan, and left hind foot white. Her son was long and round, just the opposite of her sire. Hips rather coarse, and might be considered a little ragged. Stifles very powerful and well-developed. Her hocks and legs were exactly represented in her son Hambletonian. Her neck was fine and bloodlike, but not long. Her head was good, and her eyes remarkably full and bright, showing considerable white. Her mane was long, but thin, and her tail was light. Her shoulders were well-sloped, her withers ran up high, and were thin. Jonas Seely, Sr., having given the old mare One Eye to his son Charles, she was sold to Josiah S. Jackson, of Oxford, Orange County. Mr. Jackson bred her to Bellfounder and the produce was the Kent mare. Although the Seely family owned the stock, originally and afterward, Mr. Jackson was really the breeder of this mare. Mr. Jonas Seely says she was got the year Bellfounder stood at Poughkeepsie (1831), but Mr. Rysdyk says she was got in 1832, when Bellfounder stood at Washingtonville. Mr. Jackson sold her at three years old to Peter Seely for three hundred dollars; Mr. Seely sold her soon after to Mr. Pray, of New York, for four hundred dollars; Mr. Pray sold her to William Chivis for five hundred dollars; and Mr. Chivis sold her to a gentleman, who was a banker in New York—name not remembered—to match another as a fast road team. This team ran away after a time, and she was injured, and became lame. Charles Kent, a butcher in New York, then bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom Thumb, before he came to Orange County. At this juncture, on the earnest recommendation of Mr. Pray, who had tested the quality of three or four of the family, Mr. Jonas Seely—Jonas, second—bought the mare of Kent for one hundred and thirty-five dollars, and took her back to the old place, where she was bred and produced as follows:

1843. Brown filly Belle, by Webber’s Tom Thumb. 1845. Black gelding, by Webber’s Tom Thumb. 1846. Chestnut filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah. 1848. Brown filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah. 1849. Bay colt Hambletonian, by Abdallah (mare and colt sold to William M. Rysdyk, for $125). 1850. Brown filly (went to Maryland), by Young Patriot. 1851. Lost foal, by L. I. Black Hawk. 1852. Brown colt Tippoo Saib, by Brook’s Black Hawk. 1853. Chestnut colt (died young), by Fiddler. 1856. Brown gelding, by Plato. 1859. Bay colt, by Almack, son of Hambletonian.

In the preceding list there are but two fillies that lived to produce anything, and one of them is lost from sight. The produce of the first will be given below. The Patriot filly that went to Maryland was a brown, and of good size, but nothing further is known of her.

The Tom Thumb gelding of 1845 was in 1869 a good road horse, and was owned by George S. Conklin. He was showy and stylish without very much speed. Her fifth foal, Hambletonian, is known wherever the trotting horse is known.

This mare was a trotter of no ordinary merit. She was never in any races, so far as known, except they might have been of a private nature, but after she passed into the hands of Peter Seely her speed was pretty well developed. This is not only shown by the advance in her price from owner to owner, but it appears to be a well-established fact that when four years old Peter Seely had her at the Union Course, and he there gave her two trials to saddle, the first in 2:43 and the second in 2:41. For a time I was skeptical about these trials, but they seem to be beyond question. This is considerably faster than any other of the get of imported Bellfounder ever trotted in this country, and from this we may conclude that her inheritance from her dam was the great factor in her speed.

ONE EYE, the dam of the Kent mare, was a brown, about fifteen hands and an inch high, with two white feet and perhaps a little white in her face. With the taste Mr. Seely had of the Messenger blood in Silvertail he wanted more of it; and when Townsend Cock sent the famous Bishop’s Hambletonian to Goshen in 1814, Mr. Seely bred his daughter of Messenger to this son of Messenger and the produce was One Eye. I do not learn that this mare was handsome, but she was an animal of most remarkable courage and endurance. The load was never too heavy nor the road too long. Withal, she had a will of her own and was a little hard to manage unless she was worked constantly. One day when on her mettle she got an eye knocked out by accident, and, hence, her name; but the great quality of this mare was her remarkable trotting action. Those familiar with her gait, and entirely competent to judge, are enthusiastic in the opinion that no trotter of the present day ever surpassed, her in a grand open trotting step. If the patience and skill brought into use in developing the modern trotter had been expended on her, she doubtless would have surpassed all of her day, not even excepting her near relation, old Topgallant. This mare illustrates a point of very great importance. She was got by a son of Messenger that was a running horse of merit and able to beat some of the best of his day, and her dam was a daughter of Messenger. The trotting action of neither sire nor dam had ever been developed, but when these two Messengers came together, the clean, open, unmistakable trotting gait was the result. Right at this point and in this mare, One Eye, we have the incipient cause of all Hambletonian’s greatness. This mare was bred by Jonas Seely, Sr.; given to his son Charles, who sold her to his brother-in-law, Josiah Jackson, of Oxford in Orange County. According the recollection of Mr. Rysdyk, who was entirely familiar with the Seely family and their affairs, she produced as follows:

1829. Bay gelding Crabstick, by Seagull. 1830. Bay gelding Pray Colt, by Seagull. 1831. Bay filly Young One Eye, by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy. 1833. Bay filly Kent Mare, by imp. Bellfounder. Sold to Mr. Pray. 1834. Bay filly; sold also to Mr. Pray, by imp. Bellfounder. Perhaps there was another foal that died.

The first of her foals, Crabstick, appears to have been well-named. His temper was anything but smooth and pleasant. He was sold early to Mr. Ebenezer Pray, of New York, and he soon evinced two traits of character that did not elevate him in the estimation of his owner. He would throw every one off that dared to mount him, and when they did get him under motion he was determined to pace and not trot. On a certain occasion Mr. Rysdyk visited Mr. Pray, and he was urged to try his skill in riding Crabstick and see if he could make him trot. The attempt was long-continued, and embraced up hill, down hill, and level work, but all to no purpose, as pace he would. At last Mr. Pray proposed to put him over rails and stakes, placed on the road at intervals of a good trotting stride, and see if that would make him quit moving one side at a time. Mr. Rysdyk went up the road and got under good headway, but just before he reached the rails the horse threw him. He was not much hurt, mounted again, and then commenced in earnest the fight for the mastery between the horse and his rider. The value of a neck was nothing when compared with the great question of who should conquer. The next attempt was successful, and he went over the rails flying. The intervals between them were then extended, and he was kept at that most dangerous exercise till he would trot without rails, and until both horse and rider were completely exhausted. The horse was conquered, and although always willful and hard to manage, ever after, when called on to trot, he would do it. Mr. Pray sold him to Mr. Vanderbilt, and, although kept as a private driving horse, he was fast for his day, and could go in less than three minutes at any time.

Her next foal was sold also to Mr. Pray when five years old, and was known as the Pray Colt. He was marked just as his brother Crabstick, and, like him, was somewhat vicious and hard to manage.

The third foal, Young One Eye, was by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy, whose pedigree is not now known. One of her eyes was knocked out by Peter Seely, accidentally, when breaking her, just as her dam had lost an eye. She passed out of the hands of the Seely family and her subsequent history is unknown. If this mare ever produced anything, her history and that of her descendants would be of great interest and value.

The question at once suggests itself, Where did Crabstick get his pacing action? It could not have been from his sire, as he was a son of Duroc, so said, but it may have come from Seagull’s dam, as we know nothing of her breeding; or it may have come from old Black Jin, the dam of Silvertail. If from neither of these we must then conclude it came from Messenger himself, or rather, through him from some of his pacing ancestors. It is altogether probable that the strong infusion of pacing blood in Messenger’s veins was the real element that made him a trotting progenitor when every other imported English horse failed in that respect.

Silvertail, the great-grandam of Hambletonian, was a dark brown mare with white hind feet and a white face. She had a great many white hairs in her tail and hence she was called Silvertail. She was foaled in 1802 and was bred by Mr. Jonas Seely, Sr., of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York. She was got by imported Messenger in 1801, the year he stood at Goshen, New York. Her dam was a great, slashing black mare called “Jin” that Mr. Seely had used in his business many years, but her origin and breeding cannot now be found. She must have been a real good one or Mr. Seely would not have taken her to Messenger. In the summer of 1806, as was his custom, he was down at New York with a drove of cattle, and his son Jonas, then a lad of eight or ten years old, went along to help drive the cattle and to see the city. He was detained two or three days longer than he expected and it was very important that he should reach home at a certain time. On the morning of that day he found himself in Hoboken, with his son, and no means of getting home except on Silvertail. So he took the boy up behind him and went home that day, seventy-five miles, by sundown. She was fully sixteen hands high and of very fine style. Her head, neck and ear were bloodlike, and her resolution and will were remarkable even in old age. Her step, at the trot, is not known to have been much developed, but she could gallop all day long. On several occasions she carried her master to Albany in a day. Besides the famous One Eye she produced several superior foals that brought high prices, in those days, but we have only the one line tracing to her as a producer. She died the property of Ebenezer Seely.

In searching for the particulars of this pedigree of Hambletonian and in tracing it back to old “Black Jin,” I was necessarily brought into contact with a great many people, some of whom were helpful and some were not. As a matter of course I met with the usual number who professed to “know it all,” but really knew nothing that was reliable. As the whole tracing was in the Seely family, the public may wish to know what kind of people they were. Jonas Seely, first, of Oxford in Orange County, was a large farmer in the last century and an extensive cattle feeder and drover. As there were no railroads or steam boats in those days, much of his time was given to driving cattle, either in collecting them from the interior or in taking them to market in New York. He had use for good horses and he had a fancy for the best. His business brought him into contact with the butchers of New York, and we find he sold many of his horses as well as his cattle to them. These same business relations were continued under his successor. He left a large family of sons who seemed to take to the horse as a duck takes to water. Jonas, second, was one of his younger sons and succeeded to his father’s business as well as to the homestead. He was born 1797 at Oxford, and his father removed to the farm at Sugar Loaf when he was a child. He was a thrifty and successful farmer. For a number of years he was engaged with his partner and lifelong friend, Ebenezer Pray, in buying and driving cattle from the West to the New York market. In June, 1882, he passed away and there ended an acquaintance and a friendship of nearly thirty years. He was a strictly conscientious and truthful man, and died in the glorious hope of a devoted Christian. His first visit to New York, in 1806, the wonders he saw there, and especially the total eclipse that occurred while he was there, and how he watched it from the Bull’s Head tavern, through a piece of smoked glass, and the ride home the next day behind his father on Silvertail, and how he ran down many a hill to rest himself, and how tired he was when they reached home, are incidents that were all detailed to me with the interest and vigor of yesterday.

When One Eye was about fifteen years old the elder Jonas gave her or sold her to his son-in-law, Josiah Jackson, and in due time he bred her to imported Bellfounder and she produced the Charles Kent mare. Mr. Rysdyk thought the elder Jonas gave this mare to his son Charles and that Charles sold her to Mr. Jackson, which is not material. After the Kent mare had been battered about in New York for some years and finally crippled, Charles Kent, a butcher, bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse that was quite a trotter. On one occasion when Jonas II. and Mr. Pray were down in the city, Kent wanted to sell the mare, and Mr. Pray urged Jonas very strongly to buy her and take her home for a brood mare. He concluded to do so if she were not too badly crippled, and they together went over on to the island to see her, when she came again into the Seely family. In 1848 he bred her to Abdallah, in 1849 she produced a bay colt, and in the autumn of that year he sold her with her colt to William M. Rysdyk, who had been employed on his farm for the year, for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and this colt proved to be the great Hambletonian.

As it is now conceded, not only in this country, but throughout the world, that Hambletonian, as a trotting progenitor, is far and away the greatest horse that has ever been produced, a careful and true analysis of the blood elements entering into his inheritance is a most interesting and instructive lesson for all breeders. First we have the direct cross from Messenger himself in Silvertail; second, we have the cross from a son of Messenger on a daughter of Messenger in One Eye, making her equal to a daughter of Messenger in blood; third, we have the out-cross from Bellfounder, that was a total failure as a trotting progenitor, on this double granddaughter of Messenger, and the result is a trotter in the Kent mare and practically the only trotter that Bellfounder ever got; fourth, we have the cross of a grandson and probably a double grandson of Messenger on this trotter, and the produce is Hambletonian himself. These crosses show a stronger concentration of Messenger blood than can be found in any horse of his generation.

BASHAW (GREEN’S).—This was a black horse, fifteen and a half hands high, bred by Jonas Seely, the breeder of Hambletonian; foaled 1855, and given when following his dam to his son-in-law, Colonel F. M. Cummins, of Muscatine, Iowa. He was got by Vernol’s Black Hawk, then known as the Drake colt, son of Long Island Black Hawk, and his dam was Belle, the first foal of the Charles Kent mare, that was out of One Eye. In the spring of 1857 he was sold to Joseph A. Green, of Muscatine, and he remained his till 1864. He had one white hind foot and a large, full star in his forehead. He was a smooth, handsome horse in every respect. His head, neck, ear and eye were all good, and free from coarseness. His back and loin had very few equals even among those that are called most perfect at these points. His hip was of great length, and in his buttock there was quite a resemblance on a reduced scale to his kinsman, Hambletonian. His limbs and feet both in shape and quality were admirable, and his disposition docile and kindly. In walking his gait was slinging, but loose jointed and slovenly, and he was therefore not a pleasant driving horse. But at the trot, whether going slow or fast, his style was very taking and his action remarkably perfect. While owned by Mr. Green he was handled by good, careful men, but they had no experience in developing and driving a trotter, and knew nothing about that kind of horsemanship. Under these circumstances many a horse would have been spoiled, but his gait was always perfect and his popularity as a trotter never waned. He never was started in what might be called regular races, but at State fairs and the principal county fairs he was always in demand and always won. He was, perhaps, the best natural trotter that I have ever seen. He was able to show about 2:28, but I think he never won a heat on a half-mile track in better than 2:31, and when sixteen years old he was able to win in 2:35. In 1864 Mr. Green sold him to some parties in St. Louis, Missouri, and they to Mr. Beckwith of Hartford, Connecticut, and while in his hands he was matched against Young Morrill, but went amiss and paid forfeit. He made the season of 1865 at Hartford. The following winter Mr. Green repurchased him and he was returned to Muscatine, where he remained till January, 1877, when he was sold to George A. Young, of Leland, Illinois, and died January, 1880.

He left seventeen trotters in the 2:30 list; twenty-four sons that were the sires of fifty-nine standard performers, and thirty-four daughters that produced forty-four standard performers. As his sire never amounted to anything either as a trotter or a getter of trotters, it is fair to conclude that whatever merit he possessed was inherited from the same source that made Hambletonian greater than all others.

BELLE, the dam of Bashaw, 50, was a brown mare about fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with tan muzzle and flanks and some white feet. She was rather short in the body and neck, but she was very stoutly built and had been a fine road mare. She was bred by Charles Kent, the butcher, and I think was following her dam when Mr. Jonas Seely bought her. She was foaled 1843 and was got by Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse, and a trotter that was brought into Orange County by William Webber and left excellent stock. Her dam was the Charles Kent mare, the dam of Hambletonian. She produced as follows:

1848. Bay gelding, by Abdallah. 1849. Bay filly Seely Abdallah, by Abdallah. 1851. Black colt Seely’s Black Hawk, by Long Island Black Hawk. 1853. Bay filly, (taken West) by Hambletonian. 1855. Black colt Green’s Bashaw, by Vernol’s Black Hawk. 1857. Bay filly by Black Hawk Prophet, son of Vermont Black Hawk, in Iowa. This filly was ringboned, and given away.

Nothing is now known of the gelding by Abdallah. The filly of 1849 by Abdallah, called Seely Abdallah, was owned by Mr. Charles Backman, and he had her produce for two or three generations.

The black colt by Long Island Black Hawk of 1851 was sold to Ebenezer Seely, and kept as a stallion. This Mr. Seely died in Chemung County, and the horse died there in the spring of 1859. The filly of 1853 by Hambletonian was one of a pair of Hambletonian fillies bought and taken to Iowa by Mr. Green in 1855. They developed a very fine rate of speed.