Recollections of Men and Horses
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*tfk^^B^ M fc ! m^m fc ^ A^-U JOHN A. SEAVERNS h TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 3 9090 013 419 433 Medicine Webster Family Library of Veterinary at Gummings School of Veterinary Medicine Tuits University 200 Vv'estboro Road NoitiiGratton, MA 01536 RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES Photo by Harry L. Brown A^ Z^fi*f*iJ^^riC RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES BY HAMILTON BUSBEY AUTHOR OF "the TROTTING AND THE PACING HORSE IN AMERICA," "HISTORY OF THE HORSE IN AMERICA," ETC. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK : DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1907 1 y? Copyright, 1907, Bv HAMILTON BUSBEY Published Marchy igo^ PREFACE At the close of 1904 Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, reported that the value of farm products In the United States for that year was $4,900,000,000—nearly double the gross earnings of the railroads added to the value of the production of all the mines of the country for the same period. This official statement opened the eyes of feverish municipalities to the Importance of agricultural life. The value of horses owned by farmers Is placed at $1,150,000,000. In 1905 horses Increased In num- ber to 17,000,000, and In value to $1,200,000,000. The type of the farm horse has been elevated by the dissemination of blood, the virtue of which was proved by the sharpest of physical tests. For genera- tions the progressive farmer has striven to excel in the creation of an animal combining activity with strength, and his trial ground has been the road and oval at the County or District Fair. He has labored unceasingly to eliminate the running gait, and to establish the trotting gait. The harness horse, not the saddle horse, has been his hope and pride. It Is only In the large city, where speculation, mildly speak- ing, borders on the hysterical, that the running horse is a popular favorite. The farmers, who dominate the national life, gather at the tracks of smaller PREFACE centers of activity to gratify a desire for excitement and to enlarge the human understanding by watching the distribution of prizes among trotters and pacers. The tracks on which the hght harness horse per- forms are counted by the thousand, and the results of races on which comparatively little money is risked have shown the way to a standard of excellence. In 1906 speculation was restricted or prohibited in some localities, but as a rule the meetings were never so largely attended or the races more earnestly con- tested, thus demonstrating beyond cavil the strong " hold of trotting on the public at large. In The Trotting and the Pacing Horse in America," pub- lished in July, 1904, I have given a compact history of harness speed evolution, and the reader is referred to It for a grouping of foundation families. In these pages I have enlarged upon the subject, and given personal recollections of the men, as well as horses, who played conspicuous parts In the formative era of breeds and track discipline. Millions of people are deeply Interested In the question, and I have endeavored to discuss It from a high standpoint and to reflect the truth as revealed by thousands of let- ters, many of which. In being kept so long from the public eye, show the ravages of time. At the urgent request of George B. Raymond, I undertook this task, and, when I grew weary of It, was encouraged to go on by one In whose judgment I had confidence, whose loyalty was sincere, whose sympathy was re- sponsive, whose religion was to speak kindly of those vi PREFACE with whom she was brought in contact, and upon whose face the eternal shadow fell, even while the wonderful sunshine of Colorado was flooding the landscape with a glory which rivaled In poetic con- ception that of the throne upon which Wisdom sits and reads as a child does its "ABC" the profound Mystery which so staggers Intellects not freed by " Faith as to cause them to take refuge in I do not Know." Hamilton Busbey. New York, March, 1907. vu CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Corner Stone of Breeding . i II. General Grant as a Lover of Horses 7 III. Robert Bonner on Shoeing . 14 IV. William H. Vanderbilt Sells Maud S 26 V. The Struggle to Hold the Throne 39 VI. Jay-Eye-See and Some Match Races 44 VII. Edwin Thorne and Mambrino Chief 52 VIII. Charles Backman and Stony Ford 64 IX. Leland Stanford and Palo Alto . 79 X. WooDBURN Farm—Alexander Brod- HEAD ...... 94 XI. The Transylvania — Corning — Havemeyer . .113 XII. C. J. Hamlin and Village Farm . 118 XIII. Hamlin and Speed Development . 126 XIV. Henry C. McDowell and Ashland 148 XV. Double Harness Rivalry . 161 XVI. Horse Shows and their Contro- versies . .174 XVII. R. S. Veech and Indian Hill . 183 XVIII. E. H. Harriman and Other Breeders . .188 XIX. William Edwards and Discipline . 197 XX. S. S. HowLAND as a Breeder . .201 XXI. Simmons^ Stoner^ and Thayer . 207 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXII. Marshland and Shultshurst . 217 XXIII. Walnut Hall and Cruickston Park 229 XXIV. The Horse of Conquest and Cere- mony ...... 240 XXV. Marcus Daly and Bitter Root Farm 246 XXVI. The Trotting Horse in Tennessee 255 XXVII. Harrison Durkee and Richard West 265 XXVIII. J. Malcolm Forbes and Forbes Farm 271 XXIX. Breeding Farms in the Berkshires 280 XXX. Henry N. Smith and Other Breeders 291 XXXI. Evolution—Environment and Nu- trition ..... 296 XXXII. McFerrAN, Withers, and Wilson . 303 XXXIII. Jewett Farm 311 XXXIV. Some Old Orange County Breeders 316 XXXV. Stout, Williams, Caton . .3^9 XXXVI. East View and Other Farms . 326 XXXVII. A Costly Dinner in a Stable. 330 XXXVIII. The Education of the Young . 333 XXXIX. First Aid in Disease and Lameness 340 XL. Foundation Sires .... 352 Breeding Statistics .... 354 ILLUSTRATIONS Dare Devil {Owned by Thomas W. Lazuson), Cover inlay Hamilton Busbey .... Frontispiece FACING PAGE Lou Dillon {Owned by C. K. G. Billings) 4 Robert Bonner ..... 20 Jay-Eye-See in 1906 {Twenty-eight Years Old) 46 The Mansion at Stony Ford . 66 Carll S. Burr^ Jr. 74 John W. Couley ..... 88 Lucas Brodhead ..... 102 Harrietta {Owned by H. O. Havemeyer) 114 George B. Raymond .... 128 Ethelwyn^ the Great Producing Daughter OF Harold ..... 136 Henry C. McDowell .... 150 Ashland^ the former home of Henry Clay 158 John Shepard ..... 168 E. T. Bedford driving Alice Mapes . 170 A. J. Cassatt ...... 176 W. M. V. Hoffman .... 180 Cornelius Fellows ..... 182 Austral {Owned by J. Howard Ford, Stony Ford) 190 H. M. Whitehead ..... 198 John E. Thayer ..... 212 Benjamin F. Tracy .... 218 XI ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE MoKO (Owned by L. V. Harkness, Walnut Hall Farm) ....... 230 Oro Wilkes {Owned by Miss K. L. Wilks, Cruicks- ton Park) ....... 234 Walnut Hall {Owned by L. V. Harkness) . 242 William Russell Allen ..... 272 J. Malcolm Forbes ...... 276 Bellini {Owned by TV. B. Dickerman) . 300 Kentucky Todd {Owned by Miss K. L. Wilks) . 308 SiLiKO {Owned by John E. Madden) . 320 A Group at East View Farm . .326 J. M. Johnson 328 Xll CHAPTER I THE CORNER STONE OF BREEDING After a formal dinner on New Yearns Eve the guests adjourned to the library and were spinning yarns over cigars. The host, reclining In a big arm- chair, was absorbed in thought, but roused himself and said: " Gentlemen, you saw Flora this afternoon and noticed that she was big with promise. She Is my best brood mare, and I have nominated her In the Produce Stake, colts to trot at two and three years old. As you well know the age of a horse dates from January ist, and I have planned to have the foal come the second or third day of the New Year. Everything Is going smoothly, and. If there Is no slip, the foal will be well grown as a yearling, and should be fleet and strong as a two-year-old. The way to win rich stakes Is to have early foals. The one that is born May 2d, when opposed by one born January 2d, takes up a handicap of four months. The start on the road to development will beat him If nothing else does." " I agree with you," remarked one of the guests, " but do you not risk a great deal In drawing It so fine? Suppose the foal should come before the clock " strikes twelve to-night? I RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES " Good gracious, why do you make such a sugges- tion! You give me the cold shivers. If the birth should be premature, good-by to all of my fond hopes." The host looked so serious that other guests ridi- culed the idea that anything at this late hour could " go wrong. At eleven o'clock, when the Good old " mountain dew chorus was filling the room and the echoes were rising through the frosty air to greet the stars, the foreman, lantern In hand, stood in the big hall, and replied to the hurried question of the host, if anything had gone wrong, that the noise of toy cannons In the village had so greatly upset Flora as to bring on labor pains. The newborn at that very moment was lying on a bed of straw in the big box stall. The cloud of disappointment on the face of the host was so unmistakable that one of the merrymakers remarked: "Why keep count of an hour? If your foreman had not come to us with his tale of woe, we should not have discovered the foal until morning, and then the record would have been born January ist." " Such false records may be made, under strong temptation on some farms, but never on this.