MARYLAND the HORSE and MARYLAND: Three Vignettes

THE HORSE AND MARYLAND: three vignettes by Richard Hulan natural link between the cottage 1. The Horseman industries and the Union Workers ' Most obseNers agree that horses exhibits, which, this year and last, can't talk; the folklore of the horse is have rounded out the presentations of thus borne in the main by horsemen. the cultures of working Americans that No American has embodied that term MARYLAND the Festival was established to honor more fully than a Maryland horseman and to celebrate. To find exotic cultures far afield of the early nineteenth century, John George Carey has devoted years to is expected,· to recognize them in our Stuart Skinner. collecting and studying the lore and midst forces a reappraisal of Like many another Maryland gentle humor of Eastern Shore watermen. His perceptions or value If .an . man, Skinner loved field sports; he is syste~s: recently published book, A Faraway Indian basket weaver, a Mtsstsstppt said to have ridden in the "first flight" Time and Place, is a welcome and bluesman, and an Ozark ballad singer with the Baltimore and the Washington long overdue treasury of the rich are accepted as valid carriers of folk City Hounds. His mounts were Thor verbal traditions of the area. traditions, why then should we oughbreds, and his memory is honored William Warner has contributed to question the validity of the . primarily by those who breed and race the fieldwork and planning of the Chesapeake Bay skipjack captatn, the the blood horse. Yet Skinner's own in Festival's waterfront site. His Baltimore street vendor, the hunt terests ranged across the spectrum of provocative article on the ecology of country equestrian and the Eastern horse breeds and uses. His spe the Chesapeake was abstracted from cial field of endeavor, as a matter of Shore dockside raconteur or metal a lecture he delivered at the founder? The following articles fact was the breeding of mules. Smithsonian for the National Parks provide answers to t0is ques~ion , B~rn on a Western Shore plantation and Conservation Association April. along with valuable tnformatton an.d in 1788, J. S. Skinner rose rapidly Robert Burgess places the skipjack insights into some of the great vanety through a series of public-seNice pos_i in the historical and contemporary of Maryland traditions to be found at tions to become Postmaster of Balti perspective of Eastern S~ore /if~ . At this Festival.· more at the age of twenty-eight. the Festival, he shares wtth us hts While these articles cover only a Although he held this post for twenty more than four decades of experience small portion of these Maryland one years, and was an Assistant Post as a scholar, woodcarver, traditions, they do indicate the areas master General of the United States photographer, and admiring, valued of concentration, water, horse, and for another four, Skinner's reputation friend of the watermen. metal traditions, selected on the basis ·nationally and internationally rested Mrs. Jean duPont McConnell draws of their richness and significance. on his publications on agriculture. on her knowledge and skills as a As the Nation's leading "fishing The American Farmer appeared 1n horsewoman, fox hunter, and breeder hole," the Chesapeake Bay, home of 1819 and was immediately successful. of hounds, in presenting the tradition our last working sailing fleet, has The first periodical (monthly) in this of the hunt at daily demonstrations on clusters of skilled craftsmen and country devoted to agriculture, it con the Mall. Her handbook for all fishermen whose I ives are part of the tinued under Skinner's management for presentations in the ring provides waters and their yield. The breeding, ten years. He was an outspoken advo details on horse and pony breeds training, and racing of horses is one cate of contests (livestock shows and, common in Maryland. of course, horse races) and of accurate of the State's largest industries and, Gerald Davis, with his like the watermen, those who work pedigrees-the scientific substitute for understanding and respect for the natural selection in wild herds. with horses carry some of the most skills and significance of Baltimore carefully guarded traditions and skills "One might as well look among the street vending as a craft, offers a more black Dutch for a dancing master," he to be found in oral tradition. The intimate acquaintance with "arabber" Nation's oldest silversmith, Samuel wrote, as to look for good breeding Sonny Diggs than the average visitor stock in domestic herds whose owners Kirk and Son ,· its largest producer of to the Festival will be priviledged to pewter ware, Steiff Co .,· and numerous did not follow these principles. enjoy by watching Sonny as .an artful skilled metal workers in copper, brass, Skinner's lead in scientific agricul purveyor of fresh fruit from hts ture was soon followed by other able iron, and tin are all to be found in horsedrawn cart on the Mall. An Maryland. Hand skills, learned through editors, and he began in 1829 to con interview that I did with brass-founder, apprenticeship, are the mainst~y of centrate on the Thoroughbred horse Harry Evans is included to accomplish these industries and they provtde a with pub I ication of The American Turf this very end through a direct Register, which he edited for six of its (above) Carved eagle, fourteen transcription of Mr. Evans ' forthright fifteen years . This was in a sense an inches, by Claude Yoder, Cumberland, statement of his heritage and purpose. enlargement of the "Sporting Olio" fea Maryland. Photo : Margaret Bous/ough. Ralph Rinz/er ture of the American Farmer,· both re- 16 Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course try club, or a bridge club may be astra track. Something of a Vanderbilt coup in an earlier day. ditional (and as unconsciously so) as (Belmont had tried to get the match), the behavior of a mountain village. this November race took the edge off Wealthy and poor alike flock to race the October leveling of the said hilltop. tracks (occasionally moving from one More of a national event was the 1877 ported the results of race meetings and economic level to the other at the end three-way match for which Congress pedigrees of living stallions from all of a race); the track has its own lore adjourned and rode a special train to parts of the Union. Skinner's periodi and life. watch Parole beat Tom Ochiltree and cals were basic to the compilation of "Take him down, Mr. Brown," the cry Ten Broeck. (Remember "Molly and every American stud book from the first of fans who feel they have witnessed a Tenbrooks," all you Bill Monroe fans? (Jeffreys', 1828) to the present one riding foul, refers to the steward of the Same horse, different race.) (Bruce's, 1868 to date). Pimlico Race Course after 1937, Mr. We might mention that Skinner was George Brown, Jr. One doubts that Ill. The Byproducts in the boat with Francis Scott Key while everyone who ever shouted that knew The horse is indispensable to the the latter wrote "The Star-Spangled he was the steward, but the statement folklife of many Marylanders. Banner," and that he rode fifty miles rhymes and it entered oral tradition. The Wood lawn Vase, trophy for the at night to warn that British troops were Pimlico is 102 years old this fall , and Preakness, was made by a Baltimore advancing on Washington. has its share of tradition. The nickname silversmith. So was J. S. Skinner's silver His unusually eventful life was ter of "Old Hilltop" was almost meaning service, in 1828, and his 1822 trophy minated in 1851 when he stepped less by 1938 when the small rise in the for "Shepherdess." through his office door into what had infield was bulldozed away; yet this act A young man in Phoenix makes har been a staircase and fell to the cellar, symbolized to oldtimers the utter dis ness and riding whips for hunt club workmen had removed the stair for re regard for tradition of the new club enthusiasts. pairs without his knowledge. president, Alfred G: Vanderbilt. As luck A less-young man in Olney makes The family tradition of horsemanship would have it, Vanderbilt and his.Saga harness and governess carts for pony was maintained by a son who was a more Farm are now Maryland traditions owners. Confederate calvalry colonel and a in their own right, and "Old Hilltop" A slightly older man in Glyndon noted sportswriter, a great-grandson means almost nothing-as a name. trains dogs for the hunt club, and finds who was the New York Racing Commis As a track, however, it is alive and suitable tree roots for whip handles for sion's first official representative for well. The distinction of hosting one leg the man in Phoenix. hunt races and a great-great-grandson of America's Triple Crown makes it A still older man in Easton, a black who was an outstanding amateur likely to remain so. Besides the Preak smith, repairs farm equipment (leaky steeplechase rider in the 1930s. ness, there are other famous stakes watering troughs) and does ornamental II. The Track races at Piml ico, and occasional ironwork- unrelated to horses, as it Folklife is often thought of as the matches there have made turf history. happens. Wheelwright's tools on the property of peasants; in fact, definitions The Seabiscuit win over War Admiral wall evoke a question; he replies, "Mak of the term "folk" frequently rule out in the 1938 Pimlico Special was one ing wheels used to be my pride and joy.

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