Читать книгу The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development - John Hankins Wallace - Страница 11

Table of Contents

England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred for different purposes—Markham on the speed of early native horses—Duke of Newcastle on Arabians—His choice of blood to propagate—Size of early English horses—Difficulties about pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Early accumulations very trashy—The Galloways and Irish Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The pacers wiped out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book.

Britain was fully supplied with horses when first invaded by the Romans, but as there is no history beyond that period we are only groping in the dark when we attempt to discover when or whence this supply was procured. The most reasonable theory is that the first supply came from the Phœnician merchants, when they were trading for tin in the southwestern part of Britain. If this theory be correct, the trading between the Phœnicians and the Britons could hardly have been later than the fourth century before the Christian era, and it is more probable that it was several centuries earlier. This topic, however, has been considered in a preceding chapter. Another theory is that when the tides of migration struck the Atlantic, in the higher latitudes, there was a natural deflection toward the warmer countries of the south, the people carrying their horses with them. But from the primitive condition of the arts and of maritime affairs among the Norsemen of that very early period, and from the insular position of Britain, it seems to me that to reach it with horses, the most probable source of supply was from that great nation whose “ships of Tarshish” had been trading to all lands more than a thousand years before the Christian era. But, laying all theories aside, there are some facts and dates that we know, and the particular one to which I wish here to call attention is the historical record that when the Romans first visited Britain they found an abundant supply of horses; and this was about four hundred years before Arabia received her supply from the Emperor Constantius.

From the time of the Romans in Britain, horse-racing has been a popular and favorite amusement of our ancestors, and from that time horses have been bred for special purposes. The “Great Horse,” as he was called, was bred for war, parade, and show, and was large enough and strong enough to carry a knight in armor. The smaller horses were bred for the race or the chase, others for the saddle on account of their easy, gliding motion, and the comfort of the rider, while others, again, were stout of back and limb and able to carry burdens. In regard to the speed of the horses bred for that purpose, Mr. Gervase Markham, the second Englishman who undertook to write a book on the horse, has given us some very interesting and valuable information. He brought out his work in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and it passed through several “enlarged and improved” editions. In the edition of 1606 he says:

“For swiftness what nation has brought forth the horse which excelled the English? When the best Barbaries that ever were in their prime, I saw them overcome by a black Hobbie, of Salisbury, and yet that black Hobbie was overcome by a horse called Valentine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor running was ever equalled, yet was a plain English horse, both by syre and dam.”

From this we must conclude that some horses from the Barbary States had been brought over previous to 1606, which doubtless antedated the arrival of King James’ Arabian. This is the horse known as the Markham Arabian, and is in the above list of foundation stallions. In speaking of the Arabian horses as a breed, the Duke of Newcastle remarks as follows upon this particular representative of that breed:

“I never saw but one of these horses, which Mr. John Markham, a merchant, brought over and said he was a right Arabian. He was a bay, but a little horse, and no rarity for shape, for I have seen many English horses far finer. Mr. Markham sold him to King James for five hundred pounds, and being trained up for a course (race), when he came to run every horse beat him.”

The duke then goes on to speak of the staying qualities of the Arabians:

“They talk they will ride fourscore miles in a day and never draw the bridle. When I was young I could have bought a nag for ten pounds that would have done as much very easily.”

These remarks are repeated here because they are specially pertinent in this connection.

It will be conceded by every one who has any knowledge of the horse history of this period that the Duke of Newcastle was the best-informed man of his generation on all subjects connected with the history and breeding of the horse. His preference for blood was in the following order: The Barb, the Turk, the Spaniard, the Neapolitan, and the handsomest of the English stock. It will be observed that in this classification the Arabian has no place.

From these illustrations, to which other similar ones might be added, it seems to be evident that the native English stock did not lack speed so much as they lacked quality, finish, and beauty. Perhaps size should be included in this enumeration. They had been bred and trained to run for centuries, and they were as stout and fleet as the exotics, but they lacked the qualifications of beauty and style. The foreigners possessed what the natives lacked, and more than all they furnished both the climatic and the blood outcross that were needed to re-invigorate the native character. It was the custom of the people in the seventeenth century to let their horses of both sexes roam at will through forests and glades, and in this way the average size had been reduced and the law of Henry VIII. (prohibiting the running at large of stallions under a certain size) had become a nullity. At the time of the restoration of Charles II. (1660) the average size of the traveling stock of England was very small—perhaps not over thirteen hands high—and then commenced the serious work of increasing the size and improving the speed of the light horse stock, under the direction and influence of the Duke of Newcastle. The introduction of the new blood would give vigor to the stock, but as that blood was the blood of Turks and Barbs, probably but little if any larger than the native stock, the mystery still remains unsolved. In about one hundred years from that time the average size of the race horse had been brought up from less than fourteen to about fifteen hands. This increase of size cannot be accounted for on any other grounds than the introduction of the blood of some larger breed. We cannot conceive of this being the blood of the old Flanders stock that had been brought over centuries before; hence I am strongly of the opinion that the duke knew just what he was doing when he brought in a lot of stallions and mares (the latter called the “Royal Mares”) without telling anybody what they were or where they came from. This view is strengthened by the fact that none of the descendants of these mares, for several generations, ever made a mark upon the turf. If we reject this theory of the “Royal Mares,” we are then forced to the conclusion that the increase of size came chiefly from the large cold-blooded mares of the native stock. The fleet running families of the natives were small, and the imported Turks and Barbs were but little if any larger; hence, if we accept the evidence of our own senses and study the great variations in height, we cannot reject the conclusion that these variations had their origin in the size of the original elements entering into the formation of the breed.

What was the extent of the influence of the speed of the old English race horse upon the new race horse that sprang up in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? This is a question that has not been very much discussed, but every intelligent and thinking man has given it more or less thought. Britain was not rapid in the progress of civilization and refinement, but through all the centuries of her history she had her race horses and she ran them. There can be no doubt that many of these native horses could outrun and outlast the best of the exotics that were brought in. None of those exotics, so far as we know, could run and win. Their value, then, was measured, not by what they could do themselves, but by what their progeny could do; and that progeny, at the foundation, carried half the blood of the old tribes. There were no racing calendars in the seventeenth century and none till the second decade of the eighteenth, and during all that time the blood of every man’s horse would, naturally, be fashionable blood. When the racing calendars were established they were a partial check upon untruthful representations, but this check only extended to the sire of the animal, and was then not always trustworthy. This left the whole maternal side open to all kinds of misrepresentation, and as the Anglo-Saxon race is fond of liberty, every man exercised the liberty of making his pedigrees to suit himself. Thus, through advertisements, sale papers, etc., great multitudes of fictitious pedigrees, all shaped on fashionable lines, gained currency and were propagated from owner to owner, from generation to generation. On this point I speak from the personal knowledge of a long lifetime in connection with such affairs in our own country, and I take it for granted that our English ancestors were no better and no worse than we are ourselves. This was the condition of things in England for about one hundred and fifty years, and when Mr. Weatherby was at work on the Stud Book he was overflowed with a flood of those bald-headed fictions, concocted by generations long past, and nobody could disprove them. In this way a large portion of the accumulated rubbish of past generations found its way into the English Stud Book and there it stands to-day, serving only to misguide the seeker after truth.

The earliest records of English racing commence with the year 1709, and at Newmarket 1716. There have been several racing calendars published at different times, but probably the best and most convenient for office use is the Racing Register published by Bailey Bros., commencing with the first and now filling several large volumes. In the early days very few of the winners even had any pedigree, but after the lapse of about fifty years we find it the rule to insert the sire of all winners, although there were still some exceptions. Under this usage it became possible in the course of time to establish the leading facts on the paternal side, and thus the work of the stud-book compiler was greatly facilitated. Those racing calendars, although intended merely to serve the convenience of men who bet their money, caring nothing for blood, served the more permanent and valuable purpose of fixing the paternal lines in the genealogy of the English race horse.

In 1786 Mr. William Pick, of York, England, published “A Careful Collection of all the Pedigrees it was then Possible to Obtain,” thus antedating Mr. Weatherby’s “Introduction” by five years. In 1785 Mr. Pick had commenced the publication of a racing calendar called “The Sportsman and Breeder’s Vade Mecum,” which was continued a good many years. These little annual volumes were well received, and they were the forerunners of Pick’s Turf Register, the first volume of which was brought out in 1703. This was the same year that the first volume of Weatherby’s Stud Book appeared, and there was a sharp rivalry between the two authors, not merely as two men, but as representing two divisions of the country. Mr. Pick was a Yorkshire man and Mr. Weatherby was a Londoner. Yorkshire claimed to be the “race-horse region” of England, and the Southrons were ready to fight rather than concede that claim. This rivalry survived two or three generations of racing men, and it is a question whether it has yet subsided. In the north Pick was the authority and in the south, Weatherby.

These two men worked on different plans, and each had its advantages. Pick limited his labors to the great animals of the past, and took them up in chronological order, giving a brief sketch of the history and performances of each. This plan required space, and when he had completed his first volume of five hundred and twenty-eight pages he had only reached the close of 1763. The second volume, bringing the work down to the close of 1772, made its appearance in 1805. Mr. Pick did not live to continue the work, and it fell into the hands of Mr. R. Johnson, who brought out the third volume in 1822, which continued the chronological order to the close of 1782. After the lapse of forty-five years, namely 1867, the fourth volume appeared under Mr. Johnson’s name, bringing the work to the close of 1792, and I am not aware that the work has been continued. These four volumes contained much that cannot be found elsewhere, and are very valuable.

When we come to study these assemblages of impossible things put together and called pedigrees, we begin to realize the absolute rottenness of the alleged pedigrees of that whole early period. Take, for instance, the case of the horse called the Bald Galloway. He bore this name because he had a bald face, and was of the Galloway breed. This Galloway breed took its name from the old Province of Galloway, in the southwestern part of Scotland. They were small, active horses and were famous for many generations as a breed of pacers. It has been said that the last pacers in Great Britain were found in Galloway. This horse, Bald Galloway, was foaled some time about 1708 and was famous as a fast race horse till he trained off at five years old. I think there is no doubt about his being a genuine Galloway, and if so how could he have a pedigree all of foreign blood and ending in a “Royal Mare?” This Galloway horse was the sire of the famous Roxana, that produced Lath and his full brother Cade, that made the early reputation of the great Godolphin Arabian. I will ask my readers to refer to the Curwen Bay Barb, No. 11, near the commencement of this chapter. This was one of the very best of all the Barbs imported, and his origin and history are given with unusual fullness, as well as an enumeration of the best of his get. In examining this enumeration it will be seen that a good number of his best foals were out of Galloway mares and are called “Galloways.” Brocklesby Betty was one of the great mares of her day, and the Stud Book says that “as a runner, she was thought to be the superior of any horse or mare of her time.” She was foaled 1711, was got by Curwen Bay Barb and out of Mr. Leedes’ Hobby Mare. She was a brood mare before she was trained, and her performances were soon after the establishment of the Racing Calendars, which show her great superiority. The “Hobbies” were a breed of Irish pacing horses that had been noted for more than a hundred years, on both sides of the Irish channel, as saddle horses, hunters, and runners. The theory that these “Irish Hobbies” were descended from the horses on board one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, that was wrecked on the Irish coast, is purely fanciful, for they were known as a breed long before the Spanish Armada was projected. The Hobbies were larger and better formed, as a rule, than the Galloways, and more highly esteemed. These illustrations of the influence and power of indigenous blood in the formation of the breed, known throughout the world as the English race horse might be extended indefinitely, but let these suffice. With the “Galloways” and the “Hobbies,” well known to our ancestors two hundred years ago as established breeds or tribes of horses, we cannot avoid the conclusion that they were very prodigal of fancy and very economical of truth when they attempted to clothe Bald Galloway, Leedes’ Hobby, etc., in foreign pedigrees to make them fashionable. Aside from the matters of evidence here introduced going to show the composite material entering into the constitution, structure and instincts of the race horse as he is today, there is another that plays a very prominent part in the combination. When we see a race horse fourteen hands high, and another of equally pure blood standing beside him seventeen hands high, we naturally wonder, and ask, Why this difference in size? The Turk, the Barb, the Hobby, the Galloway, and indeed all the old English racing stock, were very small, scarcely averaging fourteen hands. After we have made every allowance for a salubrious climate and a generous and unstinted dietary we must concede a gradual increase of growth, but these things fail to account for a difference of twelve inches in the height of two horses bred in the same lines for untold generations. The conclusion seems to be inevitable that there were big horses as well as little ones in the original combination of ancestors. From these diverse sources of his inheritance, it becomes plain to the mind of every one that the English race horse is thoroughly composite in the blood he inherits, and it is beyond the powers of analysis to determine whether one element did more than another in making him the fastest running horse in the world.

While it might be forcibly, if not conclusively, argued that the native English horse had in him all the elements necessary to the development of a breed of race horses as great as the breed of our own day, there is one fact ever present to the senses which goes to show that the influence of exotic blood was very wide and very powerful in controlling the action of the race horse. The popular and prevailing pacing action of the Hobbies, the Galloways, and other hunting, racing and saddle tribes was completely wiped out more than a hundred years ago. Any attempt to account for this revolution in the gait of the English horse as a fancy of fashion, or on the introduction of wheeled vehicles, fails to satisfy the understanding. In the first half of the seventeenth century pacers were popular, common, and abounded everywhere. In the second half of the eighteenth century not one could be found in all Britain, “from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s House.” Of all the facts that are known and established in the history of the English horse, the wiping out of the pacer is the most striking and significant. This exterminating process was not limited to the families that were intended for hunting or racing purposes, but extended to all types and breeds of English horses. The little English pacers that had been the favorites of kings and princes and nobles for so many centuries were submerged in the streams of Saracenic blood that flowed in upon them, and their only legitimate descendants left upon the face of the earth found homes in the American colonies. Their blood is one of the principal elements in the foundation of the English race horse, but the “lateral action” in his progeny was esteemed a bar-sinister on the escutcheon of the stallion, and it was sought to be covered up with something more fashionable in name. The old saddle horses of England were not all pacers, although that habit of action was very general among them, and in some families it was more uniform and confirmed than in others, and my authority for this conclusion will be found in the detailed account of the horses brought from England to the American colonies early in the seventeenth century. It is evident that from the day the blood of the Saracenic horse was brought in contact with that of the indigenous saddle horse, they were antagonistic, if in nothing more, certainly in the habit of action. The one never moved in the lateral action and the other very generally adopted that form of progression because it was his inheritance. What might have been the result if left to the laws of “natural selection,” it would be impossible to decide; but with the dictates of profit to the master, the mandates of fashion, and above all the accepted teachings of the Duke of Newcastle, the little pacer had no “friends at court,” and all he could do was to get out of the way, with his lateral action. In our own country and under the observation of everybody the pacer shows great tenacity to his long-inherited habit of action, and although buried in non-pacing blood, as supposed, for two or three generations, the pace is liable to appear again, at any time. So it was, doubtless in English experiences, but as the revolution was not retarded by the development of pacing speed, in one hundred years from the restoration, in 1660, there was no longer a pacer on British soil.

When the first Mr. Weatherby assumed the task of making and keeping a registry of English race horses, he seems to have had only a very faint conception of the magnitude of the undertaking. The first volume of his “General Stud Book” was published in 1803, and when it appeared it was found to contain so many things that were not true that the necessary work of revision and excision reduced its contents fearfully. In these eliminations he started in with a free hand, as is shown by comparison with later editions, but soon found that his book was disappearing very rapidly, and not much of it would be left, if he did not stay his hand. At this point he seems to have adopted some new rule, unfortunately, either of evidence or of date, probably the latter, for his work discloses the fact that he declined all responsibility for pedigrees as they came to him, of an earlier period than about 1780. Beyond that date nearly all the crude and impossible things of fiction were allowed to remain and are thus propagated as true, down to our own day. There was one rule, however, adopted very early in the management of this compilation that saved it from degeneracy, and that was the difficulty of getting into it. In all its history, from the beginning, it has been a kind of “close corporation,” and the animals in the volume of the last year are almost uniformly descended from the animals to be found in the first volume. The application of this rule, no doubt, worked an injustice in very many cases, but it made the English race horse a BREED, pre-eminent above all other horses for his unequaled speed as a running horse. This general rule restricting admissions to the descendants of such as had places in preceding volumes seems to have been followed and maintained with a good share of rigidity, by the different generations of the Weatherby family, in whose hands the compilation still remains. Whatever may have been the ratio of fables and forgeries in the first volume, they were there compacted and neither the Weatherbys nor the breeders have been much annoyed with them since. The plan of the Stud Book itself is very unsatisfactory to the careful student, for the reason that it admits of no details of breeder, owner, etc., that are of vital importance in tracing and identifying an unknown or disputed pedigree. While the plan is very desirable and effective in placing the produce of mares underneath the dams, it is very defective in relation to breeders, and subsequent owners. Unless the identity of the animal can be traced and established by the records, the pedigree is always doubtful. But notwithstanding the unsatisfactory plan of its construction, it has been honestly compiled, and we may safely accept its contents, back as far as the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Mr. Weatherby began his work; but when we reach the period of the eighteenth century, facts, fables and frauds are so inextricably mixed that whatever we accept must be cum grano salis. Beyond that period Mr. Weatherby furnishes nothing but the wildest fancies and traditions shaped up by those contributing them with a view to lengthen a pedigree and a price accordingly. All that we can ever know of the horses of that period we must gather from the little snatches dropped by contemporaneous historians.

In establishing his “General Stud Book,” Mr. Weatherby’s work may be compared to the building of an embankment around a great field which contained all the race horses of the realm. They were of all colors, all markings and all sizes, except the monster cart horse and the diminutive Shetland. They had all raced or possessed blood that had raced, and they all had pedigrees of various lengths and various degrees of reliability. They all walked and trotted and galloped, and there was not a pacer among them, for the last pacer had disappeared from England probably fifty years before this. The antagonism of the Saracenic horse had triumphed, and that antagonism was bred in the blood and bone of every animal in the field. They were placed there to be inter-bred and to produce race horses. Every one of the thousand owners was anxious to produce a great winner, and he was left to the exercise of his own fancy and judgment as to what cross would be most likely to prove successful, and to vindicate his superior intelligence. With, all experimenting outside of the breed practically barred, the instincts of the breed ripened and intensified until its representatives are able to beat the fleetest in the world at the gallop, but they could neither walk fast nor trot fast. It is doubtful whether any person in the world has ever seen a true-bred race horse that could trot a mile in four minutes. At this gait they show no aptness nor speed whatever. By breeding to fit the modern methods of racing, the speed of the race horse has been greatly increased, for short distances, but his stamina and endurance no longer command admiration as in former generations.

In the latter half of the last century there were a good many excellent trotters in England, but the further we get away from the blood of the old English pacer, the fewer the trotters we find, until at last there are none at all. It seems to be true of all countries that where there are no pacers there are no trotters. It was not the purpose nor wish of the English people to banish the trotter, but when the pacer was banished the trotter soon followed him.