The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and DevelopmentWallace, John Hankins
History
The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development
Wallace, John Hankins
Horse breeds -- History; Horses -- Breeding -- United States; Horses -- United States -- History
HAMBLETONIAN (HARRIS’) (also known as Bristol Grey and Remington
Horse).—This was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high, and possessed
great strength and substance. When young he was an iron grey and probably
pretty dark, but as he advanced in age he became lighter in color. His
head was large and bony, with great width between the eyes. He was short
in the back, with long hips, and the rise of the withers commenced far
back, showing a fine, oblique shoulder. He was a horse of unusually large
bone formation; his limbs were large, but flat and clean, with a heavy
growth of hair at the fetlocks. He was of docile and kindly disposition
and worked well either alone or with another. His gait was open and
decided and at a walk his long slinging steps carried him over the ground
unusually fast. His speed as a trotter was never developed, but his
action at that gait was so free, open and square that those who knew him
well have insisted that his manner of going indicated the possibility of
great improvement, if he had been handled with that view. His offspring
were slow in maturing, and for many years, indeed till toward the end
of his life, he was not appreciated as a stallion. He was in constant
competition with the little, plump, trim and trappy Morgans, and at three
and four years old his long, lathy, plain colts cut but a sorry figure
against the well formed and fully developed Morgans of their own age.
With such a rivalry, sustained by the question of profit to the breeder
by early sales, it is not remarkable that he should have been neglected,
till it was clearly demonstrated that he transmitted the true Messenger
trotting instinct in greater strength than any of his competitors.
He was bred by Isaac Munson, of Wallingford, Vermont; foaled 1823, got
by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam the Munson mare that was
brought from Boston, 1813. There never has been any question about the
sire of this horse, but up to 1869 the representation made by Mr. Harris
that his dam was an imported English mare was generally accepted as the
truth. I was led to doubt this, and in December of that year I made a
thorough search of the records of the custom-house in Boston, and found
the claim was without any foundation whatever. Through the kindness of
Mr. Henry D. Noble I was enabled to get beyond Mr. Harris, who really
knew nothing about the mare, back to the Munson family, and to Mr. Joseph
Tucker, the earliest and best authority living in 1870. In order that
this evidence may be preserved I will here insert Mr. Tucker’s letter
entire.
“MILFORD, N. H., May 4th, 1870.
“MR. J. H. WALLACE, Muscatine, Iowa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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