The Slower Road

Do you remember the recent mention here of the [then-upcoming] tournament hosted by the Rough Riding Club of New York?

One of the events at that February 1897 event was an obscure sport known as tent-pegging.

The Rider & Driver from February 13, 1897, had this image on its cover:

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… and this description on page 10:

“The spirited sketch on our front page this week, by that very clever artist Mr. Max F. Klepper, shows a member of the Rough Riding Club of New York, in the act of tent-pegging with the regulation British army lance, as performed in the contest between teams from that organization and the Brooklyn Riding and Driving Club, at Brooklyn, last Wednesday evening. There is no more spirited equestrian game, and none more exciting for spectators. The pegs are made of heavy wood, and driven firmly into the ground to the depth of six inches. The lances are made of stout male bamboo, which differs from the ordinary bamboo in its wonderful strength, being at the same time comparatively light. The points are of the finest tempered steel, and nicked, so that when the peg has been pierced it may be retained. In order to take the peg, the horse must be ridden at the fastest gallop, so as to proved sufficient momentum for piercing the wood.”

… and to think this took place in the middle of New York City, and probably even in an indoor riding arena …

from the April 3, 1897, issue of Rider and Driver:

“The Rough Riding Club of New York will give a grand mounted tournament at Durland’s [Riding Academy], on Saturday evening, the 10th [of April, 1897]. In addition to the full-dress military drill, with lance and sabre, there will be contests at tent-pegging between the New York team and a team from the Brooklyn Riding and Driving Club, wrestling on horseback [huh??], single-stick cockade melee [what??], broadsword combat, Cossack riding and vaulting, and as a finale, a realistic attack  upon a fort with rifles, artillery, and mounted lancers.”

[Wow.]

And another bit of news from the April 10, 1897, issue of The Rider and Driver … with just a little bit of editorializing on Rider and Driver’s part:

A Chance for Quaker City Cabbies

The managers of the Philadelphia Horse Show have decided to again introduce the class open only to cab horses, which created such rivalry last year [in 1896] between the Quaker City Cab Company, the Standard Cab Company, and the Pennsylvania Railway Cab Company. Each of these companies has been making special preparations this year. Others that were not in the competition last year have entered, and surprises are likely to be everywhere present in the competition.

The horses are required to be over 15 hands high. They must be before a four-wheel cab, which must have been the property of the livery stable or cab company at least one month previous to the show. Horses will count for fifty percent, and appointments fifty percent.

The patrons of these companies are likely to fall in a faint when they behold at the exhibition what could be turned out for their luxury and convenience as compared with what is now put at their disposal by the cabbies.

And here we have the final (or first!) installment in the story of Messrs. Stevens and Dunham and their plan to breed Hackneys to French Coachers to produce heavy-harness horses.

This was published in the April 3, 1897, issue of The Rider and Driver:

Maplewood and Oaklawn Unite in the Breeding of Heavy-harness Horses

Washington, D.C., March 30, 1897.

To the Editor of The Rider and Driver:

Mr. Frederick C. Stevens has just purchased six of the best French Coacher mares owned by Mr. Dunham, namely:

Gazette II, of which Mr. Dunham writes: “Sixty-nine sons of the direct ancestors of this filly, first, second, and third generations, were owned by the French Government and stood in the National Haras, and seventy-five of the sons and daughters of her grand-sire have trotted, winning races to the amount fo 210,000 francs.”

Heroine, by Perfection, dam Hirondelle.

Hinda, full sister to Heroine.

Iphigene, the first-prize mare at the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893. Second-prize National Horse Show, New York, 1896.

Tache Sans Tache, a grand mare 16.5 hands, and showing better hock action than I have ever seen in any other French Coacher. The dam of Tache Sans Tache was a noted prize winner in France.

Tranquility, fully 16 hands, is a mare of remarkable conformation and substance, she is the dam of Perfection’s greatest son Partisan, which won first prize in class at the World’s Fair, 1893; first prize at the National Horse Show, New York, 1896; first prize, shown with sire, at the World’s Fair, 1893; first prize, shown with sire, at the National Horse Show, New York, 1896; second prize, with get, his sire Perfection receiving first honors.

Mr. Dunham is to send some mares to be bred to the Hackney stallion Langton Performer, which he declares to be the finest stallion of his breed he has ever seen. Mr. Stevens will breed all of the mares purchased of Mr. Dunham to his Hackney stallions Langton Performer and Clifton II. Maplewood is undoubtedly the greatest breeding establishment in the United States.

— V. B. Deyber

As a follow up (or backstory), of sorts, to Wednesday’s post … today’s perusal through more old issues of The Rider and Driver led me to this article, which appeared in the issue that came out one week before the magazine’s Q and A session with Mr. Stevens.

from the April 10, 1897, issue of Rider and Driver:

Up to within a few years little attention has been paid to the systematic production of high-class saddle and harness horses. Breeders and farmers confined their attention to the development of speed, in either the runner or trotter. When this element was lacking in the young animal he was turned into the market as a failure and sold for whatever he would fetch and for any purpose that he might be available. Naturally, such haphazard methods were not conducive to the development of beautiful conformation, stylish carriage, sensational action, and good manners.

Gradually, it began to dawn on the classes using pleasure vehicles that we were behind the Europeans in the quality of our equines, and the sense of pride stimulated the study of the subject with resultant activity on lines which suggested themselves. Horse shows sprang up, wealthy men went abroad to buy fine Hackneys, the parks and avenues became scenes of the livliest rivalry in the matter of equipage. Out of these conditions has been evolved a broader appreciation of the demands of the hour…

Two of the leaders in the new era of horsemanship, to neither of whom, however, applies the remarks concerning antiquated ideas, both of them having been wide-awake and up to date, are now united in their efforts, a condition which not only marks an epoch in the history of the heavy-harness horse, in this country, by the union of bloodlines that will certainly prove advantageous to the horse-breeding industry, but also affords a most worthy example in catholicity of spirit. The event was announced in these columns last week [see tomorrow’s post for a copy of this letter] and caused no mild sensation, as both breeders were supposed, in some misinformed circles, to be so wedded to their especial breeds of horses as not to recognize merit in any other. It is here that their wisdom comes in and it is there that their recognition of one another’s merits places a stinging rebuke on those who have fostered the notion that because a man patronizes one especial kind of horse he becomes a traitor to principle when he favors any other. The gentlemen referred to are exponents of the Hackney (Mr. F. C. Stevens of Maplewood Hackney Stud) and of the French Coacher (Mr. M. W. Dunham, of Oaklawn Stud of French Coachers).

Horses of these respective studs have taken prizes at all the big horse shows and won great admiration for their beauty and style of going. … Anyone with any knowledge of breeding will note at once that the combination of the substance and action of the Hackney with the quality and speed of the French Coacher, both horses having superb conformation, will produce an ideal harness horse.

[Below is] a cut of Cogent, the champion harness horse at New York and Boston, last year, as a sample of what the French Coacher begets. Cogent was bred by the Messrs. Hamlin and has the trotting blood of Mambrino King on the sire side. The crossing of the French Coacher with the native-bred trotter is thus shown to be successful, but Cogent could have more action, which would be present had his dam been of Hackney blood. However, on this point there are various opinions. Aside from any interested motive, we think Messrs. Stevens and Dunham are deserving of the public’s fullest approval for their astuteness and liberality.

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Cogent, half French Coacher, half trotting-bred; winner of first prize at the National Horse Show, New York, 1895 and 1896 (from the April 10, 1897, Rider and Driver)