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by Barbara Molland
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In the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, where Thoroughbred race horse farms abound and stone walls enclose the verdant pastures of places like Claiborne Farms and Three Chimneys, there is another breed common to this area, the American Saddlebred. The Saddlebred has, in many ways, an older historical claim to this country than does the Thoroughbred, and a retrospective of its development and use reveals an intimate relationship between early America and the breed claiming the oldest registry in the United States. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| During the 18th Century, the territory west of the Cumberland Gap was a raw land, heavily treed, with rolling hills and beautiful meadows underlain with limestone rock. As European immigrants moved westward into this road-less terrain, they did so on foot and horseback, traveling narrow winding trails with hazards on all sides. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rex McDonald - by George Ford Morris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| They brought with them agile, ambling horses from the European continent, small horses, often referred to in the old English literature of Chaucer's time as palfreys. By the 1700s, in the Narragansett Bay area of Rhode Island, such horses were being bred in large numbers and were known as Narragansett Pacers. Carrying slightly different blood, similar horses found their way from Canada and were called Canadian Pacers, close in type and sharing blood with the early foundation Morgans. Both horses were surefooted amblers, could live on spare rations, and had an almost eerie ability to cover a lot of ground at speed without fatigue.
The horses carried settlers to what would become widely known as the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky where successful farmers began to breed them to stallions of the Thoroughbred breed that were then being imported from England. The resulting offspring were larger, more refined, and many retained the ambling ability of the gaited horses. It was in this way that the American Saddlebred breed began, and this region became widely known for the reproduction of the best riding horses in the country. |
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| Unlike today's horse breeding priorities, however, early Americans horses had to prove themselves in many ways, and the whims of their owners played little part in the success or failure of a breeding stallion. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The successful stallion attracted mares through the reputation of his offspring, and if they were good, the word would spread for many miles, a reputation carried by his colts and fillies as they worked their way to Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and remote regions. Stamina, energy, intelligence, tractability, speed, and beauty were characteristics that sold the horses that possessed them, and owners brought their mares from great distances to the stallions whose offspring were so admired. |  |
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1870's photo of a large group of Saddlebreds
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| It was a time in which people knew horses the way they now know computers, and were as comfortable on the seat of a buggy or in the saddle as they now are sitting in front of a keyboard. When horses were a fundamental part of the economy, the American Saddlebred was not a horse to be coddled. Just like the hardy people who settled this uncharted territory, he had to do a job and to also be a willing and trusted part of the family's day to day activity. With his keen intelligence and affection for his "family" the Saddlebred endeared himself to the people who depended upon him, and in return as their communities grew and there was time for socializing, they honored him with county fairs and special court days dedicated to the racing and trading of horses. This was not a horse that came out only for the fox hunt in Virginia or for a ride around New York City's Central Park; this was not a specialist horse but a vital cog in the machinery of frontier life, as dependable in front of a plow as he was for the doctor racing to an emergency on a distant homestead. He had to have stamina, strength, speed when needed, and dependability. If he could amble and give his rider a comfortable ride, he was even more valuable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This hard use created a horse whose breeding had been honed to perfection; the strongest, most trainable and intelligent horses rose like cream to the top of the breeding ranks. During the American Civil War, officers on both sides rode horses of the Saddlebred type, but this was especially true of the Confederate Army, and during the grueling marches of the cavalry, thousands of these mounts were lost in battle, so that by 1865 at the end of the war those horses that stumbled home, by virtue of their very survival, were seemingly made of steel. This group formed the nucleus of today's American Saddlebred. Their names echo the names of their generals, the sites of bloody battles, and their riders' fond memories of home: Lexington, Stonewall Jackson, Bourbon King, and Mountain Highland Majesty. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General John Hunt Morgan aboard his Saddlebred - above | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| General Castleman on the beautiful and talented Carolina (right)
The reknown sire Bourbon King (left) Both are fine examples of the breed's early foundation stock. |
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| The breed's battle for survival, however, did not end with the Civil War. In a relatively short time, the invention of the automobile posed an even greater threat to its existence. Why this new threat didn't succeed lies somewhere long ago in the shared psyche of the human/horse partnership, a place unique in its history. So instead of disappearing, the breed's traditional saddle and tack, its rider's clothing, and way of riding became idealized and frozen in time. Like the American cowboy in following years with his Stetson, jeans, chaps, and heavy western stock saddle, the American Saddlebred rider continued the even earlier tradition of the English saddle suit, derby, and flat saddle (which antedated the English forward seat saddle). The horse left the dusty rural back roads for the show ring, because that was all that was left to him and the people who couldn't imagine a time without him. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| With this transformation, the old men of the breed retreated to the dark interiors of aging Kentucky tobacco barns, treasuring their breeding stallions and mares like jewels from the past, handed down through generations of their families. They gave their horses names like The Rambler, Family Jewels, and Dixie Duchess, and they had little regard for a horse that could only walk, trot and canter. What they loved was a horse that had two additional gaits, one that would rack and slow gait, gaits that reverberated with their memories of the past, the rhythmic four-beat staccato of the sound of a horse on a country road, and they painstakingly worked to develop and train these two extra gaits so the horse remained "true" and separated his gaits to perfection. They had another quality they valued from the past which was a horse's boldness. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Montrose - early foundation sire
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| The worse thing these men could say about a horse was that he was "chicken-hearted" or "gutless" and that is because the best Saddlebreds were brave horses, fearless in battle, fearless in the backwoods, not due to dullness or stupidity, but because of their high intelligence and confidence in themselves. Today we find this same quality in the best specimens of the breed: it is a spirited horse with a bold dispotition. The trainers will say that such a horse "thinks a lot of himself". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Witht his attentive cultivation, the American Saddlebred breed grew slowly, with breeders unwilling to part with horses that carried this magic potion of characteristics. The horses were doled out to serious breeders and trusted buyers, so that by the 1920s and 30s, Saddlebreds were being shown in Louisville, Kentucky, St.Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California under the farm colors of some of the wealthiest patrons in America. Francis Dodge of the Dodge Motor Company and Mrs. William Roth of the Matson Shipping Lines in San Francisco were just two of the many who spent years showing and promoting their horses from coast to coast, putting them on trains, criss-crossing the country, entertaining people who flocked to horse shows as Americans struggled to bear up under the cloud of the Great Depression and the turmoil of World War II. By 1950, horse shows had become such a big part of American society that the great Five-Gaited World Champion, Wing Commander, appeared in Life magazine as an example of a fine athlete, an American phenomenon, and perhaps also in the wake of the war, the country's living representative of a simpler time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ms. Francis Dodge on her retired show horse Pendennis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today, the ASB breed is still a small one. With its registry laying claim to being the oldest registry in the country with an official date of 1891, the American Saddlebred Horse Assn, or ASHA, registers about 3000 horses per year. Fortunately for such a small number, breeders have avoided the pitfalls of an emphasis on futurities and halter showing, preferring instead to use rigorous performance for evaluation. In recent years the ASHA has instituted a program to promote the breed's versatility, a path that is welcomed by some and mourned by others who lament any loss of the breed's traditions. One fact remains, however, and that is that the ASB breed, unlike many others, retains its genetic diversity, its health, soundness, athleticism, and intelligence, characteristics which made it the pride of the Kentucky Bluegrass. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wing Commander - by George Ford Morris
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| In great measure, the retention of those characteristics is due to the stewardship of those who never forgot its heritage or its trials, those people whose hearts beat a little faster at the sight of a good horse and the sound of its footfalls, and it is to them that we owe a debt of gratitude for their wisdom. The American Saddlebred, a breed that is now coming home once again to its rightful place of prominence in American Equine History.
For more information on the American Saddlebred breed, visit the official website of the American Saddlebred Horse Association at: www.saddlebred.com |
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