The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

After this narrow escape from the annihilation of much of the good that Barss had done, the management then began to look for the same blood and the same habit of action that the “Dutch Mare” transmitted to her son, and, with this element to the front, progression was resumed. Out of his great variety of forms and of strains of blood the count and his managers could pick and choose for the size, shape and forms they wanted, but they were not able to transfer with the size, shape and form the instincts and psychical nature of the horse. The count seems to have carried forward his great enterprise rather with a view to experimentation than its commercial possibilities. Smetanka lived but a year or two, and when he stumbled upon the production of Barss, a magnificent individual and a great trotter, his head seems to have been turned, as he evidently supposed that he could breed any kind of horse he wished to breed, and be able to do anything he wished him to do. At his death, in 1808, he left no male heir to succeed him, but he provided in his will that his stud should not be dispersed. It was kept intact till about 1845, when it was purchased by the government, and finally divided among a number of prominent breeders in different portions of the empire.

Without having any knowledge on the subject that is definite and specific, I am led to infer that the rules on registration and racing in Russia are a hindrance to the breeding and development of the trotter. As I understand it, no horse can be registered unless he is purely descended from Barss. And I understand further, that he must possess the same requirements in order to enter and start in a public race against the Orloffs. If it be true that these restrictions are really in existence and are enforced, we can understand why the American trotter is so far ahead of the Orloff in speed and in the markets of Europe. The Orloff is restricted to certain lines of blood and is protected against competition from others that might beat him. The American is free from all restrictions of blood and gathers up all that is best and fastest. He neither asks nor accepts protection from any quarter, but throws down the glove to all comers.

Bellfounder was imported from England, July, 1822, by James Boott, of Boston, Mass. He was placed in the hands of Samuel Jaques, Jr.—a very shrewd manager who understood the use of printer’s ink and did not hesitate about employing it liberally. In his advertisement for 1823 he says: “This celebrated horse is a bright bay with black legs, standing fifteen hands high.” From this we are safe in concluding he was not more than fifteen hands, and from another contemporaneous source it is learned that he was a little below that measurement. On this point the recollections, or perhaps impressions, of Orange County horsemen are not very trustworthy, as one of them places his height at sixteen hands and others at fifteen and a half. His pedigree was given on the card which was distributed by his groom in the form following: “Got by old Bellfounder, out of Velocity by Haphazard, by Sir Peter out of Miss Hervey by Eclipse.” “Velocity trotted on the Norwich road in 1806, sixteen miles in one hour, and although she broke five times into a gallop, and as often turned round, she won her match.” Although after diligent search I have not been able to find this performance of Velocity, it may be true that a mare so named may have trotted as represented, but she was not a daughter of Haphazard. The dates make this utterly impossible, and Mr. Jaques was smart enough never to put this humbug pedigree in his elaborate advertisements that appeared in the leading agricultural papers of the country, year after year.

As the great mass of people of that day knew nothing and cared but little about pedigrees, the astute manager of the horse struck an expedient in the way of advertising that was very effective. He had a cut made of a horse trotting loose on the road, at the rate of a hurricane, and in the background was an entablature with the legend “Seventeen and a half miles an hour,” which anybody and everybody would interpret to mean that this was a record made by imported Bellfounder, and there he was doing it. This cut in reduced form went the rounds of the agricultural press, and in 1831 made its appearance in the “Family Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge.” This dodge was exceedingly effective, and as it appeared in a book it must be true. Thousands of people interpreted the picture to mean that imported Bellfounder had trotted seventeen and a half miles in an hour. Mr. Jaques did not say this in letters and figures, but he said it even more plainly in a picture. The basis of this deception is found in the advertisement itself, where, in speaking of the speed of old Bellfounder in England, he says: “His owner challenged to perform with him seventeen miles and a half in one hour, but it was not accepted.” Here we have a possible challenge of the sire transmuted into an actual performance of the son, for the sole purpose of securing public patronage.

There can be no doubt that this horse was a true representative of what was then known as the Norfolk Trotters and at this time designated as Hackneys or Cobs. Bellfounder was of a quiet, docile disposition, with a display of great nervous energy in his movements when aroused. His knee and hock action was high and showy, giving the impression of a great trotter, without much speed. At several points his form was measurably reproduced in Hambletonian, especially in his low, round withers and his great, meaty buttocks. In seeing these points so plainly developed in his idol it is not remarkable that Mr. Rysdyk should have placed too high an estimate on Bellfounder blood as a factor in the American trotting horse. If he had thoughtfully asked himself the question, What has Bellfounder blood done in its own right in the way of getting trotters? the illusion would have vanished.

Bellfounder was in the control of Mr. Jaques for six years, and never in my knowledge of trotting stallions have I known one so widely and successfully advertised. The name “Bellfounder” was heard and known everywhere. From 1829 to 1833, inclusive, he was under the control of Mr. T. T. Kissam, of Long Island. After that time he seems to have gone “a-begging” wherever there seemed to be a chance to earn his oats. At last, at Jamaica, Long Island, he died, having made twenty-one seasons in this country—one more than Messenger. The question was once raised as to where Hambletonian got his aversion to the chestnut color, and it was flippantly assigned to Bellfounder. The truth is, quite a number of Bellfounder’s get were chestnuts, perhaps as large a percentage as would naturally come from the average stallion.

It is the testimony of several gentlemen who were familiar with trotting affairs in the time of the Bellfounders, that a number of them were skillfully and persistently trained and none of them could trot faster than about 2:50. The one exception to this fact so widely established is the case of the dam of Hambletonian. After this filly passed into the hands of Peter Seely he gave some attention irregularly to the development of her speed, and before he sold her he gave her two trials to saddle on the Union Course and she trotted in 2:43 and 2:41. As she was then but four years old it is safe to conclude that she would have made a trotter, beyond all doubt. This is the only one, old or young, from the loins of Bellfounder that ever trotted so fast. I once put the question directly to Mr. Rysdyk as to whether the Kent Mare was as good and as fast as her dam, One Eye, and he promptly replied that One Eye was much the faster and greater mare. To this answer he added that One Eye, under the same circumstances, would have been the equal of Lady Thorn or any other that ever lived. This may account for the superiority of the Kent Mare over all the other Bellfounders, and it may account for the superiority of Hambletonian over all other stallions.

Bellfounder (Brown’s or Kissam’s), was a bay horse, foaled 1830, got by imported Bellfounder; dam Lady Alport, by Mambrino, son of Messenger; grandam by Tippoo, son of Messenger; great-grandam by imported Messenger. With such breeding he should have been a great horse. He was bred by Timothy T. Kissam, of Long Island, and sold along with a full brother one year younger, named Bellport, about 1834-5, to L. F. and A. B. Allen, of Buffalo, New York. Bellfounder was a bay horse, sixteen hands high, and Bellport was sixteen and one-half hands, but was poisoned and died at four years old. Bellfounder passed into the hands of some parties at Cleveland and then to Mr. Brown, of Columbus, Ohio, made most of his seasons in that portion of the State, and died September, 1860. This was altogether the most valuable son the imported horse left—indeed the only one that made any mark in the world. He was not much of a trotter and did not get trotters, but got colts that were excellent types of the coach horse, and for that purpose was very highly esteemed. Some of his sons and daughters, especially the latter, are met with sometimes in trotting records as having produced something that had more or less speed.

Conqueror was a bay gelding, foaled 1842, and got by La Tourrett’s Bellfounder, a grandson of the imported horse, and out of Lady McClain by imported Bellfounder, and she out of Lady Webber by Mambrino, and she out of a mare brought from Dutchess County and represented to be a daughter of imported Messenger. This gelding had been pounded about in slow races for years and had the reputation of being a stayer. In 1853 a match was made with him to trot a hundred miles in nine hours. The race was started and the horse won in 8h. 55m. and 53s., and he died three or four days afterward. This is the only instance that I know of in which the advocates of Hackney blood can point to a trotting record made in this or indeed in any other country.