CHAPTER IX.
COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.
Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of Dutch and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size of horses—Horses to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands not to run at large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English, 1664—First organized racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement in speed—First advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction, contestants must “be bred in America”—Great racing and heavy betting—First importations of English running horses—Half-breds to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half bushel of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and trotting contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost.
For several years after Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the harbor of New York and the great river which took his name, in the year 1609, there is uncertainty and doubt as to the nature of the settlement. For a time it seems to have been merely a trading post, occupied only by those in the employment of the company that owned it, and without many of the elements requisite to make up a permanent colony. At Fort Orange (Albany) and at Esopus (Kingston), the conditions were the same as at New Amsterdam, as New York was then named. The first party of immigrants that seemed to have the elements of permanent colonization about it arrived in 1625, and consisted of six families and several single men, making in all forty-five persons, with furniture, utensils, etc., and one hundred and three head of cattle. Doubtless some of these “cattle” were horses, and the general instead of the specific term was used in enumerating them. Very little is known of the early horse history of the New Netherlands, as the whole region was then named; there can be no doubt, however, that they increased and multiplied. Sometime, probably about 1643, a cargo or two of horses were brought up from Curaçoa and Azuba, in the Dutch West Indies, but the climatic change was too great for them, and they did not do well, being specially subject to diseases from which the Dutch horses seemed to have complete immunity. In 1647, Isaac Allerton, as agent, was authorized to sell twenty or twenty-five of these horses to Virginia, and whether the authorities were able thus to get clear of a bad investment does not appear from the existing records. In a report to the home company, made in 1650, I find the following prices were given at that time: A young mare with second foal, one hundred and fifty florins; stallion, four or five years old, one hundred and thirty florins; milch cow, one hundred florins. The same report makes a comparison by giving the prices of New England horses, as follows: A good mare one hundred to one hundred and twenty florins; stallion, one hundred florins; milch cow, sixty to seventy florins. Neither horses nor cows were then allowed to be shipped out of the province without permission of the council.
Adrien Van der Donck wrote a description of New Netherlands which was published 1656, in which he speaks of the horse stock as follows:
“The horses are of the proper breed for husbandry, having been brought from Utrecht for that purpose; and this stock has not diminished in size or quality. There are also horses of the English breed which are lighter, not so good for agricultural use, but fit for the saddle. These do not cost as much as the Netherlands breed and are easily obtained.”
From a large number of facts collected for the years 1777 and 1778 the horses then averaged about fourteen hands and one inch, and when compared with earlier data it is evident they had increased in height. In the gaits of those advertised, fifteen both paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. As this was in the period of the Revolution, and right in the center of hostilities, some allowance should be made for horses from other colonies.
The people of this colony, like those of all the others, branded their horses and turned them out to seek their own living in the summer season, and this resulted in many losses, and oftentimes in much bad feeling. The Dutch were not accustomed, in the “old country,” to building fences around their crops high enough and strong enough to keep out all the droves and herds of animals running at large. In the line of improvement and increase of size in their horses, they provided that all stallions running at large, of two years and nine months old, must be fourteen hands high or be castrated. This law was in force in 1734, and no doubt was effective. Among the many laws for the suppression of vice of different kinds, I find one prohibiting horse racing on Sunday, and from this we might infer that it was not forbidden on other days of the week.
In old newspapers, advertisements, etc., we sometimes come across “Esopus Horses, Esopus Mares,” and, for years, I was not able to tell what this term meant. The locality of Kingston was originally called Esopus, and in that neighborhood there were several farmers who bred horses largely, at an early day in the history of the colony, and the locality became famous for the character and quality of the horses produced there. They were of the best and purest Dutch blood, and for what we would call “all-purpose horses” their fame was very wide in that day. Hence I infer that the term “Esopus” was used to indicate what was considered the best type of Dutch horses. There is danger of going astray in the meaning of the term “Dutch horses,” as in later times it was applied to the great, massive draft horses of Pennsylvania. They were better “for agricultural purposes,” as Van der Donck puts it, than the Connecticut horses, because they were larger and stronger, but they were sprightly and active and some of them could run very well. They had a fine reputation in the adjoining colonies.