The Charles Kent Mare, dam of Hambletonian, was a bay, fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with a star, left forward ankle roan, and left hind foot white. Her son was long and round, just the opposite of her sire. Hips rather coarse, and might be considered a little ragged. Stifles very powerful and well-developed. Her hocks and legs were exactly represented in her son Hambletonian. Her neck was fine and bloodlike, but not long. Her head was good, and her eyes remarkably full and bright, showing considerable white. Her mane was long, but thin, and her tail was light. Her shoulders were well-sloped, her withers ran up high, and were thin. Jonas Seely, Sr., having given the old mare One Eye to his son Charles, she was sold to Josiah S. Jackson, of Oxford, Orange County. Mr. Jackson bred her to Bellfounder and the produce was the Kent mare. Although the Seely family owned the stock, originally and afterward, Mr. Jackson was really the breeder of this mare. Mr. Jonas Seely says she was got the year Bellfounder stood at Poughkeepsie (1831), but Mr. Rysdyk says she was got in 1832, when Bellfounder stood at Washingtonville. Mr. Jackson sold her at three years old to Peter Seely for three hundred dollars; Mr. Seely sold her soon after to Mr. Pray, of New York, for four hundred dollars; Mr. Pray sold her to William Chivis for five hundred dollars; and Mr. Chivis sold her to a gentleman, who was a banker in New York—name not remembered—to match another as a fast road team. This team ran away after a time, and she was injured, and became lame. Charles Kent, a butcher in New York, then bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom Thumb, before he came to Orange County. At this juncture, on the earnest recommendation of Mr. Pray, who had tested the quality of three or four of the family, Mr. Jonas Seely—Jonas, second—bought the mare of Kent for one hundred and thirty-five dollars, and took her back to the old place, where she was bred and produced as follows:

In the preceding list there are but two fillies that lived to produce anything, and one of them is lost from sight. The produce of the first will be given below. The Patriot filly that went to Maryland was a brown, and of good size, but nothing further is known of her.

The Tom Thumb gelding of 1845 was in 1869 a good road horse, and was owned by George S. Conklin. He was showy and stylish without very much speed. Her fifth foal, Hambletonian, is known wherever the trotting horse is known.

This mare was a trotter of no ordinary merit. She was never in any races, so far as known, except they might have been of a private nature, but after she passed into the hands of Peter Seely her speed was pretty well developed. This is not only shown by the advance in her price from owner to owner, but it appears to be a well-established fact that when four years old Peter Seely had her at the Union Course, and he there gave her two trials to saddle, the first in 2:43 and the second in 2:41. For a time I was skeptical about these trials, but they seem to be beyond question. This is considerably faster than any other of the get of imported Bellfounder ever trotted in this country, and from this we may conclude that her inheritance from her dam was the great factor in her speed.

One Eye, the dam of the Kent mare, was a brown, about fifteen hands and an inch high, with two white feet and perhaps a little white in her face. With the taste Mr. Seely had of the Messenger blood in Silvertail he wanted more of it; and when Townsend Cock sent the famous Bishop’s Hambletonian to Goshen in 1814, Mr. Seely bred his daughter of Messenger to this son of Messenger and the produce was One Eye. I do not learn that this mare was handsome, but she was an animal of most remarkable courage and endurance. The load was never too heavy nor the road too long. Withal, she had a will of her own and was a little hard to manage unless she was worked constantly. One day when on her mettle she got an eye knocked out by accident, and, hence, her name; but the great quality of this mare was her remarkable trotting action. Those familiar with her gait, and entirely competent to judge, are enthusiastic in the opinion that no trotter of the present day ever surpassed, her in a grand open trotting step. If the patience and skill brought into use in developing the modern trotter had been expended on her, she doubtless would have surpassed all of her day, not even excepting her near relation, old Topgallant. This mare illustrates a point of very great importance. She was got by a son of Messenger that was a running horse of merit and able to beat some of the best of his day, and her dam was a daughter of Messenger. The trotting action of neither sire nor dam had ever been developed, but when these two Messengers came together, the clean, open, unmistakable trotting gait was the result. Right at this point and in this mare, One Eye, we have the incipient cause of all Hambletonian’s greatness. This mare was bred by Jonas Seely, Sr.; given to his son Charles, who sold her to his brother-in-law, Josiah Jackson, of Oxford in Orange County. According the recollection of Mr. Rysdyk, who was entirely familiar with the Seely family and their affairs, she produced as follows:

The first of her foals, Crabstick, appears to have been well-named. His temper was anything but smooth and pleasant. He was sold early to Mr. Ebenezer Pray, of New York, and he soon evinced two traits of character that did not elevate him in the estimation of his owner. He would throw every one off that dared to mount him, and when they did get him under motion he was determined to pace and not trot. On a certain occasion Mr. Rysdyk visited Mr. Pray, and he was urged to try his skill in riding Crabstick and see if he could make him trot. The attempt was long-continued, and embraced up hill, down hill, and level work, but all to no purpose, as pace he would. At last Mr. Pray proposed to put him over rails and stakes, placed on the road at intervals of a good trotting stride, and see if that would make him quit moving one side at a time. Mr. Rysdyk went up the road and got under good headway, but just before he reached the rails the horse threw him. He was not much hurt, mounted again, and then commenced in earnest the fight for the mastery between the horse and his rider. The value of a neck was nothing when compared with the great question of who should conquer. The next attempt was successful, and he went over the rails flying. The intervals between them were then extended, and he was kept at that most dangerous exercise till he would trot without rails, and until both horse and rider were completely exhausted. The horse was conquered, and although always willful and hard to manage, ever after, when called on to trot, he would do it. Mr. Pray sold him to Mr. Vanderbilt, and, although kept as a private driving horse, he was fast for his day, and could go in less than three minutes at any time.

Her next foal was sold also to Mr. Pray when five years old, and was known as the Pray Colt. He was marked just as his brother Crabstick, and, like him, was somewhat vicious and hard to manage.