Early American Endurance
WINNERS OF THE ENDURANCE RIDE.
- 1st. Halcyon, Arabian mare, H. H. Reid, rider. (Note: she was technically 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Thoroughbred)
- 3rd. Yaquis, Arabian stallion, Lieut. R. M. Parker. (asil)
- 4th. Rodan, Arabian stallion, ridden by K. Malcolm Grinnell. (asil)
Halcyon’s win is somewhat remarkable. Per the article: “Halcyon cast a shoe about 2.30 o’clock in the morning. A smith was aroused from his bed at the next town and the mare was shod by the light of an automobile that came along.”
The second place horse was a Morgan horse. Unsurprisingly enough, these photos and the article accompanying were found in The Vermonter: The State Magazine, Volumes 16-19, edited by Charles Spooner Forbes, Charles R. Cummings, published September 1913.
Photos of the individual horses can be seen below:
HALCYON (Hail x Heiress / Maidan)
YAQUIS (Garaveen x *Nejdme)
RODAN (Harb x Rose of Sharon)
Has anyone else looked at the dam line of Kingfisher – Halcyon – Heiress?
Kingfisher (by *Imamzada) and Halcyon (by *Hail) were bred by Spencer Borden. Heiress was a Maidan daughter bred in England and imported to the U.S.
Periodical literature from the time and the partbred section of (U.S.) Arabian stud book volume I (1913) give Heiress as a Maidan daughter out of a Thoroughbred mare named Legacy, by TB stallion Herbertstown and out of a mare named (depending on the source) either Cruiksen or Crinksen, by TB stallion Amusement. Cruiksen/Crinksen is described as a successful Irish steeplechase mare.
Herbertstown (1872, by Belladrum) and Amusement (1851, by Birdcatcher) are identifiable in GSB but I have been unable to locate Heiress, Legacy, or Cruiksen/Crinksen in the GSB volumes from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s available online. Would a dam line not in GSB still have been referred to as “Thoroughbred” in that era?
Obviously a dam line going back to a successful Irish steeplechase mare would have warmed Miss Dillon’s heart.
Kate knows far more about the Thorougbreds in the GSB than I do, but as best as she has been able to convey to my Arabian-minded brain, there are historically complications with who chooses to register a horse as what (one of Ishtar’s foals, Wildflower II, was registered as a TB), and if Irish mares are involved, there are complications of a political nature with regard to how horses are (or are not) registered. Legacy is apparently listed as by a TB and out of a TB, but the dam is Irish, which means ~politics~
EDIT: apparently Heiress is out of Queen of Hearts and not a mare named Legacy, per an advert in the 1895 Live Stock Journal, Volume 42.
Google Books link
Link to image of advertisement
Edit 2: Kate keeps sending me these ‘AHA’ moments (haha) Queen of Hearts was originally called Legacy, her dam was Cruiskeen, and Heiress was foaled in 1890 as she was 6 in 1896.
Link to Google Books, Live Stock Journal, Volume 43.
Edit 3: Kate found her – Cruiskeen, b. f. 1867 by Defender out of Elsie, p. 500 of Vol. 11.
Heiress was out of Queen of Hearts? That’s interesting. The registration for an Americo-Arab mare named Kathleen, foaled 1904, bred by Spencer Borden, states she was sired by Clay Kismet and out of “Heiress, by pure Arab Maidan. Grand dam, Legacy T.B. by Herbertstown. Great grand dam, Cruiksen.” This is in the Americo-Arab section of the 1913 (U.S.) Arabian National Stud Book, vol. 1, page 77.
Clay Kismet is also registered in that book, 1895 stallion bred by Randolph Huntington from *Nimr and Gypsey Clay.
Yes, volumes of the GSB from that era have a separate section for Irish mares.
R. J. – I updated the post above, but it appears that Queen of Hearts was originally named Legacy, and that Crusikeen was indeed her dam. There’s even a sire and dam for that mare, somewhere in the miasma of the GSB volumes.
Edit: Link to updated pedigree screencap, just because sometimes people change things on allbreed. The allbreed pedigree is here.
It has taken me a couple of hours to pull this together, but Heiress’ dam Legacy (also known as Queen of Hearts) was out of the bay mare Cruiskeen, an 1867 steeplechaser, who traces back to the Thoroughbred female family 14-f, founded by the Oldfield Mare, who was by Hale’s Bay Turk; Cruiskeen’s branch was founded by Honoria, an 1836 daughter of Camel, a representative of the Darley Arabian sire line.
GSB volumes are difficult to work with because all the producing mares do not appear in a single alphabetized series. There is a separate section for mares in Ireland, and another for Arabians, and sometimes Anglo-Arab mares are in the Arabian section, and there are addenda at the back of the volumes for mares with returns that came in too late for them to appear in their proper places. And names are duplicated — you have to pay attention to year of birth and sire to be sure you have the right mare.
Thank you Kate, that is some good work.