The History of the American Saddlebred

"The American Saddlebred is the epitome of the show horse." So begins the description of this fine horse in the USA Equestrian Rule Book. Since its beginnings in the mid-1800s, the American Saddlebred has been held in high regard among the show horses of the world.

The ancestor of the breed was originally bred for utility because of the need for an all-purpose horse with endurance, intelligence, beauty and tractability. Thoroughbreds were bred to Narraganset Pacer mares (a breed Paul Revere had ridden on his famous midnight ride) to produce the beginnings of what would become great Saddle Horse lines. Narraganset Pacers had been developed through the selective breeding of Galloway and Hobbie Horses that British Colonists had introduced to the Americas in the 17th century. Meanwhile, the Thoroughbred had been developed in Britain by crossing horses from the Middle East with Hobbies and Galloways.

Many of the Narraganset/Thoroughbred crosses, referred to as American Horses, had no pedigrees, but they were put to great use in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Later, they served the settlers of Kentucky when the more developed states to the east had begun building better roads and using more efficient modes of transportation. These were horses with the easy gaits of the pacers–their riders could more comfortably cover great distances–combined with the endurance and good-looks of their Thoroughbred forefathers.

Denmark, one of the legendary predecessors of the Saddlebred, was foaled in 1839 in Fayette County, Kentucky. His sire was an imported English Thoroughbred, "Imported Hedgeford." Denmark was then bred to a mare known as the "Stevenson Mare," an American Horse by a Thoroughbred named Cockspur. The Stevenson Mare was an unpedigreed horse from the earlier Narraganset/Thoroughbred crosses. The line continued down through to the true founder of the Denmark family, Gaines’ Denmark, who was foaled in 1851 and to whom over 60% of the horses in the first three American Saddlebred Horse Breeders’ Association Registers can be traced.

One other founder of the breed credited with establishing the American Saddlebred is Harrison Chief, foaled in 1872. Harrison Chief came from purely harness stock, but gained acceptance into the Saddlebred Register for his incredible prepotency in siring five-gaited show horses. His sire was Clark Chief, descended from excellent–but unattractive–harness horses, and his dam was Lute Boyd, a harness horse who was a stark contrast to Clark Chief because of her beauty.

Many who study the Chief and Denmark families now believe that the commingling of the Chief family with the Denmarks is what made the Saddlebred’s traits uniform from one generation to the next. Both families shared a common ancestry and intensified and strengthened the characteristics of the growing breed. When the Breeders’ Association Registers were first assembled, a total of seventeen foundation sires had been named; however, over the years, all but these two were later removed from the list.

The new breed could be taught the modern Saddlebred’s easy gaits and had the beauty and hardiness of the Thoroughbred. The Saddlebred is now a distinct and majestic breed. Though the Saddlebred owes much to the Thoroughbred, the Saddlebred retained none of the Thoroughbred’s intractability and inattentiveness to fine footwork. The Thoroughbred’s forward center of gravity, resting above the withers, moved back to just behind the withers in the Saddlebred, freeing up the shoulders for lighter footwork. All of the admirable traits of the often unpedigreed maternal lines of the American Horse appear in the Saddlebred as sure-footedness and agility. The Saddlebred has consistently passed on its qualities to its heirs, and despite attempts to create similar horses through crossing other breeds to get the same characteristics, none has established itself as consistently as the Saddlebred.

With rising popularity of the breed, there arose a need for an organization dedicated to the Saddlebred’s welfare, promotion and registry. The National Saddle Horse Breeders’ Association (changed in 1899 to the American Saddlebred Breeders’ Association) was founded in the offices of THE NATIONAL HORSEMAN’s forerunner, The Farmer’s Home Journal, with General John Breckenridge Castleman as president and I.B. Nall, publisher of The Farmer’s Home Journal, as secretary. Together with the newly formed association, The Farmer’s Home Journal served as the Saddlebred’s first promoter and brought the breed to national attention.

General Castleman had grown up having a personal intimacy with the earliest and greatest family in the breed, the Denmark family. He had ridden Denmark-line horses in the Civil War and had bred many great examples of the breed himself. The organization and the publication–now, THE NATIONAL HORSEMAN–still stand strong today; they have the same goals as when they were established in the 1800s: promotion and betterment of the Saddlebred. Originally, an "American Saddle Horse" or "American Saddlebred" was defined only by a horse’s ability to perform the natural gaits and learn the "manmade" rack and slow gait, but the establishment of the American Saddle Horse Breeders’ Association made parentage a necessity in determining any new entries into the registry.

The Saddlebred also served as an exceptionally proficient cavalry horse during the Civil War. In many cases, the breed’s endurance and sure-footedness were put to the test against many other horses that had been impressed for the war. Time and again, the Saddlebreds would outperform the other horses.

It is the incredible consistency in desired type that has made the Saddlebred so successful through the years. In an 1896 letter to the Breeders’ Gazette written by General Basil W. Duke, the general cites the example of Morgan’s Cavalry command making two separate marches of over 90 miles in an average of about 30 hours each after weeks of previous marching. Most of the "Kentucky horses" made the distance and were able to continue on, while the other horses rarely lasted more than a day or two. And because of the breed’s "smoother action and easier gaits...the march [was] less fatiguing to the rider," writes General Duke. The Saddlebred "acquires more promptly and perfectly the drill and the habits of the camp and march, and his intelligence and courage make him more reliable on the field." The Saddlebred was used in the Civil War and was put to use through both World Wars which attests to its usefulness outside of the show ring.

In 1907, General Castleman tried fervently to set up a government-endorsed endurance contest between a Saddlebred and an Arabian to prove which horse was better suited for the needs of the cavalry. However, because of the failing health of the proposed Arabian to be used in the contest, Castleman never had the opportunity. But in 1925, another test was put to the Saddlebred. This was less formal than what Castleman wanted, but it demonstrates that the stamina of the Saddlebred had not been lost through the generations. Mr. R.T.M. McCready entered Rex Rysdyk, then a seven-year-old, into the 300-mile Eastern Cavalry Endurance Race in Vermont. After showing the horse in Five-Gaited classes in June, McCready readied him for the October endurance race. Carrying 200 pounds, Rex Rysdyk made each of the five consecutive sixty-mile rides within a minute of nine hours and finished fourth overall. After showing again the following June, Rex Rysdyk competed in the endurance race that year under a weight of 225 pounds and finished third. This was quite a feat considering that in both years only a handful of the twenty horses who started the race even finished. Gurney C. Gue, a writer for the New York Herald Tribune, described the horse as follows: "The dun horse, Rex Rysdyk, that has captivated all spectators and amazed experts, fresh as the morning completed his daily journey of sixty miles over hard, hilly country roads with the jaunty air of a lady’s hack coming out of Durland’s for a turn around Central Park." This is exactly what the horse was bred for, grace and beauty under great physical strain; the horse was still true to its original breeding eighty years after Gaines’ Denmark had been foaled.

It was not until 1980 that the American Saddlebred Breeders’ Association was renamed the American Saddlebred Horse Association. This change arose from a strong need to re-centralize the main body of the Saddlebred community. Many decades had passed since General Castleman and his peers had organized the Breeders’ Association, so the organization required a renewed focus. Much had happened in the publicity, breeding practices and registration requirements in that hundred years, so the new name was part of an overall rejuvenation throughout the Saddlebred community and a step forward as a more unified body.

The importance of the breed has been reinforced and reaffirmed through the growth of sales and the impressive new records set in purchases of Saddlebreds. Through careful breeding over the past hundred and fifty years and through constant promotion of the breed, the economic value of Saddlebreds has vaulted to unprecedented levels.

The Saddlebred now has a history containing the lives of all those who have fought for its place among horses. From its creation down to its current descendants, the American Saddlebred has always been a horse destined for greatness. THE NATIONAL HORSEMAN has been a vital part of the Saddlebred’s success since the breed’s beginnings. For every important tale in history, there has always been someone to tell it; for the Saddlebred, that storyteller continues to be THE NATIONAL HORSEMAN.