DEXTER IN HARNESS AND UNDER SADDLE

An excellent and evocative Currier and Ives portrait of Dexter with Budd Doble. The horse’s flattened ears and oversized, wild-looking eye are conventions of 19th-century racing art. Doble has been recognized as the finest “whip” ever to hold the “ribbons.” He is credited with being a master of pace, knowing just when and how to ask for more effort. He had sympathetic hands and a soft way of speaking that won the confidence not only of Dexter but of many other difficult horses. Race times got faster when wooden racing carts were replaced by featherweight steel sulkies fitted with bicycle tires, but the horses never came any tougher than in the days of the old high-wheelers. (Courtesy, Library of Congress)

Dexter in harness against General Butler on October 27, 1865, about a year and a half prior to his match races with Ethan Allen. This race was singleton to “wagon,” a lightweight, four-wheeled racing vehicle. Wagon races were typically two miles for best two of three heats. Dexter’s winning perfo rmance was timed in 5:00 ¾ and 4:56 ¼. (Currier and Ives print courtesy, Library of Congress)

Due to a near-absence of paved roads, horse racing in the Thirteen Colonies—a hundred years before Dexter’s day—almost always took place under saddle (see “Horses of the American Colonies,” EQUUS 468). There were separate contests for gallopers, pacers and trotters. This tradition persisted even after good roads were built, so that even in the 1860s Dexter was ridden in races nearly as often as he was driven. Note that the horses wore “bitting rigs” consisting of overcheck and running martingale, just as they would if harnessed.

Besides Ethan Allen, Dexter faced many other topclass horses. In this Currier and Ives print, Dexter races Toronto Chief (in front) and General Butler (behind) on July 19, 1866. Toronto Chief is by Royal George (Messenger-bred), out of a mare belonging to George Lane, his breeder. She traces to Herod in sire-line and to Hobby and Barb in tail-female. General Butler is by Smith Burr (another Messenger-bred) out of a Canadian mare. Dexter won this contest under a young Budd Doble in straight heats with times of 2:24 ¼, 2:19, and 2:22. Two days later, the same three horses met in harness, with the same results: Dexter first, General Butler second, Toronto Chief third.

Under-saddle times were consistently several seconds slower than times posted in harness. A horse in Dexter’s era might trot under saddle two days a week and race in harness three. Nor was it a question of a single effort on race days, because at the harness track heat-racing was the norm and a horse under saddle or hitched singleton would need to go over the mile at least three times and potentially as many as five. While Dexter was a gelding, Ethan Allen was entire and on his days “off” he was also expected to cover mares.

All horses in that day received much more work than modern racehorses, whether flat-track gallopers or harness-track trotters and pacers. (Currier and Ives print courtesy, Library of Congress)