Army remount

[Elles]

Wonderful Thoroughbred on this page:
http://ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu/issu ... notes.html

Gunrock was born and bred for the track, but the golden chestnut stallion with white face and legs would make his mark on the horse world — with the help of UC Davis breeding expertise — as a military stud.
Born in Britain in 1914, Gunrock was the offspring of English Triple Crown winner Rock Sand and race mare Gunfire, which gave him bloodlines similar to the legendary racehorse Man O’ War.
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I have just ordered this book:
www.amazon.com/War-Horse-Mounting-Caval ... 1931721211
There is a lot in it about the army remount Thoroughbreds. I can’t wait to get the book here at home in The Netherlands! Because I also love the Quarter horse and QH’s have roots in the army remount service. Does somebody here already have this book? There are 130 photos in it !

[xfactor fan]

Great book. The remount service shaped many of the western breeds including the King Ranch Quarterhorses.

[Elles]

And the King Ranch had and have great Quarter horses!

[Elles]

And the King Ranch had and have great Quarter horses!

I received the book yesterday. Already have read a piece of it and read about some Thoroughbred stallions that did not give their offspring enough bone. These horses were removed from the program because their offspring did not keep going for long. Interesting book with some very nice pictures.

[merse]

I'll have to dig my Tessio book out and find the name of the stallion but Tessio related the story of being sent to inspect a thoroughbred stallion for the Italian Army Remount program. The stallion he recommended was not accepted by the authorities so Tessio went ahead and bred to him anyway and this stallion ended up being a great sire.

[freshman]

I just read that Sir Barton, the first triple crown winner and key Man o'War rival, ended up as an army remount stallion in Nevada. He apparently died on a private ranch in Wyoming, and his last fee was around $5-$10.

I can't imagne how Sir Barton, with his terrible feet and resulting lameness issues, ended up as an army remount stallion.

BTW,the newer Man o'War book by Dorothy Ours is in pb and is worth picking it up at that price, or even better at used prices or borrowed from the library or a friend. It's no Seabiscuit; this author doesn't write nearly as well as Hillenbrand and it can get kind of dry. But it's still a very informative bio of the horse, his people, and the state of TB racing in America at the time. The horses were racing once a week, every other day, sometimes 2 days in a row! As 2 year olds!

So it is neat to compare racing then to now when reading the book. Apparently there was widespread "hopping" of horses rampant even during the period that Man o'War raced, the JC was struggling to stop or at least control drugging to the point where it did not make the bookies or parimutuel betting go broke. The technology to test for illegal drugs was availaiable time at this time, and was widely used in horse racing in france during this time.

Sorry to get a little off topic, but I literally just finished the book and while it's not really a true page turner, it is very informative and gives a great historical perspective on many issues that the TB industry faces today.

[Elles]

I always find horse history very interesting, any kind of horse history. No today without what happened in the past.

A lot of Thoroughbred stallions were given to the remount service or sold to them at very low prices. And all the studfees were kept low so everybody could affort them. The program really improved the quality of the light horse the writers of the book tell.

[Scarem]

A little info about Sir Barton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Barton

Ft. Robinson has some great history about the studs that were used there.

[Intent]

I recently purchased a TB broodmare from a ranch in Nebraska.The husband now deceased was an officer at Fort Robinson when the Remount was still active and his wife has some great stories of their time spent there.
When they left the service Dr.Hylton offered them the pick of his herd to start theirs ,so they made the trip to his ranch about 26 mi.S.W. of Douglas.Wy.She mentioned that there was a huge granite marker over Sir Bartons grave.It would be interesting to find out if it stayed at the ranch or was moved to the present burial site.
As an interesting sidebar,Dr.Hyltons herd was over 150 mares so they were split into 2 groups the husband going through one group and the wife the other, each to pick one horse.When they had made their selections it was discovered that they had picked a mother and daughter!

[Elles]

Intent, that is a nice story!
In the book there are also the pedigrees of the army remount stallions, there are some very nice looking pedigrees te be found there.