10 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



Bellfounder at that time was said to have trotted seventeen 

 miles in an hour. Notwithstanding what was then considered 

 an exorbitant price, Bellfounder was patronized, for the 

 Crabtree mare was his daughter, and the mother of J. D. 

 Sayer's Harry Clay, who has proved himself a trotter, and the 

 sire of trotters. Bellf ounder was the sire of the Charles Kent 

 mare, the mother of the celebrated stallion Hambletonian, 

 the property of the late Wm. M. Rysdyk, of Chester, Orange 

 County, N. Y. Of this horse and his get, a place will be 

 found in this book. We pass through the years of our Hy- 

 landers, Hickories, Wild Airs, Liberties, Lances, Bolivars, 

 Ottoways, Bullfrogs, and a host of others, many of whose get 

 made good mothers, properly bred, for they were all bred 

 up. There was not much change in breeding valuable horses 

 until about the spring of 1847, when Abdallah came into this 

 county. He was a big, coarse, homely horse; and then the 

 farmers first began to look at and turn their attention, many 

 of them, to pedigree and blood. This horse Abdallah was 

 almost if not the first point made in Orange County in bring- 

 ing the breeding of trotters to the standard it has reached at 

 the present time. Black Hawk came into the county next, and 

 left some good colts. His mare colts have made some of our 

 best breeders. Charles Bull, of the town of Blooming Grove, 

 has a mare sired by Black Hawk that has raised him six 

 colts by Hambletonian, all horse colts, and have been sold 

 young. He has one foaled in 1871. And these colts have 

 averaged Mr. Bull two thousand four hundred dollars. Other 

 mares by Black Hawk are valued highly as breeders. Blaci 

 Hawk died in Montgomery, July, 1853. 



Cassius M. Clay, Jr. made his appearance here in the 

 spring of 1852. His get has been of great value for breed- 

 ing purposes, as it gave us more size, more bone, and speed. 

 He left a large number of good ones in this county. His 

 price for service was twenty dollars, which was thought to be 

 extravagant by those who patronized him. J. D. Sayer's 

 Harry Clay was one of his get was foaled in the spring of 

 1853 was kept for service in this county until he was sold, 



