124 RACEALONG 



bill of sale to President Pierce for the site of Omaha 

 across the Missouri was scarcely dry. 



In the early days Curtin dabbled in Indian ponies, 

 light drivers, and Morgans, there being a strain of 

 Vermont blood somewhere although at times it was 

 rather hard to find. Those were also the days when 

 trainers had to sit up by candlelight trying to devise 

 contrivances that would make a speedy horse go on 

 a trot, and when owners were forced to lay awake 

 nights, planning ways and means to pay the bills, 

 until a stranger came looking for a prospect. In the 

 early seventies if a horse took a hop, skip and a 

 jump occasionally, nothing was said, so long as he 

 kept on a trot part of the way, even if it was of the 

 dot and carry one variety but it required more than 

 hand picked judges to convince a buyer that he could 

 win with a wild eyed one that persisted in running at 

 least a quarter of a mile in each heat. 



John Curtin was well aware of this fact when a. 

 farmer named Barefoot drove into Decorah early in 

 1872 with a horse that he considered a prospect. He 

 looked him over and found the prize package was a 

 close made, six-year-old, black gelding of the Morgan 

 type, and also a true bred one, as he was by King 

 Herod out of a mare by Young Green Mountain 

 Morgan. His owner called him Billy and for a green 

 one fresh from the fields he certainly could trot fast. 

 Curtin bought the gelding and as he led him away he 

 told his former owner that he would call him Billy 

 Barefoot if he was ever fast enough to go to the 

 races. 



