194 • VOLUNTEER. 



'some unknown cause. I saw him in October, 18^3, after a large sea- 

 son's service^ trot on the Lexington track in 2:29f. Hardly a stallion 

 in the country, doing • the same service, could have equaled the per- 

 formance. In 1874, the old mare slipped a foal by Thorndale, soon 

 after became sway-backed, and failed to breed since that date, but 

 retained the most perfect health, and, for a mare twenty- six years old 

 that had raised such a numerous oiFspring, was, in March, 1876, a mar- 

 vel of vigor and constitutional soundness. She died in July of that 

 year. She was bred by John Cape, of Orange county, and passed 

 into the hands of Joseph Hetzel, the breeder of Volunteer, and was 

 by him sold to David Seely, and by him to Strong Y. Satterlee, and 

 then to Wm. M. Rysdyk, and was purchased by Mr. EdwinThorne 

 through a friend. Mr. Thorne still ovpns a number of her produce. Mr, 

 Satterlee paid $125 for her, and Mr. Rysdyk paid |200 for her, desir- 

 ing her for a brood mare, although she had been injured in one of her 

 ' shoulders by accident. After he had sold her, and when her three 

 sons, Volunteer, Hetzel's and Green's Hambletonian, were attracting^ 

 notice, Mr. Rysdyk made the following contribution to the war upon 

 Volunteer by way of a note to the gentleman who had bought her for 

 Mr. Thorne: 



You are surprised to hear me pronounce the dam of Volunteer a dunghill., 

 I bought her for a dunghill, and I sold her for a dunghill, and I know she is 

 a dunghill ; and that is not all — she is the most worthless piece of horseflesh 

 that. I ever owned. 



which was not much of a recommendation for Volunteer as a. compet- 

 itor of the greatest trotting stallion this country has yet produced. 



Nothing whatever was ever known of the blood of the dam of this- 

 mare. She was a mahogany bay mare, brought by Lewis Hulse from 

 Rockland county, which adjoins Orange, and was both a running and 

 trotting mare, and as such, was held out under a challenge to run or 

 trot against anything that could be led into the county. I have seen 

 the statement that she was held as a standing challenge to run against 

 any horse, and then to trot against the same one. This scrap of history, 

 though brief, casts much light on the character and qualities of the 

 dam of the mare now under consideration, and from this and the 

 locality whence she came, some inference may be drawn concerning 

 her probable blood. It was the region where the blood of the two 

 • families of Messenger and Diomed, through Duroc, Henry, and 

 Eclipse, was the chief element in running and trotting circles. This- 

 mare was stinted by John Cape, of Orange county, to a horse called 



