CHAPTER VI. 



THE HAL FAMILY— KITTRELL'S HAL — GIBSON'S TOM 

 HAL — LITTLE BROWN J U G — LO C OMO T IV E — 

 BROWN HAL— HAL POINTER. 



THE pacing interests of Tennessee were fortu- 

 nate in the quality of the horses which were 

 brought to the State at an early day, from 

 which sprung the great campaigners that have given 

 to the State its exclusive title of the mother of the 

 pacing family. Back in the fifties, Major Kittrell of 

 Taylorsville, Tenn., went to Kentucky, and purchased 

 a roan saddle stallion that was a natural pacer ; this 

 horse became known as Kittrell's Hal, and is the 

 foundation head from which has come nearly all the 

 celebrated horses from that State. Other pacing and 

 saddle liorses were brought to the State from Ken- 

 tucky about the same time ; but, as my name has been 

 associated to a considerable extent with the Hal family, 

 I shall confine my observations to it. Kittrell's Hal 

 was a horse about 153/j^ hands high, very heavily 

 muscled, and in the exhibitions of speed which he gave 

 under the saddle at fairs and other horse shows 

 proved him to be a fast, natural pacer, but he never 

 was handled for speed. The facts obtainable respect- 

 ing his breeding are so few and unsatisfactory as to 

 render any statement concerning it unwarranted, but 

 that he was a highly-bred horse there can scarcely be a 

 doubt. In 1862 he was bred to a mare called Betsey 

 Baker, the produce being Gibson's Tom Hal, Old 



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