84 EQUUS 498 AUTUMN 2019
EARLY HORSES
Ace of Hearts (1904, 14:2 hands) was by The
Dunderstadt Horse by Sykes Rondo, out of Queen by
Dedier (a.k.a. Old D.J.). This early foundational stallion
appears somewhere in the pedigree of all the horses
named in this article. Correctly conformed, substantial
and sound, he was a noted match racer in his day
but was also an easy horse to handle, known for his
levelheaded temperament.Zantanon (1917, 15 hands) was by Little
Joe by Traveler, out of Jeanette who was a
granddaughter of Big Jim. Jeanette’s dam
was out of a mare by Sykes Rondo. Horses of
this breeding are speedy because Old Bald
Peg, the Hobby-Barb who is a major fount of
Thoroughbred short speed, lies buried multiple
times at the root of their pedigrees. Zantanon
was known as “The Man o’ War of Mexico”
and outran everything matched against him
at tracks and ranches in the Southwest.
Zantanon is the sire of King P-234.(Maclura pomifera) called Osage
orange, hedge or bodark. The latter
nickname is a corruption of the
French bois d’arc, so named because
mounted buffalo hunters of several
tribes preferred its hard, dark-colored
and elastic heartwood for making their
short, powerful bows. Osage orange
is a relative of the mulberry and, like
it, highly drought-tolerant. Female
trees produce grapefruit-size fruits
with a nubbly neon-green rind fi lled
with juicy pulp and packed with seeds.
Cattle and horses relish the fruits
and may gobble them so greedily that
they choke on them, but settlers soon
discovered that the wickedly thorny,
long and rather limber branches of
this shrub made a very good “hedge.”
Osage orange naturally grows in dense,tangled thickets that discourage horses
and even the most headstrong cattle
from attempting to push through.
Glidden made the fi rst strand of
barbed wire by using a coffee mill
to cut the barbs. Immediately after
receiving his patent, he became
embroiled in lawsuits brought by Jacob
Haish and Isaac Ellwood, who seem
to have gotten much the same idea atZANTANON
ACE OF HEARTS