Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-08-31
IN A NEW DRESS.

THE HISTORY OF RYLAND T. GIVEN IN
SPICY MANNER BY ONE WHO KNOWS IT.
In the last issue of the Review | notice
several comments on Ryland T., which
remind me of the "milk wagon" the
lash cart aud "cOw pony stories so pre-
valent and so popular in this great and
glorious country of ours. Having lived
here when Ryland 7. was bred and bern,
worked and sent adrift on "hfe's stormy
sea'-a naughty individual, it is true.
but as for being an accident, freak or
a cow-pony that is as vile SANDER as
was eyer perpetrated on man or beast.
Having known him from his youth,
his sire and his dam for several years
before he was fOaled, and dislilling to
have fraud perpetrated for all time, |
take the liberty to write you the facts of
this horses early history, which may he
verified by Samuel F, Taylor, who bred
and raised hun, and Calvin Pelot, Who
first trained and broke him to harness.
Ryland I. was foaled the first day of
May, 1881, of quite respectable parents,
if they were remote from the business
and sporting centers of the world, and
quite obscure and alone.
Ledger, Jr, was raised by Ben Halli-
day, on his farm in New York, was :.
t. b. by Ledger, son of Robt. Bonner,
dam Halliday's Old Puss Cnstead of Pet),
by ambletOnian 10. Ledger. Jr., was
taken from Halliday's farm to Saline
county, Missouri, in 1877, by Mr.. Henry
Carlyle, and was sold to Samuel F. Tay-
Tor in 1879, and shipped to Eagle Rock
(now Idaho Falls), Idaho. He was near
ly lG hands, would weigh about 1900
pounds, and was bright bay Gnstead
of gray, could trot close to , 80 ON any
good track, and the writer believes he
has seen him do short distances, herdng
mares, at a much faster clip. Probably
his erratic son will never drop in as low
notch OH the track as his old sire made
the distance on the plains looking after
his harem. May, or "Old May" as she
was called by the ranch hands and the
neIghbors in after years, was bought at
the same time by Taylor on the same
trip east in 1879, and brought out to
Snake River valley. Mr.. Taylor bought
six head of mares, including May, from
Capt. Ryland Todhunter of Higginsvile,
Mo-, that year, and represented the mare,
May, to be seven-eighths thoroughbred,
and told Taylor if he ever got trotter
from any Of these mares it would be
from May. Taylor, in Il joking manner,
told the old man that if she ever pro-
duced trOtter he would name it after
him. In 1882 May dropped a sorrel
colt that died that season. In 1883 she
was worked to run in the 18th of July
races here, but they failed to materialize
and she did not start. The same season
she was bred to Ledger, Jr., and the
next year dropped Ryland r., obscure to
all the world except Taylor aud his
men about the ranch. They, however,
constituted a small circle of as faithful
retainers as the baby prince in old Eng
land could boast to-day, and to them he
was worthy of all the names they could
confer, and after the colt was six weeks
old and showed the boys he could trot
then as fast as some of the older horses
could run, Taylor told the lads of his
promise to the old captain, and christen-
ed him Ryland Il. At weaving time he
was branded with the other colts, but
when turned out he was in sight of hay
stack, on good feed in pasture, or not far
away in the foothills, and if this angu-
lar, erratic, cranky, champion gelding
ever was forced to eat snow balls for his
supper or paw snow To get a bite of
bunch grass for his breakfast it was
after he left Idaho. If he eyer headed
COW, it was in harness. He never had
"a saddle on his back in Idaho, ana do
not believe he had anywhere one on to
this day Clark's Horse Review.