Famous Virginia Horses

And now at last,
Comes Traveller and his master. Look at them well.
The horse is an iron-grey, sixteen hands high,
Short back, deep chest, strong haunch, flat legs, small head, Delicate ear, quick eye, black mane and tail,
Wise brain, obedient mouth.
~ Army of Northern Virginia, by Stephen Vincent Benet

In the spring of 1861, a year before fame as a Confederate general, Robert E. Lee was commanding a small force in western Virginia. The quartermaster of the 3rd Virginia Infantry, Capt. Joseph M. Broun, was directed to purchase a good serviceable horse. Broun purchased the horse for $175, which would be approximately $4,057 in 2009.

An American Saddlebred, he was of the Gray Eagle stock, and, as a colt, took the first prize at the Lewisburg fairs in 1859 and 1860. As an adult gelding, he was a sturdy horse, 16 hands high and 1,100 pounds, iron gray in color with black points, a long mane and flowing tail.

Broun sold the horse to Lee for $200 in February 1862, after the death of Lee’s horse Brown-Roan. Lee named this new horse Traveller.

Traveller, born in 1857, was a horse of great stamina and a good horse for an officer in battle, as he was difficult to frighten. However, at the Second Battle of Bull Run while Lee was at the front of the battle, dismounted and holding Traveller by the bridle, the horse became frightened and pulled Lee down on a stump, breaking both of his hands. Lee went through the remainder of that campaign chiefly in an ambulance. After the war, Traveller accompanied Lee to Washington College in Lexington.

In 1870, during Lee's funeral procession, Traveller was led behind the caisson bearing the general’s casket, his saddle and bridle draped with black crepe.

In the summer of 1871, Traveller stepped on a nail and developed tetanus. There was no cure and he was euthanized to relieve his suffering.

Traveller was initially buried behind the main buildings of the college but in 1876 was unearthed and exhibited in New York and then on the college campus until 1959. In 1971 his remains were buried in a wooden box encased in concrete next to the Lee Chapel on the Washington and Lee campus, a few feet away from the Lee family crypt inside, where his master’s body rests. The stable (connected to the Lee House on campus) where Traveller lived his last days traditionally stands with its doors open, reportedly to allow Traveller’s spirit to wander freely.

Sources: The Smithsonian; “Traveller,” by Richard Adams; Wikipedia

Mill Reef made his mark overseas.

Born in 1968 on Paul Mellon’s Rokeby farm in Upperville, the bay was sent to Europe to race.

“As a yearling it was thought that his action better suited him to a career on the turf courses in Europe rather than the dirt tracks in America and so he was sent to England to be trained by Paul Mellon’s young English trainer Ian Balding at Kingsclere,” according to Wikipedia.

A booklet accompanying the 50th Hunt Country Stable Tour 2009, in which Rokeby participated, details some of the accomplishments of Mill Reef, by Never Bend-Milan Mill by Princequillo.

It said that Mill Reef “was the first racehorse to win the Epsom Derby at Epsom, England, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, France, and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, England, in the same season.”

That was 1971.

That same year he was also horse of the year in England, according to a plaque on a bronze statue of Mill Reef that stands in Rokeby’s courtyard.

But just what kind of a horse was he?

According to Wikipedia, on a statue of Mill Reef at The National Stud, “the showcase for British Thoroughbred racing” on the edge of Newmarket where Mill Reef stood as a stallion and where he was buried after dying in 1986, are the following words:

Swift as a bird I flew down many a course.
Princes, Lords, Commoners all sang my praise.
In victory or defeat I played my part.
Remember me, all men who love the Horse,
If hearts and spirits flag in after days;
Though small, I gave my all. I gave my heart.

The female and male all-time leading money earners in Arabian racing in the United States were born and bred at Cre Run in Hanover County, according to one of the farm’s owners.

Not only could Royal Atheena, the female, run but she also has “a fabulous personality,” according to Deborah Mihaloff, who owns Cre Run with her husband, Alan Kirshner.

“She possesses class. Great horses possess class. And she truly is a great horse. And she has always possessed that class. If you were to go out in the pasture today, you would know who Royal Atheena is. She commands the pasture, no matter what pasture she’s in. She knows when you go out there, that you’re going out there to see her. She knows she’s great.”

Born in 1995, Royal Atheena raced for three years — at ages 3, 4 and 5, Mihaloff said.

During that time, Royal Atheena was named Darley 3-year-old filly of the year, Darley 4-year-old filly of the year, Darley aged mare of the year, Darley sprinter of the year (she beat the colts) and Darley horse of the year (she beat the colts again). It was as a 4-year-old, in 1999, that she won three of the awards (4-year-old of the year, sprinter of the year and horse of the year).

“The Darley Awards were founded in 1987 to honor the best in Arabian horse racing. This distinguished ceremony recognizes the most outstanding racehorses, jockeys, owners, trainers and breeders of the Arabian community,” according to the Web site arabianracing.org.

Royal Atheena’s earnings total $427,259, Mihaloff said. “She still holds the record for the only horse to have won a Darley in every division. As well as being the all-time leading-money-earning filly [in Arabian racing] ever in the United States,” she added.

At one point she was the all-time leading money earner in Arabian racing in the United States — that is until another horse, also foaled at Cre Run, came along and broke her record.

That horse was DA Adios. Click his photo (below) to read his story.

Royal Atheena, by Monarch AH (now owned by Sheikh Sultan of Abu Dhabi) and Malabar Athena (who was owned by Cre Run but has since passed away), is now a broodmare at Cre Run. Royal Atheena won 11 stakes races, her sire won 14 stakes races and her dam was twice California Arabian race mare of the year, Mihaloff said.

Royal Atheena’s first son, Crownn Royal, won his first time out last year on the opening day of Delaware Park in 2009, Mihaloff said. A daughter will be making her debut at the racetrack in 2009, Mihaloff said.

The bay, born in 1998, was an interesting horse, Mihaloff said. “When he was a foal he was rather small. He always used to stand by himself out in [the] pasture and because of his size, we put him in the third string of our horses.”

We knew he was very correct in conformation but because he was small in size, we just did not pick him out to be the No. 1 horse in the pasture, she said.

However, Mihaloff thinks DA Adios knew even back then that he was going to be good.

“He didn’t waste time with some of the nonsense other horses do. He was always very confident and he has a very laid back disposition,” she said.

DA Adios went on to be 3-year-old Darley colt of the year, 4-year-old Darley colt of the year and Darley horse of the year (at age 4), Mihaloff said.

At age 6, he was aged (5 and older) horse of the year and horse of the year, she said.

He won 19 races and nine of them were stakes races, Mihaloff said. His earnings totaled $622,048.

In February 2009, DA Adios was given the 2008 WAHO [World Arabian Horse Organization] Horse of the Year award, Mihaloff said.

DA Adios, by Wiking (he was imported from Poland and still holds the record for leading-money-earning get) and Sanibel IA (who was sold to the National Stud of Turkey), stands physically at Cre Run but is represented internationally by other noted breeding farms through frozen semen, according to Mihaloff. “His first foal crop to race will run in 2010,” she said.

The psychic abilities of Richmond mare Lady Wonder are still relayed and revered in 2009 — 85 years after she was born.

Harry Kollatz Jr. devoted a chapter to her in his book “True Richmond Stories,” published in 2007 by The History Press.

“She still lingers in Richmond lore, decades after her passing,” Kollatz said in May 2009.

“It’s almost impossible to transmit the awe and wonder of the Lady Wonder experience,” said A.C. Griffith, whose Web site is richmondthenandnow.com.

“You don’t think of Lady Wonder as a horse. It’s something like parting the Red Sea there. It’s a greatness there. You know that you’re witnessing something out of the ordinary in your lifetime. You’re pretty much overcome by the event,” Griffith said.

What was it that made her so special?

“She would spell out the answers to any question posed to her by flipping a series of blocks,” according to bridlepath.wordpress.com. She could tell the past, present and future, Griffith said.

He recalls his own experience with the horse in an editorial comment that prefaces his Web site’s index of Lady Wonder articles:

“In 1953, I stood before Lady Wonder and asked, ‘Lady, what is my middle name.’ I remember maintaining a blank mind. Lady didn't move. Mrs. Fonda [Lady Wonder’s owner] said, ‘Lady answer the question.’ Lady didn’t move. The instant I thought of the spelling of my middle name, Lady’s head moved to the keyboard and she typed it accurately. As a result of my experiences with Lady, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Lady possessed a psychic ability generally unknown and beyond our understanding in science. Clearly, there was no trickery or deception.”

Today Griffith says “there was obviously something akin to radiation going on from my head to her head. That horse moved the instant I thought of the word.”

He said “back then everybody knew Lady Wonder. She was on Ruffin Road in South Richmond. Everything is gone now. The horse was housed in back of the main house in an old stable. And you paid Mrs. Fonda a fee and got so many questions and I went back there with Mrs. Fonda and the horse.”

Griffith said he was about 13 at the time and his “mother and father, her brother and one of his children also went with us this day.” He said they too visited the horse and that Lady Wonder apparently answered every one of their questions to their satisfaction.

Here are some other examples of her mind-reading abilities: * Lady Wonder spelled out the date on a coin held by a questioner, and appeared to know the time on a clock held against an observer’s body, according to bridlepath.wordpress.com.

* Lady Wonder had a sidekick, a Pomeranian named Pudgy, who played the keyboards, Kollatz said. He said when Pudgy got stolen, Lady Wonder named the culprit but Lady Wonder’s owner said a horse’s word was no good in court.

* Kollatz said that after his book “True Richmond Stories” came out, he spoke with people who had visited Lady Wonder. “One person said she married her husband because of Lady Wonder. I met her at a [book] signing and the woman told how, possibly back in the [19]40s, she asked Lady Wonder if she was going to marry this guy and Lady Wonder said ‘yes.’”

* Griffith said he remembers somebody asking Lady Wonder how she was able to answer all the questions and she flipped the letters for the word “mind.”

* According to a July 16, 2003 column by Larry Hall in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Lady Wonder “received national press coverage in December 1952 for providing clues that led to the discovery of the body of a missing 4-year-old Massachusetts boy.”

The column also stated that “As Lady Wonder’s celebrity grew, scientists, psychologists and paranormal investigators came to assess the extent of her abilities.”

According to bridlepath.wordpress.com, Lady Wonder was studied by psychologist Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine, who was interested in psychic research and went on to found the parapsychology lab at Duke University. “Rhine believed the mare’s amazing feats were due to telepathy,” states bridlepath.wordpress.com.

Griffith said if one stood in front of that horse, “if you had any grain of sense, you obviously would know you were witnessing something way out of the ordinary and there was no trickery.”

And, he said: “If you write about all the horses in the United States, you won’t find one like Lady Wonder. She was uniquely different.”

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch column, “Lady Wonder died in 1957, three years after the date she predicted. She is buried at Pet Memorial Park in Henrico County. Claudia Fonda died two years later.”

One pony and her story have inspired many people — both to read and to learn about horses.

Misty, immortalized in Marguerite Henry’s 1947 book “Misty of Chincoteague,” is that pony.

The pinto, foaled in 1946, is the star of the book which tells the story of the Beebe family’s efforts to raise her on Chincoteague Island, according to Wikipedia.

Henry’s story “takes place during a traditional Chincoteague festival called ‘Pony Penning,’” according to the National Park Service’s Web site. “On the last Wednesday of July, the Virginia herd of horses is rounded up and swum from Assateague Island to nearby Chincoteague Island. On the following day most of the young foals are auctioned off. Proceeds from the sale benefit the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department,” the Web site further states.

Customer reviews of “Misty of Chincoteague” on amazon.com show that Misty and her story still inspire people today.

“This is one of the best books for horse (and pony) crazy girls. My mom read it when she was younger and now I fell in love with it,” Sydney from Florida wrote in a June 2008 review of the book. “It’s a sweet story and really makes me want to go to pony penning day.”

In March 2007, a Connecticut fan wrote that “we got this book for our 7 year old daughter for Christmas. She’s a good reader and loves horses. She read this book to herself in three days and loved it! She told us she now knew how to ‘talk like a horseman!’”

A writer from New York said she received the book from her grandparents before she could read, “around 1955 when I lived in Chincoteague Virginia.” And, she said that it was her “favorite book of childhood” and years later read it to her daughter “when she first became interested in horses.” She said her daughter now has a copy of her own. “I’m now 52 and I still love it!” the reviewer wrote in 2003.

Not only is the book still relevant but so are the real-life descendants of Misty of Chincoteague.

In mid-May 2009, The Associated Press reported that Nightmist, a direct descendant of Misty and “a celebrated visitor at the annual Eastern Shore pony swim,” died unexpectedly at the Pennsylvania farm where he lived. The story also said that Nightmist was 11 and had sired 15 foals.

Misty’s legacy continues.

From 1997 to 2001, Hope, from tiny Vinton, was the smallest horse in the world, according to her owner.

The horse received this distinction in June 1997 and was in the Guinness World Records from 1998 to 2001, said Sandee Garnett, who owned Tara Stables Hope for Tomorrow, aka Hope, with her husband Ken, president of the World Class Miniature Horse Registry. Tara Stables is the name of the couple’s Vinton farm.

“She was 21 inches. She weighed about 60 pounds. She was solid black. No white at all. Which is unusual for a horse too,” Garnett said.

Hope, born in May 1993, first appeared in the record book as the smallest horse in the world when she was 5, according to Garnett, the youngest age at which she was eligible.

In addition, she was on the “Guinness World Records: Primetime” TV show which, according to Wikipedia, aired on Fox from July 1998 to October 2001.

When the Garnetts wouldn’t put Hope on a plane to California as “Guinness World Records: Primetime” wanted, the show shipped a video camera to the Garnetts and had them film Hope with children and next to a full-size horse, according to Sandee Garnett. “And then they wanted her shown with a dog, so we took that,” she added.

According to Garnett, “Hope had great legs and everything. She was just a great little horse. She bucked. She was just a loveable pet. She would back up to people wanting her back scratched.”

Hope took that back-scratching very seriously.

The tiny horse kicked a workman who was too busy to scratch her back because he was helping with preparations for the wedding of the Garnetts’ daughter on their farm, Sandee Garnett said via e-mail.

And Hope apparently loved attention.

She “even ran after the horse-driven buggy when it was being used to ride the guests after the [wedding] ceremony. The horse didn't know that Hope was running to catch up with him and she could have been trampled,” Garnett noted.

Hope, who has since died, was probably 12 to 14 inches when she born,” according to Garnett. “She had a brother who was smaller than her but he didn’t live to be about 6 weeks old. But he was so tiny,” Garnett said.

Diablo was a yearling when he moved to Virginia in 1988 with animal wrangler/stuntman Doug Sloan.

At age 3, the black quarter horse gelding with a white stripe and three white socks started appearing in movies. And was in more than 40 of them before he died in 2008, said Sloan, of Doswell.

Diablo was a cast horse (one ridden by an actor) in “Gettysburg,” Sloan said. In “Sommersby,” with Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, he was the Ku Klux Klan horse, Sloan said. It was in that film that Diablo did his first movie rear, according to Sloan.

In a movie called “Bait,” with Jamie Foxx, Diablo jumped 4 feet. The movie was about a racehorse and Diablo jumped the rail of the racetrack, Sloan said.

Diablo’s résumé also includes “Rough Riders,” with Tom Berenger, and “Geronimo: An American Legend.” The horse was also on television on TNT’s historical shows, according to Sloan.

Diablo’s tricks included rearing and falling plus sitting and bowing. He could also say “yes” and he could smile, Sloan said. “And he was also broke to drive, so we used him a lot to drive too.”

The last film Diablo did was “John Adams,” Sloan said. “He was a cart horse.”

Sloan said Diablo never got tired of film work.

“He really always had a wanting-to-please personality,” Sloan said.

And Sloan said he didn’t realize how special Diablo was, and how much the horse knew, until Diablo was gone. “And then you started realizing, I’ve got this on this horse and this on this horse but I don’t have it all in one package,” he said.

Diablo can be seen on YouTube.

“The last show we did was in Raleigh at the equine affair [North Carolina Equine Extravaganza] there and a girl filmed him there and she put it on YouTube,” Sloan said, adding that to view the segment enter “Doug Sloan and Diablo” in the site’s search engine.

Diablo was also the leader of Sloan’s herd of about 17 horses, keeping harmony in the herd, according to Sloan.

And, Sloan said: “He was a good buddy.”