University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university located in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence and the first institution of higher learning in the United States to refer to itself as a university. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder and first president, advocated an educational program that trained leaders in commerce and public service, similar to a modern liberal arts curriculum; the university's coat of arms features a dolphin on its red chief, adopted from Benjamin Franklin's own coat of arms. University of Pennsylvania is home many professional and graduate schools including, the first school of medicine in North America, the first collegiate business school and the first "student union" building and organization were founded at Penn; the university has four undergraduate schools which provide a combined 99 undergraduate majors in the humanities, natural sciences and engineering, as well twelve graduate and professional schools.
It provides the option to pursue specialized dual degree programs. Undergraduate admissions is competitive, with an acceptance rate of 7.44% for the class of 2023, the school is ranked as the 8th best university in the United States by the U. S. News & World Report. In athletics, the Quakers field varsity teams in 33 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference and hold a total of 210 Ivy League championships as of 2017. In 2018, the university had an endowment of $13.8 billion, the seventh largest endowment of all colleges in the United States, as well as an academic research budget of $966 million. As of 2018, distinguished alumni include 14 heads of 64 billionaire alumni. S. House of Representatives. Other notable alumni include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 15 Marshall Scholarship recipients, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, 48 Fulbright Scholars. In addition, some 35 Nobel laureates, 169 Guggenheim Fellows, 80 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, many Fortune 500 CEOs have been affiliated with the university.
University of Pennsylvania considers itself the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this is contested by Princeton and Columbia Universities. The university considers itself as the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies. In 1740, a group of Philadelphians joined together to erect a great preaching hall for the traveling evangelist George Whitefield, who toured the American colonies delivering open air sermons; the building was designed and built by Edmund Woolley and was the largest building in the city at the time, drawing thousands of people the first time it was preached in. It was planned to serve as a charity school as well, but a lack of funds forced plans for the chapel and school to be suspended. According to Franklin's autobiography, it was in 1743 when he first had the idea to establish an academy, "thinking the Rev. Richard Peters a fit person to superintend such an institution". However, Peters declined a casual inquiry from Franklin and nothing further was done for another six years.
In the fall of 1749, now more eager to create a school to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin circulated a pamphlet titled "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania", his vision for what he called a "Public Academy of Philadelphia". Unlike the other Colonial colleges that existed in 1749—Harvard, William & Mary and Princeton—Franklin's new school would not focus on education for the clergy, he advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study could have become the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum, although it was never implemented because William Smith, an Anglican priest who became the first provost and other trustees preferred the traditional curriculum. Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of Philadelphia, the first such non-sectarian board in America.
At the first meeting of the 24 members of the Board of Trustees, the issue of where to locate the school was a prime concern. Although a lot across Sixth Street from the old Pennsylvania State House, was offered without cost by James Logan, its owner, the Trustees realized that the building erected in 1740, still vacant, would be an better site; the original sponsors of the dormant building still owed considerable construction debts and asked Franklin's group to assume their debts and, their inactive trusts. On February 1, 1750, the new board took over the building and trusts of the old board. On August 13, 1751, the "Academy of Philadelphia", using the great hall at 4th and Arch Streets, took in its first secondary students. A charity school was chartered July 13, 1753 in accordance with the intentions of the original "New Building" donors, although it lasted only a few years. On June 16, 1755, the "College of Philadelphia" was chartered, paving the way for the addition of undergraduate instruction.
All three schools shared the same Board of Trustees and were consider
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race, held annually in Louisville, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings fillies 121 pounds; the race is called "The Run for the Roses" on account of the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is known in the United States as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" in reference to its approximate duration, it is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes the Belmont Stakes. Unlike the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, which took hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912 the Kentucky Derby has been run every consecutive year since 1875; the Derby and Belmont all were run every year throughout the Great Depression and both World Wars. A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown.
In the 2015 listing of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, the Kentucky Derby tied with the Whitney Handicap as the top Grade 1 race in the United States outside the Breeders' Cup races. The attendance at the Kentucky Derby ranks first in North America and surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, the Breeders' Cup. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traveled to England, visiting Epsom in Surrey where The Derby had been running annually since 1780. From there, Clark went on to Paris, where in 1863, a group of racing enthusiasts had formed the French Jockey Club and had organized the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp, which at the time was the greatest race in France. Returning home to Kentucky, Clark organized the Louisville Jockey Club for the purpose of raising money to build quality racing facilities just outside the city; the track would soon become known as Churchill Downs, named for John and Henry Churchill, who provided the land for the racetrack.
The racetrack was incorporated as Churchill Downs in 1937. The Kentucky Derby was first run at 1 1/2 miles the same distance as the Epsom Derby; the distance was changed in 1896 to its current 1 1/4 miles. On May 17, 1875, in front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, a field of 15 three-year-old horses contested the first Derby. Under jockey Oliver Lewis, a colt named Aristides, trained by future Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, won the inaugural Derby; that year, Lewis rode Aristides to a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes. Although the first race meeting proved a success, the track ran into financial difficulties and in 1894 the New Louisville Jockey Club was incorporated with new capitalization and improved facilities. Despite this, the business floundered until 1902 when Col. Matt Winn of Louisville put together a syndicate of businessmen to acquire the facility. Under Winn, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby became the preeminent stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses in North America.
Thoroughbred owners began sending their successful Derby horses to compete in the Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course, in Baltimore, followed by the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. The three races offered large purses and in 1919 Sir Barton became the first horse to win all three races. However, the term Triple Crown didn't come into use for another eleven years. In 1930, when Gallant Fox became the second horse to win all three races, sportswriter Charles Hatton brought the phrase into American usage. Fueled by the media, public interest in the possibility of a "superhorse" that could win the Triple Crown began in the weeks leading up to the Derby. Two years after the term was coined, the race, run in mid-May since inception, was changed to the first Saturday in May to allow for a specific schedule for the Triple Crown races. Since 1931, the order of Triple Crown races has been the Kentucky Derby first, followed by the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Prior to 1931, eleven times the Preakness was run before the Derby.
On May 12, 1917 and again on May 13, 1922, the Preakness and the Derby were run on the same day. On eleven occasions the Belmont Stakes was run before the Preakness Stakes. On May 16, 1925, the first live radio broadcast of the Kentucky Derby was originated by WHAS and was carried by WGN in Chicago. On May 7, 1949, the first television coverage of the Kentucky Derby took place, produced by WAVE-TV, the NBC affiliate in Louisville; this coverage was aired live in the Louisville market and sent to NBC as a kinescope newsreel recording for national broadcast. On May 3, 1952, the first national television coverage of the Kentucky Derby took place, aired from then-CBS affiliate WHAS-TV. In 1954, the purse exceeded $100,000 for the first time. In 1968, Dancer's Image became the first horse to win the race and be disqualified after traces of phenylbutazone, an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug, were found in the horse's urinalysis. Forward Pass thus became the eighth winner for Calumet Farm. Unexpectedly, the regulations at Kentucky thoroughbred race tracks were changed some years allowing horses to run on phenylbutazone.
In 1970, Diane Crump became the first female jockey to ride in the Derby, finishing 15th aboard Fathom. The fastest time run in the Derby was set in 1973 at 1
Mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old; the word can be used for other female equine animals mules and zebras, but a female donkey is called a "jenny". A broodmare is a mare used for breeding. A horse's female parent is known as its dam. An uncastrated adult male horse is called a castrated male is a gelding; the term "horse" is used to designate only a male horse. Mares carry their young for 11 months from conception to birth. Just one young is born; when a domesticated mare foals, she nurses the foal for at least four to six months before it is weaned, though mares in the wild may allow a foal to nurse for up to a year. The estrous cycle known as "season" or "heat" of a mare occurs every 19–22 days and occurs from early spring into autumn; as the days shorten, most mares enter an anestrus period during the winter and thus do not cycle in this period.
The reproductive cycle in a mare is controlled by the photoperiod, the cycle first triggered when the days begin to lengthen. As the days shorten, the mare returns to the anestrus period. Anestrus prevents the mare from conceiving in the winter months, as that would result in her foaling during the harshest part of the year, a time when it would be most difficult for the foal to survive. However, for most competitive purposes, foals are given an official "birthday" of January 1, many breeders want foals to be born as early in the year as possible. Therefore, many breeding farms begin to put mares "under lights" in late winter in order to bring them out of anestrus early and allow conception to occur in February or March. One exception to this general rule is the field of endurance riding, which requires horses to be 60 true calendar months old before competing at longer distances. Fillies are sexually mature by age two and are sometimes bred at that age, but should not be bred until they themselves have stopped growing by age four or five.
A healthy, well-managed mare can produce a foal every year into her twenties, though not all breeders will breed a mare every year. In addition, many mares are kept for riding and so are not bred annually, as a mare in late pregnancy or nursing a foal is not able to perform at as athletic a standard as one, neither pregnant nor lactating. In addition, some mares become anxious when separated from their foals temporarily, thus are difficult to manage under saddle until their foals are weaned. Mares are considered easier to handle than stallions. However, geldings have little to no hormone-driven behavior patterns at all, thus sometimes they are preferred to both mares and stallions. Mares have a notorious, if undeserved, reputation for being "marish," meaning that they can be cranky or unwilling when they come into season. While a few mares may be somewhat more distractible or irritable when in heat, they are far less distracted than a stallion at any time. Solid training minimizes hormonal behavior.
For competitive purposes, mares are sometimes placed on hormone therapies, such as the drug Regumate, to help control hormonally based behavior. Some riders use various herbal remedies, most of which have not been extensively tested for effectiveness. In relation to maternal behaviour, the formation of the bond between a mare and her foal "occurs during the first few hours post-partum, but that of the foal to the mare takes place over a period of days". Mares and geldings can be pastured together. However, mares may be a bit more territorial than geldings though they are far less territorial than stallions. Sex-segregating herds may make for less infighting if kept in close quarters. However, studies have shown that when a "lead mare" or "boss mare" is in charge of a herd, all remaining animals rest for longer periods and seem more at ease than do those in herds led by a gelding. In wild herds, a "boss mare" or "lead mare" leads the band to grazing, to water, away from danger, she drinks first, decides when the herd will move and to where.
The herd stallion brings up the rear and acts as a defender of the herd against predators and other stallions. Mares are used in every equestrian sport and compete with stallions and geldings in most events, though some competitions may offer classes open only to one sex of horse or another in breeding or "in-hand" conformation classes. In horse racing and fillies have their own races and only a small percentage compete against male horses. However, a few fillies and mares have won classic horse races against colts, including the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes, the Melbourne Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic. Mares are used as dairy animals in some cultures by the nomads and nomadic peoples of Central Asia. Fermented mare's milk, known as kumis, is the national drink of Kyrgyzstan; some mares of draft horse breeding, are kept in North America for the production of their urine. Pregnant mares' urine is the source of the active ingredient in the hormonal drug Premarin.
Until the invention of castration and later where there was less cultural acceptance of the practice, mares were less difficult to manage than stallions and thus preferred for most ordinary work. The Bedouin nomads of the Arabian peninsula preferred mares on their raids, because stallions would nic
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U. S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-most populous U. S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U. S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis; the Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States. William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787.
Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, served as temporary U. S. capital while Washington, D. C. was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a railroad hub; the city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland and Germany—the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city as of 2015. In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War, as well as Puerto Ricans; the city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950. The Philadelphia area's many universities and colleges make it a top study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia area had a gross domestic product of US$445 billion in 2017, the eighth-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.
Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and is home to five Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is expanding, with a market of 81,900 commercial properties in 2016, including several nationally prominent skyscrapers. Philadelphia has more outdoor murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States; the city is known for its arts, culture and colonial history, attracting 42 million domestic tourists in 2016 who spent US$6.8 billion, generating an estimated $11 billion in total economic impact in the city and surrounding four counties of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has emerged as a biotechnology hub. Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps, is the home of many U. S. firsts, including the first library, medical school, national capital, stock exchange and business school. Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks and the World Heritage Site of Independence Hall.
The city became a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in 2015, as the first World Heritage City in the United States. Although Philadelphia is undergoing gentrification, the city maintains mitigation strategies to minimize displacement of homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon; the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are called Delaware Indians, their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts. Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases smallpox, violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people fought the Lenape. Surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin; the American Revolutionary War and United States' independence pushed them further west.
In the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape reside in Oklahoma, with some communities living in Wisconsin, in their traditional homelands. Europeans came to the Delaware Valley in the early 17th century, with the first settlements founded by the Dutch, who in 1623 built Fort Nassau on the Delaware River opposite the Schuylkill River in what is now Brooklawn, New Jersey; the Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony. In 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their military defeat of the English colony of Maryland. In 1648, the Dutch built Fort Beversreede on the west bank of the Delaware, south of the Schuylkill near the present-day Eastwick neighborhood, to reassert their dominion over the area.
The Swedes responded by building Fort Nya Korsholm, or New Korsholm, named after a town in Finland with a Swedish majority. In 1655, a
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D. C. located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Andrew W. Mellon donated funds for construction; the core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, Chester Dale; the Gallery's collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and decorative arts traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder. The Gallery's campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope, linked underground to the modern East Building, designed by I. M. Pei, the 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden.
The Gallery presents temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art. It is one of the largest museums in North America. Pittsburgh banker Andrew W. Mellon began gathering a private collection of old master paintings and sculptures during World War I. During the late 1920s, Mellon decided to direct his collecting efforts towards the establishment of a new national gallery for the United States. In 1930 for tax reasons, Mellon formed the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, to be the legal owner of works intended for the gallery. In 1930–1931, the Trust made its first major acquisition, 21 paintings from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg as part of the Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings, including such masterpieces as Raphael's Alba Madonna, Titian's Venus with a Mirror, Jan van Eyck's Annunciation. In 1929 Mellon had initiated contact with the appointed Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Charles Greeley Abbot. Mellon was appointed in 1931 as a Commissioner of the Institution's National Gallery of Art.
When the director of the Gallery retired, Mellon asked Abbot not to appoint a successor, as he proposed to endow a new building with funds for expansion of the collections. However, Mellon's trial for tax evasion, centering on the Trust and the Hermitage paintings, caused the plan to be modified. In 1935, Mellon announced in The Washington Star, his intention to establish a new gallery for old masters, separate from the Smithsonian; when asked by Abbot, he explained that the project was in the hands of the Trust and that its decisions were dependent on "the attitude of the Government towards the gift". In January 1937, Mellon formally offered to create the new Gallery. On his birthday, 24 March 1937, an Act of Congress accepted the collection and building funds, approved the construction of a museum on the National Mall; the new gallery was to be self-governing, not controlled by the Smithsonian, but took the old name "National Gallery of Art" while the Smithsonian's gallery would be renamed the "National Collection of Fine Arts".
Designed by architect John Russell Pope, the new structure was completed and accepted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the American people on March 17, 1941. Neither Mellon nor Pope lived to see the museum completed. At the time of its inception it was the largest marble structure in the world; the museum stands on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, where in 1881 a disgruntled office seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot President James Garfield. As anticipated by Mellon, the creation of the National Gallery encouraged the donation of other substantial art collections by a number of private donors. Founding benefactors included such individuals as Paul Mellon, Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Chester Dale, Joseph Widener, Lessing J. Rosenwald and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; the Gallery's East Building was constructed in the 1970s on much of the remaining land left over from the original congressional action. Andrew Mellon's children, Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce, funded the building.
Designed by architect I. M. Pei, the contemporary structure was completed in 1978 and was opened on June 1 of that year by President Jimmy Carter; the new building was built to house the Museum's collection of modern paintings, drawings and prints, as well as study and research centers and offices. The design received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1981; the final addition to the complex is the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Completed and opened to the public on May 23, 1999, the location provides an outdoor setting for exhibiting a number of pieces from the Museum's contemporary sculpture collection; the National Gallery of Art is supported through a private-public partnership. The United States federal government provides funds, through annual appropriations, to support the museum's operations and maintenance. All artwork, as well as special programs, are provided through private funds; the museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution. Noted directors of the National Gallery have included David E. Finley, Jr. John Walker, J. Carter Brown.
Earl A. "Rusty" Powell III was named director in 1993. In March 2019 he was be succeeded by Kaywin Feldman, past director and president of the Minneapolis In
Hackney horse
The Hackney is a recognized breed of horse, developed in Great Britain. In recent decades, the breeding of the Hackney has been directed toward producing horses that are ideal for carriage driving, they are an elegant high stepping breed of carriage horse, popular for showing in harness events. Hackneys possess good stamina, are capable of trotting at high speed for extended periods of time; the Hackney Horse breed was developed in the 14th century in Norfolk when the King of England required powerful but attractive horses with an excellent trot, to be used for general purpose riding horses. Since roads were rudimentary in those times, Hackneys were a primary riding horse, riding being the common mode of equine transportation; the trotting horses were more suitable as war horses than amblers with their pacing gaits. As a result, in 1542 King Henry VIII required his wealthy subjects keep a specified number of trotting horse stallions for breeding use. In about 1729 a Norfolk Trotter stallion and an Arabian stallion contributed to the foundation stock for the modern Hackney Horse.
The resulting Norfolk Roadster, as it was known, was a built horse, used as a work horse by farmers and others. It was a fast horse with good stamina. Another famous horse was the stallion Original Shales, foaled in East Anglia in 1755, he was by the stallion Blaze, the son of the famous undefeated racehorse, Flying Childers, a grandson of the great Darley Arabian. Original Shales sired two stallions—Scot Shales and Driver—both of which had a great influence on the Norfolk Trotter. Messenger, a 1780 grandson of Sampson, was a foundation sire of the present American Standardbred horse. Hambletonian 10 had at least three crosses of Messenger in the third and fourth generations of his pedigree. In the 1820s "Norfolk Cob" was recorded as having done 2 miles in 5 minutes 4 seconds and was one of the famous horses of that breed along with "Nonpareil,", driven 100 miles in 9 hours 56 minutes 57 seconds. In 1820 Bellfounder a Norfolk Trotter stallion, able to trot 17 miles in an hour with 14 stone up, was exported to America where he was the damsire of Hambletonian 10.
In this era, match-trotters competed under saddle, not harness. With improvements in roads, the Hackney was used in harness, he was a riding and driving horse of high merit. Robert and Philip Ramsdale and son, took the Norfolk horses Wroot's Pretender and Phenomenon to Yorkshire, where they bred them with Yorkshire trotting mares. In July 1800, the celebrated Hackney mare, was backed to trot 17 miles in 56 minutes for a bet of £400, which she did in 53 minutes. In 1832, one of Phenomenon's daughters, the 14 hands Phenomena, trotted 17 miles in only 53 minutes. During the 19th century, with the expansion of the railway, the Norfolk breed fell out of favour, to be revived by the Hackney Horse Society; the Norfolk and Yorkshire Trotter were selectively bred for elegant style and speed, were developed into the modern Hackney Horse. The brilliant gaits of the Hackney Horse, saved it from extinction, began its use in the show ring, they are still successful in harness, can produce nice riding horses, many known for their ability in show jumping and dressage competition.
In 1883, the Hackney Horse Society was formed in Norwich and the society’s stud book has records dating back to 1755 in the Hackney Stud Book. Alexander Cassatt was responsible for the introduction of the Hackney Pony to the United States. In 1878 he brought her to Philadelphia. In 1891, Cassatt and other Hackney enthusiasts founded the American Hackney Horse Society, based in Lexington, Kentucky. Hackneys come in both pony and horse height ranges, are one of the few breeds that recognize both pony and horse sizes; the Hackney Pony was developed in the late 19th century, when Hackney horses were bred to various pony breeds in order to create a specific type of show pony. The Hackney Horse's height ranges from 14.2 hands to 16.2 hands tall. They may be any solid colour, including bay, brown and black. Hackneys have white markings due to the influence of sabino genetics; the Hackney has a well-shaped head, sometimes with a convex nose. Their eyes and ears should show alertness; the neck is muscular with a clean cut throat and jaw.
The chest is broad and well-defined, the shoulder is powerful and sloping. The Hackneys have an average length of back, level croups, powerful hindquarters, their ribs are well-sprung. The tail carried high naturally; the legs are strong with broad, clean joints, long forearms and gaskins, with strong hocks, pasterns medium in length, are attached to round upright hooves. In the trot, they exhibit showiness and an exaggerated high knee and hock action due to good flexion of their joints, their action should be true with a distinct moment of suspension. The front legs reach up high with bent knees that are stretched well forward with a ground covering stride, their hind legs are well propelled underneath them in a similar exaggerated action. In addition to inherent soundness and endurance, the Hackney Horse has proven to be a breed with an easy, rhythmic canter, a brisk, springy walk. Hackneys have been exported into the United States and the Netherlands; the Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies, by Tamsin Pickeral, Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN 0-7607-3457-7, p. 311.
American Hackney Horse Society Hackney Horse and Pony Hackney Horse Society
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