Most observers agree that horses can't talk; the folklore of the horse is thus borne in the main by horsemen. No American has embodied that term more fully than a Maryland horseman of the early nineteenth century, John Stuart Skinner.

Like many another Maryland gentleman, Skinner loved field sports; he is said to have ridden in the "first flight" with the Baltimore and the Washington City Hounds. His mounts were Thoroughbreds, and his memory is honored primarily by those who breed and race the blood horse. Yet Skinner's own interests ranged across the spectrum of horse breeds and uses. His special field of endeavor, as a matter of fact was ...