Presidential Athletes: Ulysses Grant-Skilled Horseman
In the times before team sports became popular in the United States, most people burned off calories by doing back-breaking labor on their farms and in their trades. Child labor was common, and for many, the only form of exercise as leisure was riding horses. As a youth, Ulysses Grant had both an affinity for and a skill with horses, and in the first part of his autobiography, Grant writes fondly of his experiences working with horses.
In Ulysses S. Grant: Personal Memoirs, praised by such contemporary notables as Mark Twain as one of the greatest autobiographies ever written, Grant writes about his love of horses. At pages 8-9 he writes:
"While my father carried on the manufacture of leather and worked in the trade himself, he owned and tilled considerable land. I detested the trade myself, preferring almost any other labor, but I was fond of agriculture and of all employment in which horses were used. We had, among other lands, fifty acres of forest within a mile of the village. In the fall of the year, choppers were employed to cut enough wood to last a twelve month. When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, or course at that time, but I could drive, and the choppers would load, and someone at the house unload. When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a plough. From that age until seventeen, I did all the work with horses, such as breaking up the land, furrowing, ploughing corn and potatoes, bringing in the crops when harvested, hauling all the wood, besides tending two or three horses, a cow or two, and sawing wood for stoves, etc. while still attending school. For this I was compensated by the fact that there was never any scolding or punishing by my parents; no objections to rational enjoyments, such as fishing, going to the creek a mile away to swim in summer, taking a horse and visiting my grandparents in the adjoining county, fifteen miles off, skating on the ice in winter, or taking a horse and sleigh when there was snow on the ground."
Grant wrote about solitary trips on horseback as a youth to Cincinnati, Louisville and Maysville, Kentucky. Grant writes about visiting the Payne family in Kentucky when he was 15, a trip on which his horse skills may have saved his life. Grant writes (at pages 9-10):
"While at Flat Rock, at the house of Mr. Payne, with who I was visiting his brother, a neighbor of ours in Georgetown, I saw a very fine saddle horse, which I rather coveted, and proposed to Mr. Payne, the owner, to trade him for one of the two I was driving. Mr. Payne hesitated to trade with a boy, but asking his brother about it, the latter told him that it would be all right, that I was allowed to do as I pleased with the horses. I was seventy miles from home with a carriage to take back, and Mr. Payne did not know that his horse had ever had a collar on. I asked to have him hitched to a farm wagon and we would soon see whether he would work. It was soon evident that the horse had never worn harness before, but he showed no viciousness, and I expressed my confidence that I could manage him. A trade was at once struck, I receiving ten dollars difference.
"The next day, Mr. Payne of Georgetown and I started our return. We got along very well for a few miles, when we encountered a ferocious dog that frightened the horses and made them run. The new animal kicked at every jump he made. I got the horses stopped however before any damage was done and without running into anything. After giving them a little rest to quiet their fears, we started again. That instant the new horse kicked and started to run once more. The road we were on struck the turnpike within half a mile of the point where the second runaway commenced, and there was an embankment twenty or more feet deep on the opposite side of the pike. I got the horses stopped on the very brink of the precipice. My new horse was terribly frightened and trembled like an aspen, but he was not half so badly frightened as my companion, Mr. Payne, who deserted me after this last experience and took passage on a freight wagon for Maysville. Every time I attempted to start, my new horse would commence to kick. I was in quite a dilemma for quite a time. Once in Maysville, I could borrow a horse from an uncle who lived there, but I was more than a day's travel from that point. Finally, I took out my bandana - the style of handkerchief in universal use then - and with this blindfolded my horse. In this way I reached Maysville safely the next day, no doubt much to the surprise of my friend. Here I borrowed a horse from my uncle and the following day we proceeded on our journey."
After graduating West Point, Grant hoped to be obtain a position with the Cavalry. Instead he was assigned to the infantry. But at the military college Grant set an equestrian high-jump record that stood for almost 25 years. One of Grant's biographers described him as being an early "horse whisperer" and he became famous for his way with horses. While serving in the Mexican War, he was able to secure and tame a horse from a group of wild horses that he saw in abundance. Despite his skills as a rider, Grant described two serious falls during his time in the field during the civil war.
Grant continued to enjoy riding throughout his presidency. There is a story about him receiving a fine for speeding in a horse drawn carriage while President, but I have not found a solid source for this story. There is one amusing story about Grant's horse sense as a child, and this one also comes from Grant himself. When he was eight years old, he desperately wanted to buy a colt owned by Robert Ralston, a farmer who lived just west of town. Grant's father Jesse trusted his son to make the purchase, but first gave the boy instructions on how to conduct the negotiations. He did not want to pay Ralston's asking price of twenty-five dollars, so he told his son to offer twenty dollars at first, and if that was rejected, to offer twenty two dollars. When Ralston asked the boy what his father would pay, Ulysses blurted out, "Papa says I may offer you twenty dollars for the colt, but if you won't take that, I am to offer twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you twenty-five." As Grant later admitted, "It would not require a Connecticut man to guess the price finally agreed upon."
In Ulysses S. Grant: Personal Memoirs, praised by such contemporary notables as Mark Twain as one of the greatest autobiographies ever written, Grant writes about his love of horses. At pages 8-9 he writes:
"While my father carried on the manufacture of leather and worked in the trade himself, he owned and tilled considerable land. I detested the trade myself, preferring almost any other labor, but I was fond of agriculture and of all employment in which horses were used. We had, among other lands, fifty acres of forest within a mile of the village. In the fall of the year, choppers were employed to cut enough wood to last a twelve month. When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, or course at that time, but I could drive, and the choppers would load, and someone at the house unload. When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a plough. From that age until seventeen, I did all the work with horses, such as breaking up the land, furrowing, ploughing corn and potatoes, bringing in the crops when harvested, hauling all the wood, besides tending two or three horses, a cow or two, and sawing wood for stoves, etc. while still attending school. For this I was compensated by the fact that there was never any scolding or punishing by my parents; no objections to rational enjoyments, such as fishing, going to the creek a mile away to swim in summer, taking a horse and visiting my grandparents in the adjoining county, fifteen miles off, skating on the ice in winter, or taking a horse and sleigh when there was snow on the ground."
Grant wrote about solitary trips on horseback as a youth to Cincinnati, Louisville and Maysville, Kentucky. Grant writes about visiting the Payne family in Kentucky when he was 15, a trip on which his horse skills may have saved his life. Grant writes (at pages 9-10):
"While at Flat Rock, at the house of Mr. Payne, with who I was visiting his brother, a neighbor of ours in Georgetown, I saw a very fine saddle horse, which I rather coveted, and proposed to Mr. Payne, the owner, to trade him for one of the two I was driving. Mr. Payne hesitated to trade with a boy, but asking his brother about it, the latter told him that it would be all right, that I was allowed to do as I pleased with the horses. I was seventy miles from home with a carriage to take back, and Mr. Payne did not know that his horse had ever had a collar on. I asked to have him hitched to a farm wagon and we would soon see whether he would work. It was soon evident that the horse had never worn harness before, but he showed no viciousness, and I expressed my confidence that I could manage him. A trade was at once struck, I receiving ten dollars difference.
"The next day, Mr. Payne of Georgetown and I started our return. We got along very well for a few miles, when we encountered a ferocious dog that frightened the horses and made them run. The new animal kicked at every jump he made. I got the horses stopped however before any damage was done and without running into anything. After giving them a little rest to quiet their fears, we started again. That instant the new horse kicked and started to run once more. The road we were on struck the turnpike within half a mile of the point where the second runaway commenced, and there was an embankment twenty or more feet deep on the opposite side of the pike. I got the horses stopped on the very brink of the precipice. My new horse was terribly frightened and trembled like an aspen, but he was not half so badly frightened as my companion, Mr. Payne, who deserted me after this last experience and took passage on a freight wagon for Maysville. Every time I attempted to start, my new horse would commence to kick. I was in quite a dilemma for quite a time. Once in Maysville, I could borrow a horse from an uncle who lived there, but I was more than a day's travel from that point. Finally, I took out my bandana - the style of handkerchief in universal use then - and with this blindfolded my horse. In this way I reached Maysville safely the next day, no doubt much to the surprise of my friend. Here I borrowed a horse from my uncle and the following day we proceeded on our journey."
After graduating West Point, Grant hoped to be obtain a position with the Cavalry. Instead he was assigned to the infantry. But at the military college Grant set an equestrian high-jump record that stood for almost 25 years. One of Grant's biographers described him as being an early "horse whisperer" and he became famous for his way with horses. While serving in the Mexican War, he was able to secure and tame a horse from a group of wild horses that he saw in abundance. Despite his skills as a rider, Grant described two serious falls during his time in the field during the civil war.
Grant continued to enjoy riding throughout his presidency. There is a story about him receiving a fine for speeding in a horse drawn carriage while President, but I have not found a solid source for this story. There is one amusing story about Grant's horse sense as a child, and this one also comes from Grant himself. When he was eight years old, he desperately wanted to buy a colt owned by Robert Ralston, a farmer who lived just west of town. Grant's father Jesse trusted his son to make the purchase, but first gave the boy instructions on how to conduct the negotiations. He did not want to pay Ralston's asking price of twenty-five dollars, so he told his son to offer twenty dollars at first, and if that was rejected, to offer twenty two dollars. When Ralston asked the boy what his father would pay, Ulysses blurted out, "Papa says I may offer you twenty dollars for the colt, but if you won't take that, I am to offer twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you twenty-five." As Grant later admitted, "It would not require a Connecticut man to guess the price finally agreed upon."