Buttonwood -- 2.17 Performer owned by the International Stock Food Company

Buttonwood 2.17 -- Can you identify this image?

The image of Buttonwood was either mounted

on or painted on the back of this cardboard advertisement.

Wathen's Eulamite and Scotty H (1940's)

Wathen's Scotch Fez -- 1946 Hambletonian -- Sold to Party in France

Maine Horses in the Hambletonian -- Scotch Fez 1946 - S.A. Wathen & Son

Prix d'Amerique 1950 - Scotch Fez / Sören Nordin

Prix d'Amerique 1950 - Scotch Fez / Sören Nordin

Scotch Fez -- Pedigree (Classicfamilies.net)

Scotch Fez -- Pedigree (Allbreedpedigree.com)

Poetry in Motion -- Bass Park -- Bangor, Maine -- Late 1940's

Volo H -- Red -- Gary -- Wendall Wathen -- 1940's

Wathen's Guy H 2.00 3/4 at Lexington, Kentucky -- October 1944

Dale H Winning at Skowhegan -- Wathen Up -- 1940's

Wathen's Volo H at the Windsor Fairgrounds -- 1940's

Wathen's Volo H Defeats H.E. Direct and Court Jester at the Kite Track -- 1940's

Wathen's Scotty H. Defeats Janet Abbe Tweedie Outside Second!

Wathen's Calumet Elam 2.06 1/4 Winning at Cornish, Maine -- Wathen Up!

The Wathens with Dude McKlyo at the 76th Exeter Fair

Guy Dale in Action -- Cal Abbe Winning at Gorham, Maine

Horsemen of the Late 1930's

The Wathen's of Fort Fairfield, Maine -- Two of their Horses Performed in the Hambletonian at the Good Time Park in Goshen, NY

A while back I created a series of storyboards on Maine horses in the Hambletonian. This initiative resulted in connecting with Wendell 'Red' Wathen who now lives in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Wendell loaned me the family photo album that tells the story of the Wathams and their horses. When I finish scanning photos more storyboards will appear. I appreciate the opportunity Wendell has given me to visually tell their story.

Saco Driving Park Location Today and 1916

Saco Driving Park Hosts the 1898 York County Fair

1871 Map with Belfast's Lost Trotting Park

Lost Trotting Park in Windham, Maine

Dennis St. Pierre dropped by and we reviewed my placement of the track in the Google Earth aerial. We both agreed that I had placed the track in the wrong location. The track I outlined would have been almost 1400 feet long. The location of the track is up the road a bit and only 850 feet in length. The track may habe been a training track. We'll check in with the Windham Historical Society.

Corrected Location of Windham Track

From the Maine Press Association -- 1898

Courtesy of Peter Stowell

Roadmaster 2.22 and Patt Legg 2.25 -- A Crack Team -- Cover Image Turf, Farm & Home -- February 16, 1894

Turf, Farm, and Home -- February 16, 1894

This post consists of selected pages from the
February 16, 1894 issue of the periodical,

Turf, Farm, and Home. The text found
within the T.F. & H will give you an insight

into the life of a horseman in 1894.

Maine Horses and Horsemen -- Turf, Farm, and Home -- October 31, 1906

Training the Colt

Has the Horse Sense?

Who Wouldn't Be a Horseman?

Pine Tree Stock Farm For Sale

Farmingdale, Maine

Once a Golf Course, Now Owned by CMP

1938 Aerial View of the Pine Tree Stock Farm

Blue Skies -- Early morning greets the horseman in these times of change. Uploaded to Vimeo

In 1893 a financial panic gripped the United States. As a result many horse breeders left the business. Horseman were unable to pay fees at the tracks. Harness racing and horse breeding had entered difficult times. Many tracks closed. Later with the introduction of the automobile, the times were changing. Hod Nelson, who gained his fame through his champion trotting stallion Nelson, owned Sunnyside Stock Farm. The seventy acre farm was located on the Oakland Road in Waterville, Maine (now Kennedy Memorial Drive) with the Kennebec River to the East. This song perhaps reflects some of the emotions thought by horsemen during this time period. The horse was our worker in the field, our transportation to the marketplace, a key contributor to our economy, our warrior in the battlefield, and our entertainment at fairgrounds and trotting tracks throughout Maine. At one time trotting tracks were built in more than 100 Maine communities. Maine's harness horsemen, standardbred horses, horse breeding and harness racing have long been a Maine tradition -- a way of life.

Blue Skies from Stephen Thompson on Vimeo.
Blue Skies -- Copyright 2011 -- Stephen D. Thompson

Albion's Lost Trotting Park Location

Nelson 4209 -- Nelson the Northern King -- Article -- December 19, 1889 -- The Horseman