with the atmosphere of the stable clinging to her... she is delightfully feminine at all times; her voice is soft and musical; she wears dainty draperies when outside the practice rig and there is nothing muscular in her physique, except perhaps her wrists which are like steel.” Similarly, the unflappable and high energy Adelaide Doremus was admired and lauded for her dominance in the ring. In November 1907 she was crowned “the horse show bride” by the harness and saddle set when she married Canadian born William A. McGibbon just two weeks before the 23rd National Horse Show and, gasp! continued to enter the show and won handily. There is no hint that she bore her nickname with
TROTTING HORSES ON FIFTH AVENUE CIRCA 1870 BELOW: 1928 DEDICATION PLAQUE TO JOHN MCENTEE BOWMAN
WOMEN WERE NOT EXCLUDED FROM EITHER THE RIDING OR TRAINING OF HORSES IN THE SAME WAY THAT THEY MIGHT BE DIMINISHED IN OTHER COMPETITIVE ARENAS. anything but big blue ribbon pride. Her husband, a successful rider, trainer, salesman and horse show juror, was self-made. Known on the circuit for breaking the record in high jumps, he was a much sought after dealer in saddle horses. In 1909, he and Adelaide moved from the city to Park Avenue, Rye (a street named for the great philanthropist and Westchester landowner, Joseph Park). When the American Horse Exchange on Broadway where McGibbon did business closed the following spring of 1910, William lost his Manhattan headquarters. What to do? The couple quickly seized an opportunity just across the Boston Post Road – a lease of two buildings, a carriage house and a barn built by Frank A. Rooke, the same architect of the famed Claremont Riding Academy. Everyone knew Claremont Stables.* Built by Rooke in 1892 on the Upper West Side, it was conveniently located a block and a half from trails in Central Park. Its suburban counterparts in Rye boasted similar architectural features and amenities, and were located on a sizable parcel known as the Van
Norden Farm. Miles of stone walls surrounded acres of pasture and paddocks. “Dealers in fine horses nowadays require fine stables and attractive surroundings when showing their animated art objects to prospective purchasers. Some of the sales places and training quarters opened in and about New York in the last few years far surpass anything that was dreamed of by dealers in olden times…[the McGibbon track has] plenty of grass and water and other accessories of a model training establishment. His customers find it convenient and enjoyable to run out to the farm by train or in their automobiles, and the suburban sales place is proving to be altogether satisfactory. The McGibbons leased the property in 1911 and successfully sold and trained horses
there for a number of years for Westchester and Connecticut clients, including Adelaide’s brother Fred Doremus in Greenwich. At that time the number of horses in America was at an all time high of 23 million. But that number would begin to fall as other means of transportation presented themselves. The first gas-powered car in the States was sold in 1896. It wasn’t long after that, that automobiles began to crowd out horsedrawn buggies on city streets; in rural areas, motorized tractors quickly supplanted stock horses. Carriage houses in Manhattan were retrofitted to hold Renaults and Pierce Arrows. Herringbone brick floors once strewn with straw now glistened with gas and oil drips. Many of the members of the Riding and Driving Club now owned both a car and a horse, or sometimes just a car. The most precipitous drop in the horse population began after the Great War in 1918, this despite earlier efforts by even the US government to sustain and document “pure” American breeds like the Morgan, American Saddle Horse and Standardbred for military mounts. In the private sector, while public fancy was captured by Henry Ford’s design, there were still others dedicated to “the preservation of the horse.” This included the best man at Adelaide and William McGibbon’s wedding, John Bowman. Like McGibbon, Bowman was also Canadian and came from modest beginnings. His first job was as a W E STO N MA G AZINEG ROUP.COM
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