Horace Terry’s Spotted Arabian

Henri Delattre appears to have painted two versions of Terry's Spotted Arabian: the present example, depicting the stallion in an extensive landscape, and another in which the horse, in an identical pose, is placed in his box stall. The sire of this purebred Arabian was said to have been either imported Bussorah or imported Amurath, who were both in the New York City area between 1825 and 1832; there is no information regarding his dam. Horace Terry, a cattle dealer and drover, who lived at Waterville in Oneida County, NY, bought the colt while on a trip to New York City. Terry's Spotted Arabian is famous as the sire of Madam Temple (foaled in 1836), the dam of Flora Temple (foaled 1840), one of the greatest trotting mares in history. As Alexander Mackay-Smith notes in his unpublished manuscript on Delattre, the foaling date of Madam Temple in 1836 would make Terry's Spotted Arabian about twenty years old in 1852. The 18 February, 1857 issued of the Spirit of the Times included a letter to the editor written by James H. Tower of Waterville regarding Terry's Spotted Arabian, describing the horse as, " 'a remarkably strong, restless, fast trotting horse, and is said to have been got by a full-blood Arabian stallion on Long Island. He was a great favorite in this section, and his stock for general use possesses probably more excellent qualities than that of any other horse ever known in this vicinity.'