T - Profiles

Three Bars:  Foremost among the great sires of modern Quarter Horse racers was this Thoroughbred, once bought for $300 and later given away.  It was at stud that Three Bars proved his worth, siring several hundred foals whose accumulated earnings have exceeded three million dollars.

Traveler:  A celebrated war horse of more recent times was this splendid gray ridden by Robert E. Lee in commanding the Confederate Army.  Traveler is buried on the campus of Washington & Lee University in Virginia.

Turk, Byerly:  (Also spelled Byerley; I'm not sure which is correct.)  The first of the three founding fathers of the breed to appear on the English scene was a tough Turkish charger.  Where he came from is mystery.  Some say he was one of the spoils of war, and some say his forebears were Arab, not Turk.  What is known is that he was ridden by a Captain Byerly in King William's War; that he and the captain survived the one big battle in Ireland and returned in fine fettle to England.  There as the Byerly Turk, he sired some famous race horses.  Imported to England before 1700 by a British officer, Captain Byerly.  One source said that this horse might have been an Akhal-Teke.  I had never thought about that but, come to think of it, none of the paintings of the foundation stallions look like pure Arabs to me!  (From another source:  Maybe it got its name because it was the one-time charger of Captain Byerley, who rode it at the Battle of the Boyne and supposedly captured his horse from the Turks at the siege of Buda.)

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