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The History of the Racing Sulkies

© Kimberly Rinker

One of the first definities of a racing sulky came in the mid-1800s when the vehicle in question had heavy wooden wheels with broad tires strong enough to be used over any kind of raods and a straight iron axle to which two elliptical springs were attached.

Described as a "light two-wheeled carriage for a single person," the frame of this "sulky" was bolted to the tops of the springs and the seat had four supports which were attached to the fram. The driver kept his place by bracing his feet against a stout cross bar. When this "sulky" began to appear on race tracks, stirrups were added. Obviously, strenth and weight were not important items at this time.

In the early 1920s, Webster's Dictionary defined a sulky as "so-called from the owner's desire to ride alone." Legend also has it that a woman named the vehicle with the comment that "only a man would use it."

The sulky was in common use in North America before the Revolution. They were used primarily by doctors and those who traveled lightly. In 1790 President Washington sent Col. Marinus Wilett from New York to Georgia as a secret agent to invite Alexander McGillivray, the Chief of the Creek Indians, to visit him in hopes of making a treaty. Wilett went alone in a sulky, but the Chief returned and the whole crew came back together in a traditional wagon.

When trotters and pacers began to apepar in races between 1820 and 1830, they were primarily raced under saddle. In the next decade, however, sulkies and wagons were used, and by the 1860s, races under saddle in this country were rare, and by 1870, had been phased out.

The first change made to the sulky in races was the removal of the springs, which reduced the vibration and lowered the seat of the driver. The straight axle remained for many years and a close hitch was thereby impossible. This sulky had a tendency to make horses rough-gaited when they became leg-weary in long races. In those days it was also an ordinary occurrence for a driver to let his horse gallop in hopes that the change of gait would rest him by bringing another set of muscles into play.

A few manufacturers tried to improve the sulky by increasing the height of the wheels, and some were six or seven feet high. According to one observer at the time, there was a considerable amount of wobbling when the driver was being whisked around the flat turns of the old time tracks at a 2:20 clip.

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