First Annual Gymkhana of the Veterans and Actives of the Ninth Company Seventh Regiment, N.G.N.Y. Saturday, September 14th 1907.

“Toujours Pret”

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Humorous, fun-spirited program for the First Annual Gymkhana or field day held by the Ninth Company (Company “I”) of New York’s Seventh Regiment, a National Guard equestrian unit.

The late summer excursion took members of the regiment by boat from Manhattan to Glenwood-on-the-Sound, Nassau County, Long Island. In addition to a “Rhode Island Clam Bake” (the complete menu is printed here—from “Clams! Clams! Clams!” to “Smoke”), the day’s activities included various aquatic races and an assortment of traditional field events or picnic games—a parody of military and cavalry exercises.

The Steamboat “Cymbria” having docked at Glenwood-on-the-Sound, themerrie companie will disembark and proceed gaily to gambol upon the sandy beach. The aquatic ones will don bathing suits and participate in the following aquatic events:
1. Boat Race, en surprise. Conditions to be unknown. ...
3. Swimming Race. Each contestant to wear top hat, coat, trousers and shoes, and to carry an open umbrella.
4. Tub Race ...
6. “United Service” Race. Contestants will mount horses at the starting point, ride to the beach, dismount, enter boats and row to the finish.

At 4 o’clock, there was a running of the “Porter House Stakes; for 10-year-olds and upward,” a sham horse race:

A veterinary will be in attendance to administer “hop” [beer?] in extreme cases. No horse will be left at the barrier if a hypodermic can prevent it. Eligible Starters: Pegasus, Latrine…Rip Van Winkle, Methuselah and Skelington [i.e. skeleton].

Traditional picnic games followed: climbing a greased pole, tug-of-war, “Potato [sack] Race,” catching a greased pig (here, “Lubricated Pork”), “Reconnaissance, Hamiltonian” (finding a lemon in tall grass), and an egg race.

Tickets? $5.00: “Please send check immediately to Sergt. Palmer A. Paddock, 196 Montague St., Brooklyn.”

New York’s Seventh Regiment was comprised of members of New York’s social élite. The regiment was formed before the American Civil War; its ninth company—Company I—was a cavalry unit. A printed, historiated initial is the sole illustration; it depicts a mounted, charging cavalry soldier with saber and the regimental motto: “Toujours Prêt”—always ready.

Price: $125.00