Historical Devon Herds
by David Roffey
G H Bostwick
Tomotley’s, Bluffton and Village Farms prefixes
I came to know G H (Pete) Bostwick during the early 1970’s through his polo club and polo ponies. My first contact with him came through a call to my veterinary practice in upstate New York to attend to a horse injured performing in a polo match. Over the next several years I came to admire Pete Bostwick as I treated his Polo horses and observed him hosting other competitors attending his summer Polo tournaments at Village Farms in Gilbertsville, New York.
Pete had great compassion for his horses, always demanding the best veterinary care and best nutrition available. Pete was an extremely competitive hands-on type person.
Upon reading the old articles from different Devon Quarterly and Devon Yearbooks from those years, Pete Bostwick doubtlessly had the same passion for his Devon cattle that I saw with his polo horses.
Pete Bostwick imported, owned and bred many of the great sires several generations back in our Devon pedigrees. Imp. Wadhayes Sunshine, Imp. Potheridge President, Imp Peverstone Pretender and Imp. Tisted Warrant were all brought to the USA by Pete Bostwick starting the 1950’s.
Patuxent Brave, Morse Prince Charles from Imp. Fordton Shaver, and Patuxent Maverick are considered by many to have sired some of the very best genetics of the time. Tomotley Red Sunset is one of the better known bulls bred by Pete Bostwick and was the first AI Devon sire at the former Curtiss Candy Bull Stud and I think the first Devon bull in an AI stud anywhere at the time. The very popular Tomotley Red Sunset, born in 1960, was from a Devonshire bred cow and the Imp. Wadhayes Sunshine bull.
Bostwick Devons were developed on three different farms— Hog Bluff Plantation in South Carolina where horned Devons were bred and the Bluffton prefix used, Tomotley Plantation also in South Carolina stocked with the best polled Devons available, and Village Farms, Gilbertsville, New York home to imported Devons and the progeny of imported cattle.
It was here at Village Farms where the Devons had roamed prior to the establishment of four regulation size polo fields, several practice fields and barns enough to house several hundred horses during the polo matches. Unfortunately the Devons had been dispersed a couple of years before my arrival to the area in 1972. I certainly would have loved to have seen those wonderful Devon cattle that he had assembled and bred over the years.
Pete Bostwick died in 1982 while playing polo in West Palm Beach, Florida. If interested “this link will give you further details on his life in the horse racing world“http://www.aikenracinghalloffame.com/Pete_Bostwick.html.
The following pages are taken from the Devon Quarterly Summer 1970.
Click on the images below to view a larger image.
