THE SADDLE BREEDS OF HORSES 135 



centuries before the time of Mohammed. Early in the 

 seventeenth century, Arab horses were brought to Eng- 

 land, and in the eighteenth century the importations were 

 numerous. These exerted considerable influence on the 

 development of the Thoroughbred and the Hackney. 



157. History in America. The first record we have of 

 the Arab in America was the importation of the stallion 

 Ranger, about 1765, to New London, Connecticut. In 

 1838, J. D. Elliott imported a number of both sexes. The 

 late A. Keene Richards brought them to Georgetown, 

 Kentucky, in 1856. His plant was making the most rapid 

 strides toward success, when it was destroyed by the Civil 

 War. The blood of his horses, however, is found in the 

 present Kentucky saddle horses, six and seven generations 

 back, and there is little doubt that much of the beauty of 

 that splendid animal to-day is traceable to the horses that 

 A. Keene Richards imported. The next importation was 

 the two stallions given to General U. S. Grant by the 

 Sultan of Turkey. These were of unknown families, but 

 they sired many beautiful and useful horses. 



A number of Arabian horses were brought to the World's 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893. The Sultan 

 was induced to permit these horses to come to America for 

 the exhibit, and through mortgages they were eventually 

 held. Nine were burned to death in their stalls at the 

 Exposition by the Syrians that brought them, as the out- 

 come of a wrangle. From these horses, however, came the 

 best results from any Arab horses brought to America. 

 Most of them were bought by Peter B. Bradley, of 

 Hingham, Massachusetts, who crossed them on some 

 of our best breeds, besides breeding them in their purity. 

 With a pure horse of his breeding, Mr. Hess, of New York 

 City, won the only blue ribbon ever won over our own 



