CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 THE SADDLE HORSE. 



Any horse used for riding might be called a saddle horse. 

 But there is a certain type of horse best suited to carrying a 

 man in safety and comfort, and this is the type to bear in mind 

 when thinking of saddle horses. The horse of all pioneer peoples 

 is the saddler. In new countries, before the opening of roads, 

 the saddle horse is of greatest usefulness. When the country 

 becomes settled and roadways are opened and improved, other 

 types of horses quickly appear, and there is less and less real 

 necessity for the saddle horse; but the saddler never disappears 

 from any community, because he is highly prized as a horse for 

 pleasure and recreation. 



When roads were being opened in the states along the east- 

 ern seaboard, and the roadster began to gain popularity, Ken- 

 tucky, Missouri, and the West were yet a country of bridle 

 paths, and there the saddle horse was held in high esteem. In 

 1818, a traveller through the Kentucky blue-grass region reported 

 that "the horse, 'noble and generous/ is the favorite animal 

 of the Kentuckian, by whom he is pampered with unceasing 

 attention. Every person of wealth has from ten to thirty, of 

 good size and condition, upon which he lavishes his corn with 

 a wasteful profusion." Besides Kentucky and Missouri, the 

 states of Virginia and Tennessee have been intimately con- 

 nected with saddle horse development in America. These four 

 states produce many excellent saddle animals annually. 



Today, saddle horses are used in a business way by the 

 cavalry of the United States Army and National Guard, by the 

 mounted police of the larger cities, by cattle drovers in rural 

 districts, by cattle buyers and salesmen at the large live-stock 

 markets, by ranchers in the West, and by overseers and man- 

 agers of large plantations and farms in the South, East, and 

 Central West. However, the high prices for saddle horses are 

 paid by people to whom the saddler is a pleasure horse. In 

 city parks and on country roads are to be seen many excellent 

 saddle horses, used strictly for pleasure and recreation. 



All good saddle horses possess a general type which we 

 may call "saddle type/' but the uses made of saddle horses are 



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