PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HORSES 11 



these pacers as a present for the queen. Indeed, 

 there are those who maintain stoutly that the vir- 

 tues of the American trotter as well as the Amer- 

 ican saddle-horse came from these pacers. That 

 may be the case so far as the trotters are con- 

 cerned, for of the horses bred to trot fast, as we 

 shall presently see, more are pacers than trotters. 

 As a matter of fact, however, Barbs are apt to 

 pace, and these Narragansetts may have had 

 such an origin. In the blood of all our horse types 

 there is some proportion of Barb blood, and we 

 find pacers among all except Thoroughbreds. I 

 am sure I never saw a Thoroughbred that paced, 

 or heard of one. 



The history of the American horses with 

 which we are concerned to-day may be said to 

 have begun after the War of the Revolution. But 

 the basic stock upon which the blood of the post- 

 revolutionary importations was grafted was most 

 important and also interesting. It was gathered 

 from every country having colonies in North 

 America and blended after its arrival. The Span- 

 ish and French blood was strongly Oriental and 

 mixed kindly with that from Holland and Eng- 



