GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIELD. 13 



cargo of eighty head to the\Barbadoes. From these importations 

 into Boston and Salem, all the New England colonists received 

 their supplies. The field specially gleaned to determine the size 

 and gaits of the Massachusetts horses covered the years 1756-59, 

 from which it appears that the average height was then fourteen 

 hands and one inch; and as to gait, just three-fourths were 

 pacers and one-fourth trotters. In comparing this average size 

 with the Virginians of the same period we find that the Massa- 

 chusetts horses were about one hand higher, which would 

 indicate the influence of the early Dutch blood. Besides this 

 we must make some allowance for a possible different habit of 

 estimating size. 



When the plantation was made at Hartford, Connecticut, in 

 1636, the planters brought their horses and other domestic animals 

 with them. In 1653 the General Court, at New Haven, made 

 provision for keeping public saddle horses for hire, and all horses 

 had to be branded. After passing over a period of more than a 

 hundred and twenty years we find that in 1776 the average size 

 of the Connecticut horse was thirteen hands and three inches, 

 thus ranging below the other New England colonies. At that 

 period it is found that the ratio of pacers and trotters was as 

 fifteen pacers, or trotters and pacers, to four that trotted only. 

 The very interesting experience of two English travelers, 

 mounted on Connecticut pacers, in 1769, and their enthusiasm 

 about their superlative qualities, will be found in its place. 



The colony of Rhode Island was planted in 1636 by Eoger Will- 

 iams and his followers, and eleven years later they obtained their 

 charter. Their supply of horses came wholly from the colony of 

 Massachusetts, and in a short time the new plantation became 

 greatly distinguished for the superiority and speed of its pacers. 

 From the official report of the colony for 1690, we learn that 

 horses constituted their leading item of exports, and that they 

 were shipping horses to all the colonies of the seaboard. At that 

 early day the fame of the Narragansett pacer extended through 

 all the English colonies, and probably also through the French 

 plantations on the St. Lawrence. All trade with Canada was 

 strictly prohibited, but in the then condition of the borders how 

 could such regulation be enforced, if a Frenchman, with a bale 

 of peltry, wanted to exchange it for a Narragansett? Freed 

 from the Puritan restrictions of New England, of that day, the 

 Ehode Islanders developed the speed of their pacers by racing 



