CHAPTER VIII. 



COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY VIRGINIA. 



Hardships of the colonists First importations of horses Racing prevalent in 

 the seventeenth century Exportations and then importations prohibited 

 Organized horse racing commenced 1677 and became very general In 1704 

 there were many wild horses in Virginia and they were hunted as game 

 The Chincoteague ponies accounted for Jones on life in Virginia, 1720 

 Fast early pacers, Galloways and Irish Hobbies English race horses im- 

 ported Moreton's Traveler probably the first Quarter racing prevailed on 

 the Carolina border Average size and habits of action clearly established 

 The native pacer thrown in the shade by the imported runner An English- 

 man's prejudices. 



THE colony of Virginia, settled at Jamestown, May 13, 1607, 

 was subjected to a succession of dissensions, privations and dis- 

 asters extending through a number of years. The elements of 

 which this first plantation was composed were heterogeneous, and 

 many of them wholly unsuited to battle with the hardships and 

 privations of the wilderness. A very large proportion of the ad- 

 venturers were mere idlers at home, descended from good but 

 impecunious families, and had never done an honest day's work 

 in their lives. Too proud to labor even if they had known how, 

 hunger and rags soon made them the most unhappy and discon- 

 tented of mortals. The governmental aif airs of the colony fell into 

 confusion, like the people forming it, and we have no official 

 record of what was done for a number of years. All that is 

 known to-day of what transpired in the early years of the colony 

 has been gleaned from the personal correspondence of actors in 

 the many strifes that came so near destroying them all. These 

 letters are, generally, so strongly imbued with partisan feeling 

 that there seems to be no room left to tell us anything about the 

 industrial growth of the colony, either in planting or breeding. 

 The excerpts, therefore, relating to the early horses of Virginia 

 which I have been able to gather from a great many sources, will 

 fall far short of being complete, but I think they will serve as a 

 basis upon which to form an intelligent estimate of the Virginia 



