COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY VIRGINIA. Ill 



contain three distinct trials growing out of horse races for that 

 year. In one case the contest was for three hundred pounds of 

 tobacco; in another the winner was to take both horses; in the 

 third the amount at issue does not appear. From the readiness 

 at sharp practice and from the cunning dodges to get clear of 

 paying a bet it is very evident that the principals and the wit- 

 nesses were well up in all the tricks of racing as it was practiced 

 at that early day. How long before 1677 racing was practiced in 

 Virginia I have no means of determining, but the next year and 

 the next, continuing to the end of that century, the records of 

 the court speak for themselves. In these trials I find the names 

 of Thomas Jefferson, Jr., grandfather of President Jefferson, and 

 also the name of Benjamin Harrison, the ancestor of two presi- 

 dents, although they were not principals in any of the cases. 



In Beverley's History of Virginia, published in London, 1705, 

 at section ninety-four, we have the following: 



" There is yet another kind of sport, which the young people take 

 great delight in, and that is the hunting of wild horses; which they 

 pursue, sometimes with dogs and sometimes without. You must know 

 they have many horses foaled in the woods of the uplands, that never were in 

 hand and are as shy as any savage creature. These having no mark upon them 

 belong to him that first takes him. However, the captor commonly purchases 

 these horses very dear, by spoiling better in the pursuit, in which case he has 

 little to make himself amends, besides the pleasure of the chase. And very 

 often this is all he has for it, for the wild horses are so swift that 'tis difficult to 

 catch them; and when they are taken 'tis odds but their grease is melted, or 

 else being old they are so sullen that they can't be tamed." 



In the number of Wallace's Monthly for September, 1877, p. 

 684, will be found a very interesting article from the pen of the 

 late Dr. Elwood Harvey, on "The Chincoteague Ponies," that 

 have from time immemorial occupied, in a wild state, the 

 islands of Chincoteague and Assoteague off the eastern shore of 

 Virginia and Maryland. The traditions relating to their origin 

 are very hazy and improbable, and the most reasonable one, be- 

 cause it is within the range of possibilities, is that a Spanish ship 

 was wrecked off this part of the coast and the original ponies 

 were on board and swam ashore. It is well established that they 

 have occupied the islands for more than a hundred years. They 

 are about thirteen hands high, uniform in shape and resemble 

 each other except in color, for all colors prevail. Some of them 

 pace a little, and they have rather light manes and tails, and no 

 superabundance of hair on the fetlocks. Now, the horses of 



