COLONIAL HOESE HISTORY NEW YORK. 123 



tion is greatly impaired. As it is known, however, that there 

 were but two breeds or types of horses that could have been en- 

 gaged in these contests, it becomes a matter of interest to reach 

 a conclusion as to which were the victors. Mr. John Austin 

 Stevens has done some very excellent work on this part of the 

 horse history of New York, but I cannot agree with him in his 

 characterization of the Dutch horses as being Flemish. They 

 did not come from Flanders, but from Utrecht. They were not 

 great unwieldy brutes, such as we would associate with Flanders, 

 but hardy, compact animals that could make their way in the 

 wilderness. Although larger, it does not follow that they could 

 not run as fast or even faster than the New England ponies. All 

 breeds of horses were very much smaller two hundred years ago 

 than they are now. These races were instituted, evidently, for 

 the improvement of the breed of horses in the colony, and the 

 great majority of these horses were the descendants of the original 

 stock brought from Utrecht. We must, therefore, conclude that 

 they were not slow, heavy, unwieldy animals with no action, as 

 the language of Mr. Stevens would seem to imply, but capable 

 of improvement in the direction of speed. No doubt there were 

 very many New England horses in the colony, "lighter and bet- 

 ter adapted to the saddle," but neither the interests nor the pride 

 of the old Dutch settlers would have permitted them to support 

 racing for a period of more than eighty years, unless the early 

 Utrecht blood was represented. Besides this, the weights car- 

 ried, one hundred and forty pounds, and the distance, gener- 

 ally two-mile heats, were conditions that were strongly against 

 the New Englanders, even if they were lighter of foot. With 

 these two breeds in the field, we may accept it as an inevitable 

 sequence that the superior qualities of the one would very soon 

 be engrafted on the other, and by this process of breeding, a bet- 

 ter type would be produced than either of the originals. This 

 first step was only a prelude to the next, and that again to the 

 next, until the common, plain lesson was thoroughly learned, 

 that if a running horse was wanted the way to get him was to 

 breed to a running horse that had proved he was a running horse. 

 The improvement became very wide and general, and occasionally 

 an animal was produced with such phenomenal speed that he 

 was barred from stakes and purses. On this foundation, and 

 this alone, the running turf was built up and continued for about 



