COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY NEW ENGLAND. 131 



tered and to be bred in the spring to some famous horse in 

 Kingston, the very center of the horse-breeding interests of that 

 day. 



Under the date of June 17, 1706, I find a bay horse advertised 

 as "strayed or stolen: fourteen hands high, hardly possible to 

 make him gallop," and October 28, 1700, a black gelding "four- 

 teen hands high, paces, trots, and gallops." Then in the years 

 1731 and 1732 I find a "black mare fourteen and three-quarter 

 hands, trots and paces;" a "black horse twelve hands," no gait 

 given: "black gelding, fourteen hands, races, trots, and gallops:" 

 "bay horse large, good pacer:" "roan mare, fourteen hands, 

 paces and trots." But the field which I specially gleaned was 

 for the years 1756-59, where I found the average height was 

 fourteen hands one inch, the data including eight pacers and two 

 trotters. This, I think, may be taken as fairly representative of 

 the size and habit of action of Massachusetts horses in the first 

 half of the eighteenth century. 



In 1636 the first plantation was made in Connecticut at Hart- 

 ford by the Rev. Thomas Hooker and over a hundred of his con- 

 gregation with him. They left nothing behind, but brought all 

 their domestic animals to their new home. I have not been able 

 to discover just how many horses they brought with them, but in 

 a few decades they had a great abundance and to spare. In 1653 

 the General Court at New Haven made provision for keeping 

 public saddle horses for hire and fixed the rate of charges for 

 their use. It also prohibited the sale of horses outside of the 

 colony. In 1658 all horses, young and old, had to be .branded by 

 an officer appointed for that purpose, and it required several 

 years of legislation before the system of branding, selling and re- 

 cording could be so perfected as to prevent dishonesty and frauds. 

 In 1674 an act was passed providing and enjoining that all colts 

 entire and stallions running at large, under thirteen hands high, 

 should be gelded. This law al$o required a good deal of amend : 

 ing before it could be made to work smoothly. The size of the 

 Connecticut horses about the time of the Revolution was an 

 average of thirteen hands three inches, thus ranging below the 

 other New England colonies. In 1778 horse racing was pro- 

 hibited under the penalty of forfeiture of the horse and a fine of 

 forty shillings. In 1776 a careful compilation of the gaits of the 

 horses of that period, embracing nineteen individuals, taken as 

 they came, showed that fifteen were pacers, or pacers and trotters, 



