140 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



vious to this it had been the refuge of Quakers and others fleeing 

 from the persecutions and proscriptions that prevailed in Virginia 

 at that time, against all who did not conform to the ritual of the 

 English church. These refugees and colonists took their horses 

 and all they had with them, and as this was but a few years be- 

 fore there was an overproduction of horses in Virginia, and great 

 droves were running wild without an owner, we may conclude 

 they cost but little and that they spread rapidly in the new 

 colony. As we thus know whence they came, we necessarily 

 know what they were in size and gait, and we need not trace 

 them any further. 



SOUTH CAROLINA received her colonial charter in 1663, and the 

 earliest newspaper that I have found was for the year 1744, from the 

 advertisements in which I have extracted the following data as to 

 size and gait. In the first four and the last four months of the 

 South Carolina Gazette for 1744 I find thirty horses advertised 

 as strayed or stolen, in which the size is given, and they average 

 within a small fraction of an inch of thirteen and one-half hands, 

 and of this number three are given as fifteen hands, which was 

 considered, in that day, a large horse. Out of this number the 

 gait is given in only twelve cases, ten of which were pacers, one 

 paced and trotted, and one trotted only. The foundation horse 

 stock of South Carolina was obtained chiefly, if not wholly, from 

 Virginia, and the practice of branding and turning out, to roam 

 at large, prevailed everywhere. 



In the issues of the Gaiette for this year (1744) I find but one 

 advertisement of a stallion for public service, and he is called the 

 "famous racing horse named Roger," and is advertised as a great 

 race horse, but there is no attempt to give a pedigree or to claim 

 that he possessed any blood that was not the inheritance of all 

 others. Another advertisement is a lengthy challenge from 

 Joseph Butler to run his gelding Chestnut against any horse, 

 mare or gelding for five hundred or one thousand pounds "inch 

 and weight," the lowest horse carrying thirteen stone. No men- 

 tion or reference is made to his blood, and from these two facts 

 we may reasonably infer that at that time there were no strains 

 of blood, known to the Carolinians, specially bred to run. The 

 distance to be run is not definitely mentioned, but it was on a 

 road from one point to another, and I suppose it was about two 

 and a half, or possibly three miles. This was three years before 

 the first English race horse was imported into Virginia. It has 



