34 THE AMERICAN HORSE. 



Western States, French and Spanish blood partly prevail, 

 though with a mixture of English blood. It may, in short, be 

 generally assumed that, with the exception of the thorough- 

 breds, there is scarcely any breed in any part of America 

 wholly pure and unmixed ; and that there are very few animals 

 anywhere, which have not some mixture, greater or less, of 

 the hot blood of the East, transmitted through the English 

 race-horse. 



Indeed, with the exception of the Conestoga horse, there is, 

 in the United States, no purely-bred draft or cart-horse, nor 

 any breed which is kept entirely for labor in the field or on 

 the road, without a view to being used at times for quicker 

 work, and for purposes of pleasure or travel. Every horse, 

 for the most part, bred in America, is intended to be, in some 

 sense, used upon the road ; and it is but asserting a well-known 

 fact, when we say, that for docility, temper, soundness of con- 

 stitution, endurance of fatigue, hardiness, sure-footedness. and 

 speed, the American roadster is not to be excelled, if equaled, 

 by any horse in the entire world not purely thorough-bred. 



Of roadsters, two or three families have obtained, in diflferent 

 localities, decided reputations for different peculiar qualities : 

 such as the Narragansett pacers, the families known as the 

 Morgan and Black Hawk, the Canadian, and generally what 

 may be called trotters. No one of these, however, with the 

 single exception of the Narragan setts, appears to have any 

 real claim to be deemed a distinctive family, or to be regarded 

 as capable of transmitting its qualities in line of hereditary 

 descent, by breeding within itself, without further crosses with 

 higher and hotter blood. 



Of the Narragansetts, but little can be said with certainty ; 



