THE CONESTOGA HORSE. fel' 



of them coming fully up to the standard of seventeen or seven- 

 teen and a half hands in height. 



In color, also, they follow the dray-horses ; being more often 

 blood-bays, brown, and dapple-grays than of any other shade. 

 The bays and browns, moreover, are frequently dappled also in 

 their quarters, which is decidedly a dray-horse characteristic 

 and beauty ; while it is, in some degree, a derogation to a horse 

 pretending to much blood. This peculiarity is often observ- 

 able also in the larger of the heavy Yermont draught-horses, 

 and is not unknown in the light and speedy Morgan. 



They have the lofty crests, shaggy volumes of mane and tail, 

 round buttocks, hairy fetlocks, and great round feet of the 

 dray-horse ; they are, however, longer in the back, finer in the 

 shoulder, looser in the loin, and perhaps, fatter in the side than 

 their English antitypes. They do not run to the unwieldy 

 superfluity of flesh, for which the dray-horse is unfortunately 

 famous ; they have a lighter and livelier carriage, a better step 

 and action, and are, in all respects, better travelers, more 

 active, generally useful, and superior animals. 



They were for many years, before railroads took a part of 

 the work off their broad and honest backs, the great carriers 

 of produce and provisions from the interior of Pennsylvania to 

 the seaboard, or the market ; and the vast white-topped wagons, 

 drawn by superb teams of the stately Conestogas, were a dis- 

 tinctive feature in the landscape of that great agricultural 

 State. Tiie lighter horses of this breed, were the general farm- 

 horses of the country ; and no one, who is familiar with the 

 agricultural regions of that fine State, can fail to observe that 

 the farm-horses generally, whether at the plough, or on the 



