I40 The Book of the Horse. 



quartered in the country, and by Canadian Agricultural Societies, and also of some of the 

 approved sires raised in the United States. They are entirely employed in harness ; riding 

 on horseback, except in the capital towns, not being the custom of the country, or possible 

 at all in the long winters. 



Colonel White, who commanded a regiment of cavalry many years ago in Canada 

 mounted on native horses, wrote several letters in favour of the idea of importation. He 

 said they were hardy, active, docile, remarkably surefooted, and in every way suited for 

 cavahy purposes. His views were confirmed by other known equine authorities, amongst 

 others by Colonel Soame Jenyns, C.B., who told the Lords' Committee on Horse Supply 

 that " Canadians made first-rate troop-horses, very fairly bred, capital hacks, a little straight 

 in the shoulder, which is of course objectionable, but wonderfully good sound horses, and 

 capital fencers — such as you get here for £60 or £']0 — admirable animals." Canadian horses 

 are merely harness-horses, no one rides them ; and they want a great deal of bitting. A 

 large number are exported to the States. In answer to a question from H.R.H. the Prince 

 of Wales, Colonel Jenyns said, " In general they are not so valuable as ours, but if judiciously 

 picked they would be quite as valuable. I bought 180, and I do not think I ever had better 

 troopers." This was in 1870. 



Frank Forester, an English sportsman who settled in the United States, considered that all 

 special breeds had been absorbed into one general American race, possessing a large admixture 

 of thoroughbred, and that from these, most of them crossed with thoroughbred, the incom- 

 parable American trotters are selected and trained. He speaks with especial praise of the 

 Vermont draught-horse, which must be something very different from the dreadful picture 

 which illustrates that chapter of his book — a representation of a horse in the first stage of 

 tetanus. "In 1837," he says, "during the Canadian rebellion, the 1st Dragoon Guards were 

 magnificently horsed from Vermont, and the whole of the artillery from a heavier class of 

 horses of the same district ; and," he continues, " I heard a distinguished officer of rank say 

 that the artillery had never been better horsed." 



But the town residents of the United States are not given to horse exercise. There are 

 few men of leisure ; those engaged in business find it less trouble, less an interruption to 

 business thoughts, to drive than to ride ; besides — probably not a small consideration in a 

 country where the men and women expend such vast sums on outward and visible signs 

 of wealth — harness affords more room for display than any number of saddle-horses. The 

 same rule prevails there which has been noted in one of the early chapters of this book. The 

 first step of the wife of the new rich man towards making a stir in her world of fashion is 

 to order a carriage in which she may display furs, feathers, velvet, and lace — a very pleasant 

 and harmless kind of vanity. 



The prices given for a pair of American trotters far exceed anything paid for the finest 

 steppers in London or Paris. 



But recently the fashion of European carriages, built for comfort and for show, not for 

 speed, has made its way among the fashionable " upper ten " of New York, with whom our 

 coachmakers are doing a good deal of business, and these must be horsed with something very 

 different to the American trotter, so inimitable in its own particular way. They want 

 more substance at some sacrifice of pace. 



A Lincolnshire wolds farmer, a very hard rider with hounds, and fond of dealing in horses, 

 who spent some time in the States, and who travelled from New York to San Francisco, 

 told tiie writer that "the trotting-horses, for their particular work on the soft sandy roads 



