24:2 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



their way by carrying or hauling. Thus there were 

 streams of American horses pouring down the western 

 slopes of the Sierra, easily purchaseable at the mines 

 because the owners had seen gold and had no longer 

 sight for horses, until their eyes were reopened and 

 then they reentered horse ownership by swapping 

 mining claims for horses with later arrivals and 

 followed their animals which had brought them 

 across to the valley lands taken up for farming. In 

 this way, the first American farms became equipped 

 with horses of the best strains to be found at the 

 time east of the Eocky Mountains and they were 

 amply supplemented by importations especially for 

 breeding purposes from all eastern and southern 

 states and from the eastern Canadas which were then 

 a treasury of high class horse-flesh. Proof of this 

 victorious entry of the American horse to the territory 

 of the Mexican may be cited. At the first live-stock 

 show held under State auspices, in San Jose in 1856, 

 thirteen premiums were awarded for American bred 

 horses and two for mules. It is also recorded that 

 four ladies and eleven men were entered for prizes 

 in equestrianship, of whom, judging by the ethnology 

 of their names, only one can be suspected of being 

 of Mexican origin while the remainder were from 

 more or less remotely English, Irish and German 

 sources, that is, entitled to American registry. The 

 records of subsequent exhibitions showed the same 

 prevalence of American standards, both in horses 

 and their owners, more and more abundantly to the 

 present day. At first, of course, the proletariat of 



