ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 243 



California horses was Mexican, though over-lorded 

 by American. Although the common horse stock 

 of the State afterward became a predominant Ameri- 

 can infusion, the Mexicans remained in service and 

 even to the present day enjoy adequate honor in the 

 range activities to which their historical quality 

 entitles them. 



Although the picturesque sport features of Mexi- 

 can horsemanship delighted the Americans at first 

 and are still to be seen on occasion, they were always 

 classified as spectacular and introduced at fairs as a 

 wild element. Modern California ideals of sport with 

 the horse, from the very first, were derived from the 

 highest models of Kentucky and other states of the 

 blue-grass region. 



The selection and breeding of horses for speed in 

 race-track performances began with the pioneers who 

 made importations of blood from the greatest per- 

 formers of their day in the eastern states and were 

 inspired to greater efforts by the attainments of their 

 offspring reared under California conditions. These 

 beginnings were developed into unexpected achieve- 

 ments by the horse fanciers of 1870, and onward for 

 three or four decades^ until it could be claimed that 

 Californians not only took a leading part in the 

 development of the American trotting horse, but dis- 

 tanced all other states except Kentucky in large 

 attainment, enrolled California-bred horses abun- 

 dantly in the lists of champions of the United States 

 and produced the horse which stood for a decade as 

 the fastest trotter in the world. A generalization 



