THE AMERICAN ROADSTER 41 



without securing compensating benefits in any direc- 

 tion. The anatomical proportions of these grades 

 were often bad, the limbs too light and crooked for 

 the service required, a temperament too high for the 

 slow work of the industries and not fast enough to 

 secure either prize money or pleasure. By chis unwise 

 breeding many horses totally lacking in any specialized 

 qualities have been produced, horses which tended to 

 become unsound as soon as they were used either for 

 purposes of gain or pleasure. In some sections more 

 unsound horses may be found in a single county 

 than can be seen in the whole of any great horse dis- 

 trict of France or Great Britain. 



The cold climate of the North made equestrianship 

 unpleasant for half of the year. The trotter is not 

 usually a good saddle-horse; hence roadsters have 

 been bred in greater numbers and perfection in the 

 northern and western parts of the United States than 

 in any other part of the world. The comparatively 

 fine condition of the roads in summer makes it possible 

 for two or three persons, with one horse attached to 

 a light vehicle, to travel as rapidly as the equestrian, 

 and far more comfortably in bad weather. The inge- 

 nuity and skill of the American mechanic, exhibited 

 in the various forms of road - wagons, have had a 

 potent influence in the development of a class of 

 rapid, pleasure - giving roadsters, such as no other 

 country even approaches. On the plains and in the 

 South the saddle-horse became a necessity. The high- 

 mettled horse well suited to the saddle was not the 

 best animal for unskilled laborers to use in the cotton 



