FOUNDATION STOCK OF THE SADDLER 87 



horse, the foundation of the saddler, was always a special 

 pet of the southerner, who was not driven to the use 

 of the trotter by the strict puritan ideas of New 

 England; hence the South, particulary Kentucky, is 

 preeminently the home of the American saddler, form- 

 erly called the Kentucky saddle-horse. When the 

 pioneers went to that state, it was a choice between 

 going on horseback or on foot, and practically every- 

 body rode. In those old times there were no railroads, 

 and the highways were too poor for wheel vehicles, so 

 that the inhabitants were compelled to nse the saddle 

 for traveling both short and long distances. But the 

 saddlers of those days were not the high, stylish 

 steppers of the present. 



Some of the best foundation horses came from 

 Canada, where the pace, or ambling gait, has been most 

 encouraged; while Virginia and the South Atlantic 

 States have given more attention to race-horses. This 

 type of Canadian horses is said to be a cross of early 

 French stock with stallions brought from New York 

 and New England, and combined the hardiness and 

 perhaps gait of the former with the better size 

 of the latter. About 1830, there were imported 

 into Kentucky the thoroughbred and half-bloods 

 from Virginia, and a few of the pacers from Can- 

 ada. These were crossed, and produced a more use- 

 ful animal for saddle purposes than any bred there 

 before. It was found that certain strains of the thor- 

 oughbred blood made the best cross with the pacers 

 or any native strains, for the production of horses with 

 saddle gaits. Those which were thus best suited for 



