924 Deane Phillips 



that of the common " racker," or pacer of the present day, and from 

 horses having an acquired pacing gait (165). A breed in which the 

 pacing habit was so firmly established must have had back of it an 

 ancestry in which such movement had long been the usual gait. As 

 already indicated (page 894), such a breed is to be found in the Irish 

 hobbies, which were so greatly sought after as saddle horses in England 

 during the early part of the seventeenth century mainly because their 

 pacing gait was easier than that of any other horses of the period. 

 Such fragmentary descriptions of these hobbies as are available (166) 

 disclose a striking similarity in appearance to the Narragansett pacers. 

 These Irish ponies were small, spirited, possessed of unusual endurance, 

 and commonly sorrel in color — all of which characteristics are simi- 

 larly to be found in the Narragansetts. Although no direct proof can 

 be adduced in support of such a view,- it would seem to be at least a 

 plausible theory that the Narragansett pacers resulted from the selec- 

 tion and breeding of some of these Irish hobbies which had been brought 

 to New England at an early date. Later, as indicated by the tradition 

 in the Hazard family, these may have been crossed with some imported 

 Spanish stock to build up the breed still further. 



As to the speed and stamina of the Narragansetts and the unusual 

 ease of their gait for saddle purposes, there is much evidence. Pacing 

 races were often held at Little-Neck Beach at South Kingston, and 

 some of the silver tankards won at these races are said by LTpdike, writ- 

 ing in 1847, to haA'e been still in the possession of some of the old Nar- 

 ragansett famxilies at that time (167). The Eeverend James Mac- 

 Sparran, sent out to Rhode Island in 1721. by the Society for the Propa- 

 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and for many years a resident 

 in the colony, records that he has seen some of these horses pace a 

 mile '' in a little more than two minutes and a good deal less than 

 three," and adds further that he has often ridden them '^ fifty; nay, 

 sixty miles in a day even here in New England where roads are rough, 

 stony and uneven " (168). Another contemporary writer describes 

 ' ' the natural pacers of horses which at a cow run — a gait which they 

 acquire by pasturing when colts Avith the cows [truly a surprising 

 theory ! ] — Avill pace three miles in seven minutes. ' ' 



Further evidence of the unusual ease of the saddle gait of the 



