22 THE HORSE. 



The Conestoga horse is found in Pennsylvania, and the middle States- 

 long in the leg and light in the carcase— sometimes rising seventeen hands, 

 used principaTly for the carriage ; but when not too high, and with suffi- 

 cient substance, useful for hunting and the saddle. 



The English horse, with a good deal of blood, prevails in Virgmia and 

 Kentucky ; and is found, to a greater or less degree, in all the States. The 

 Americans have, at different "times, imported some of the best English 

 blood; It hag- been most diligently and purely preserved in the Southern 

 States. The celebrated Shark, the best horse of his day, and equalled by 

 few at any time, was the sire of the best Virginian horses ; and Tally-ho, 

 a son of Highflyer, peopled the Jerseys. 



In the back- settlements, and in the south-western States, is a horse 

 resembling the wild horse of the Pampas, already described, and evidently 

 of the same origin. 



Chapter III. 



HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 



The earliest record of the horse in Great Britain is contained in the his- 

 tory given by Julius Caesar of his invasion of our island. The British 

 army was accompanied by numerous war-chariots, drawn by horses. Short 

 scythes were fastened to 'the ends of the axletrees, sweeping down every 

 thing before them, and carrying terror and devastation into the ranks of 

 their enemies. The conqueror gives a most animated description of the 

 dexterity with which the horses were managed. 



What kind of horse the Britons then possessed, it would be useless to 

 inquire ; bat, from the cumbrous structure of the car, and the fury with 

 which it was driven, and from the badness or nonexistence of the roads, 

 they must have been both active and powerful in an extraordinary degree. 

 Csesar deemed them so valuable, that he carried many of them to Rome ; 

 and the British horses were, for a considerable period afterwards, in great 

 request in various parts of the Roman empire. 



Horses must at that time have been exceedingly numerous in Britain, 

 for we are told that when the British king, Cassibellaunus, dismissed the 

 main body of his army, he retained four thousand of his w^ar-chariots for 

 the purpose of harassing the Romans, when they attempted to forage. 



The British horse now received its first cross ; but whether the brae 

 was thereby improved cannot be ascertained. The Romans having esta- 

 blished themselves in Britain, found it necessary to send over a numerous 

 body of cavalry to maintain a chain of posts and check the frequent insur- 

 rections of the natives. The Roman horses would breed with those of the 

 country, and, to a greater or less extent, change their character ; and from 

 this time, the English horse would consist of a compound of the native and 

 those from Gaul, Italy, Spain, and every province from which the Roman 

 cavalry was supplied. Manycentiu'ies afterwards passed by, and we have no 

 record of the character or value, improvement or deterioration, of the 

 animal. 



It would appear probable, however, that Athelstan, the natural son of 

 Alfred the Great, and the second in succession to him, paid some atten- 

 tion to the improvement of the horse ; for having subdued all the rebellious 

 portions of the Heptarchy, he was congratulated on his success by some of 



