182 GUN, ROD, AND SADDLE, 



Barbs, viz., Nature adapting them to a pace which 

 is most suited to the surface over which they have 

 to travel. 



Now this can not be said for the American horse ; 

 the ground there is not stony and irregular, in those 

 portions where wild horses principally abounded the 

 magnificent flat savannas or undulating prairies on 

 either side of the Mississippi ; so that it may be safely 

 inferred that trotting in the American horse has not 

 been the adopting of a pace better suited to his present 

 home, but the retaining of a peculiarity inherent in 

 his ancestors. This is a further proof of the con- 

 nection existing between the transatlantic horse and 

 the Barb, also an additional inducement for us to 

 believe that our ponies have probably a large propor- 

 tion of Spanish blood in their veins, and that from 

 that source they obtain their excellence as trotters. 

 I am aware that for some time great efforts have been 

 made, more particularly at Exmoor, for the improve- 

 ment of the original stamp of pony by the introduction 

 of undersized Arab stallions. Success has been the 

 result, and you frequently see ponies that are model 

 race-horses, but, as a rule, the trotting proclivity 

 does not exhibit itself in the beauties, but in the rough, 

 shaggy, hardy, original breed, which not unfrequently 



