6 LNTKODUCTION. 



Strain or breed, since it does not appear that blood has mucli, if 

 any thing, to do with the matter — of animals, in all respects dis- 

 tinct from any other in the known world, of surpassing capabil- 

 ities of both speed and endurance, not known, not understood, 

 not producible — one might say — by existing systems, in any 

 other country, Ave have no native account of the plan by which 

 these unrivalled creatures are formed, their powers developed, 

 their speed elicited — scarcely even have we an authentic and 

 standard account of the animals themselves, their performances, 

 or their pedigree, to which one may refer with confidence. 



With half a dozen, at the least, of distinct races of native 

 American Horses, probably, in the first instance, the result of 

 chance combinations of old, well-known and established foreign 

 breeds, which have now been improved and rendered standard, 

 as perfect native stock, transmitting their qualities both of form 

 and capacity unmixed from sire to son, we have no work fully 

 recognizing the existence of sucli races, much less analyzing 

 their blood and describing their points and character. On the 

 contrary, while the Conestoga horse, the Canadian, the Indian 

 pony of the North, the Indian mustang of the South, the Nor- 

 man horse of the North-eastern British Provinces, the pacer — 

 probably of Nai'raganset origin — and the general working, or 

 farm horse, of t]ie Midland States, have no chronicler, w^e go on 

 importing and studying elaborate treatises on the English hack- 

 ney, the English cart-horse, the English dray-horse, the Suffolk 

 Punch, the Cleveland Bay, the Galloway, the Shetland pony, 

 and I know not what else ; when it is notorious to every horse- 

 man in the land, that not one of these varieties do exist — ever 

 did exist — except in the case of individual importations — or, if 

 they did exist, would be of any value or utility in North 

 America. 



In the like manner, we have hitherto contented ourselves, 

 solely, with English manuals, even wlien in practice we do 



