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INTRODUCTION 



The horse in its prehistoric species was indigenous 

 to the five great continents. In America the rock 

 formations, antedating the glacial period, give us an 

 approximate idea of the animal in its early stages 

 of development. With the glacial period, the species 

 became extinct in America. Not until the sixteenth 

 century did the horse again make its appearance on 

 the Western Continent, and then only in its domes- 

 ticated form, with the advent of the Conquistadors 

 and gold-seekers from the Old World. 



Indian massacres and other disasters to various 

 mounted expeditions sent out by the invaders re- 

 sulted in many of the horses brought across the 

 seas by the Europeans coming into the possession 

 of the Indians. Others, escaping the pursuit of the 

 sometimes victorious aborigine, ran wild and mul- 

 tiplied in the fertile valleys of Mexico and in that 

 portion of America which is now the southwestern 

 part of the United States. 



At the present time, several States in the western 

 part of America gave forage to the untamed horses 

 that have flourished in those localities since their 

 ancestors sought refuge there in the turbulent pio- 

 neer days. 



Science encroaching upon nature has reduced to 

 a mechanical basis nearly all lines of human en- 

 deavor, but the horse can never be entirely replaced 

 by a machine. The horse can carry a man over 

 many places where it would be impossible for a 

 machine to go, and in many places where machines 

 can be operated the horse is used for economy. 



The horse, being a living thing, embodies a kind 

 of perpetual motion, of which no mechanical pro- 

 duction is susceptible. 



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