894 DEANE PHILLIPS 
to consider briefly the sources and the general characteristics of these 
first imported horses. 
In view of the lack of any direct evidence to the conte it is fair 
to assume that the first shipments were mainly from England and of 
the small nondescript type which at that time made up the bulk of 
the English horses (30). There was, however, some admixture of other 
blood. In the primary importation into the Massachusetts Bay colony 
in 1629, three at least are mentioned specifically as ‘‘ having come out 
of Leicestershire ’’ (31), which at that time was the source of a more 
or less distinct type of horse of a sort better than the average (32). 
The importation of Flemish mares also has been noted. Wallace con- 
tends that these latter were not Flemish but were rather of a Dutch 
type (33), but his conclusion is based merely on the fact that the vessel 
cleared from a Dutch port — which does not seem a very valid reason 
for controverting Winthrop’s specific statement as to their Flemish 
origin, especially since Flemish horses were well known at that period. 
as a distinct type. 
There is one other possible source of some of the New England horses 
which deserves consideration, especially because it may tend to explain 
in some measure the persistently small size of these horses, even when 
earefully bred — as later they were in Rhode Island and Connecticut — 
and, further, the constant occurrence among them of individuals pos- 
sessed of a natural pacing gait. This possible progenitor is to be found 
in the Irish hobbies, a race of small, hardy, wild ponies existing in 
Ireland during the first part of the seventeenth century. These horses 
were in great demand in England for saddle purposes, and were 
exported thence in such quantities that they are said to have become 
practically extinct in Ireland before the year 1634 (34). They were 
well known in England, and their natural pacing gait made them 
especially desirable in any place where travel was of necessity on horse- 
back (35) ; it is not at all improbable, therefore, that some of them found 
their way to New England, where they would have been especially 
serviceable. There seems to be no direct evidence to this effect, but any 
comparison of such fragmentary descriptions of the two as are available 
discloses a rather striking similarity between these Irish hobbies and 
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