924 DEANE PHILLIPS 
that of the common ‘“‘ racker,’’ or pacer of the present day, and from 
horses having an acquired pacing gait (165). A breed in which the 
pacing habit was so firmly established must have had back. of it an 
ancestry in which such movement had long been the usual gait. As 
already indicated (page 894), such a breed is to be found in the Irish 
hobbies, which were so greatly sought after as saddle horses in England 
during the early part of the seventeenth century mainly because their 
pacing gait was easier than that of any other horses of the period. 
Such fragmentary descriptions of these hobbies as are available (166) 
disclose a striking similarity in appearance to the Narragansett pacers. 
These Irish ponies were small, spirited, possessed of unusual endurance, 
and commonly sorrel in color —all of which characteristics are simi- 
larly to be found in the Narragansetts. Although no direct proof can 
be adduced in support of such a view, it would seem to be at least a 
plausible theory that the Narragansett pacers resulted from the selec- 
tion and breeding of some of these Irish hobbies which had been brought 
to New England at an early date. Later, as indicated by the tradition 
in the Hazard family, these may have been crossed with some imported 
Spanish stock to build up the breed still further. 
As to the speed and stamina of the Narragansetts and the unusual 
ease of their gait for saddle purposes, there is much evidence. Pacing 
races were often held at Little-Neck Beach at South Kingston, and 
some of the silver tankards won at these races are said by Updike, writ- 
ing in 1847, to have been still in the possession of some of the old Nar- 
ragansett familes at that time (167). The Reverend James Mac- 
Sparran, sent out to Rhode Island in 1721 by the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and for many years a resident 
in the colony, records that he has seen some of these horses pace a 
mile ‘‘in a little more than two minutes and a good deal less than 
three,’’ and adds further that he has often ridden them ‘‘ fifty; nay, 
sixty miles in a day even here in New England where roads are rough, 
stony and uneven’’ (168). Another contemporary writer describes 
‘“ the natural pacers of horses which at a cow run —a gait which they 
acquire by pasturing when colts with the cows [truly a surprising 
theory !] — will pace three miles in seven minutes.’’ 
Further evidence of the unusual ease of the saddle gait of the 
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