SADDLE HORSES. 161 
waving his hat and shouting with triumph ; but pres- 
ently, recollecting himself and his deaconship, he 
went up to the successful jockey and exclaimed, with 
every indication of anger, “ Martin Scott, you young 
reprobate, you have stolen my horse, and if you do 
not immediately return him to the stable, and give 
him a good rubbing down I shall report you to your 
father.” And thus the Deacon won a horse race, and 
still preserved his standing in the Church. Never- 
theless, although riding steadily declined from this 
time on, New England furnished some excellent cav- 
alry in the Civil War, mounted chiefly on Morgan 
horses which out-travelled and outlasted the larger 
but less enduring animals ridden by the cavalry regi- 
ments of the West. 
The Narragansett pacer being extinct, and the Mor- 
gan trotter undeveloped as a saddler, the only riding 
horse born and bred in the United States is now to 
be found in Kentucky. Kentucky, from the very 
beginning of her history, has been noted for well-bred 
horses, especially in the “Blue Grass” district. A 
scientific person of reputation who made a study of 
that region tells us that there are certain products of 
the land which indicate infallibly the geological forma- 
tion. Whenever, he relates, he met a tall, handsome 
girl, with a good color in her cheeks, he knew that 
he had struck the Blue Grass belt, ‘with its lime- 
impregnated soil, and there was no need to pound 
the rocks with his hammer, or curiously to inspect 
the earth. The girl was sufficient evidence of lati- 
tude and longitude; and with her went rolling fields 
of rich pasture, substantial barns, and paddocks full 
of high-born colts and brood mares. The State was 
11 
