THE SADDLE BREEDS OF HORSES 113 
Diomed, racing in the colors of Mr. Pierre Lorillard. This 
horse, the same season, won the St. Leger, a most notable 
feat in view of the fact that both Derby and St. Leger 
have been won by the same horse but nine times in over 
a century of racing. 
128. History in America.— It is natural that this 
country should have been the first, after England, to take 
up the Thoroughbred and systematically breed and race 
him. Itwas not long after the colonization of the southern 
provinces by the English gentry that there was established 
an American turf with its Thoroughbred studs. 
In connection with the introduction of the Thorough- 
bred into America, some mention of the so-called native 
horses should be made. While there is abundant evidence 
in the way of fossil remains of the presence and possibly 
the evolution of a prehistoric horse on the American conti- 
nent, still there were no horses of any description found 
here by Columbus. He it was who on his second expedi- 
tion made the first importation of which we have any 
record. These horses are thought by some to have 
perished soon after their arrival, while other authorities 
assert that they eventually gained the mainland and con- 
stitute a part of our foundation stock. Cortez, in his 
conquest of Mexico in 1519, is credited with having landed 
the first horses on American soil. In 1527, Cabeza de 
Vaca brought horses to St. Augustine, Florida, which were 
afterward liberated. Again, horses constituted a part of 
the equipment of De Soto’s expedition in 1541, on which 
he discovered the Mississippi. Thus far these were all 
Spanish horses of oriental extraction — the same original 
source from which the Thoroughbred sprang. In 1604, 
the French took horses into Nova Scotia, and four years 
later introduced them into Canada. Then followed the 
I 
