AMERICAN HORSES 235 



and of maintaining such speed under difficulties for a 

 great length of time, should want animals of such 

 character to be their companions in the new country. Rac- 

 ing was the popular sport from the beginning, thus a type 

 of horse was developed patterned after the English Thor- 

 oughbred. The height is given as ranging from 12 to 15 

 hands ; the carriage as lithe and active and the quality 

 as unexcelled, as indicated by a clean-cut form,' and clean 

 legs with dense bone and detached tendons. Horses of 

 this type later found their way north to New York and 



FIG. 121.— AMERICAN SADDLER "CARROLL PRESTON" 



west to Kentucky, where they played an important part 

 in the devejopment of the American trotter, American 

 saddler and the Thoroughbred. 



The colonial horse of New York. — The first authentic 

 importation to New Amsterdam, as New York was then 

 called, occurred about 1629, when several horses were 

 introduced from Holland. There is a lack of definite in- 

 formation regarding other early importations until the 

 middle of the century, though many horses were intro- 

 duced, as they had become numerous. 



