CARRIAGE HORSES 131 



most sections, above all other. In a country 

 settled by Englishmen this was natural. Other 

 kinds of horses could have been as easily imported 

 and others were imported to some extent, but the 

 horse that was the fastest in the world at the run, 

 the direct descendant of Arabian progenitors, and 

 whose very name had become a synonym for the 

 qualities most prized in horse flesh, was naturally 

 preferred. 



When I was a boy, my father always raised a 

 few choice horses, largely as a matter of pleasure, 

 but partly for profit as he raised more than he 

 could use and those that he was willing to sell 

 brought very high prices. They were sold in 

 Newport, R. I., where then, as now, fine horses 

 were in keen demand. With less opportunity 

 than now exists for selecting good breeding stock, 

 he succeeded in raising carriage horses of a very 

 high type. His mares were selected carefully for 

 the type that he preferred, but, beyond mere hear- 

 say and what could be judged by their appear- 

 ance, it was often impossible to know their breed- 

 ing. 



One mare, however, which he greatly prized 

 and whose offspring was always the finest, he knew 

 more about. Her dam was a mare of unknown 

 pedigree but showing good blood and of excellent 

 road type, and her sire a stallion, claimed to be 



