American Live Stock. 
4 
445 
ordinary Spanish race, which were for many centuries bred by the 
Moors in Spain, and subsequently by their Castilliaii conquerers. 
Those horses were small in size, good in draught and under the 
saddle, hardy in constitution, and capable of undergoing great fa¬ 
tigue wdth negligent treatment; in fact, the most useful class of 
animals for them and their successors. Without much, if any, im¬ 
provement, they now ‘ plentifully inhabit Texas, California, New 
Mexico, and Mexico proper. They do not really belong to the class 
“ i\.merican horse,” as we now understand that classification. 
The settlers on our Atlantic coast, beginning about the year 
1616, brought out the horses of their own native countries; Hol¬ 
land, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, France, and Ger¬ 
many being thus laid under contribution. Great variety of charac¬ 
ter was thus introduced, and as their importers were men of narrow 
means, the animals were probably not of the choicest kinds, either 
in blood or quality, but very useful in the rude agriculture of the 
time. As these horses shared the hardships and priv^ations of their 
owners, no marked improvement could be effected until the intro¬ 
duction of superior animals by later immigrants. 
As the colonies grew in population and strength, attracting in¬ 
creased attention from the English government, under which they 
were all ultimately combined, immigrants of wealth, official digni¬ 
taries, and army officers brought out many valuable horses, some 
few accounts of which date back to the year 1700. Among them 
were choice specimens of the draught variety, as well as saddle 
horses; but the roadster, as we now know him, was then undevel¬ 
oped, from the lack of good roads and light vehicles. Within a few 
years, however, after 1700, several fine blood horses of both sexes 
were known to be imported into Virginia, New York, and other 
states both north and south, many of the earlier and later immi¬ 
grants of those states being great admirers of horse quality. These 
later importations were closely interbred and widely distributed, 
and crossed on the common mares of the country. Thus a rapid 
improvement was made in the style and appearance of our horse¬ 
flesh generally, as well as in their superior utility and value. So 
marked was the improvement that at the outbreak of the revolu¬ 
tionary war, our military officers were usually equipped with horses 
of superior blood, quality, and action. Indeed many of the bril¬ 
liant achievements of our revolutionary army owed a share of their 
