156 
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
their management, became the best horsemen and producers of 
horses in the world, retaining that distinction to this day. 
The earliest mention of the horse in Great Britain, occurs in 
Caesar’s history of the invasion of that island, wherein we 
have an account of the chariots and horses, which we conclude 
must have been fleet, powerful and fiery, from the weight of the 
chariots, (which were heavy and armed with scythes,) and the 
fierceness with which they were driven into the firm ranks of 
the Roman Army. 
In process of time, however, and chiefly as a result of the 
invasion, these horses.became mixed with other breeds from all 
parts of the world, whence the Roman cavalry had been en¬ 
rolled, and hence materially changed their character. 
It was in Britain, so far as I can learn, that the horse first 
began to be used in the cultivation of the fields, the eleventh 
century being the earliest date at which any reference is made 
to the matter; and then it occurs in the form of a representa¬ 
tion in tapestry, of a horse drawing a kind of harrow. From 
which fact it would appear that the ancients deemed the horse 
too noble an animal to be subjected to such menial service—as 
is still the case in some portions of Germany and Italy, where 
all farm work, requiring a team, is performed by a woman yok¬ 
ed to a jackass! 
In America the horse appears to have, been unknown until 
its introduction by Columbus, who brought over a number in 
1493. So entirely strange were they to the natives, that the 
latter are reported to have regarded the horse and the man, who 
happened to be mounted, when they first beheld him, as one an¬ 
imal—a realization of some fabled monster, grown 
“ -into his seat, 
As he had been incorps’d and demi-natured 
With the brave beast. ;? 
The first horses brought into any part of what is now the 
United States, were landed in Florida in 152T, by Cabica de 
Yaca; all of which died from the effects of the voyage. But 
another and successful importation was made in 1539, by Be 
Soto. 
