JOHN H. WALLACE.
THE
HORSE OF AMERICA
in his
Derivation, History, and Development.
TRACING HIS ANCESTORS, BY THE AID OF MUCH NEWLY DISCOVERED DATA,
THROUGH ALL THE AGES FROM THE FIRST DAWNINGS
OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY.
INCLUDING THE HORSES OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD, HITHERTO UNEXPLORED,
GIVING THEIR HISTORY, SIZE, GAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS
IN EACH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
SHOWING HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED, TOGETHER WITH A HISTORY
OF THE PUBLICATIONS THROUGH WHICH THE BREED
OF TROTTERS WAS ESTABLISHED.
With Maps and Illustrations.
BY
JOHN H. WALLACE,
Founder of “Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” “Wallace’s Monthly,”
“Wallace’s Year Book,” etc.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1897.
Entered according to act of Congress, by
JOHN H. WALLACE,
in the year 1897, at Washington, D. C.
The study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history,sacred and profane, and tracing him from his original home throughhis migrations until all the peoples of the globe had received theirinitial supply, may not be a new idea, but it is certainly a newundertaking. Horse Books without number have been written,mostly in the century just closing, but in the history of the horsethey are all alike—merely reproductions of what had been printedbefore. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore, this volume is thefirst attempt, in any language, to determine the original habitat ofthe horse and to trace him, historically, in his distribution.
The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse intoEgypt, and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as theplebeian blood from which the English race horse has derived hisgreat speed, will be a shock to the nerves of the romanticists of theold world as well as the new. Taking the facts of history andwell-known experiences together, my readers can determine forthemselves whether the claims for the superiority of Arabian bloodis not pure fiction. For my own part I cannot recognize any bloodin all horsedom as “royal blood” except that which is found inthe veins of the horse that “has gone out and done it,” eitherhimself or in his progeny.
In our own country there has always remained a blank in horsehistory that nobody has attempted to supply. This blank embraceda century of racing of which we of the present generation havebeen entirely ignorant. Believing that a correct knowledge of thehorse of the Colonial period, in his size, gait, qualities and capacitieswas absolutely essential to an intelligent comprehension of the[iv]phenomena presented on our trotting and running courses of thepresent day, I have not hesitated to bestow on this new feature ofthe work great labor and research. In this I have felt a specialsatisfaction in the fact that while the field is old in dates, this is