The colonial horses of Virginia were of all colors and all very small in size, as we would class them in our day. An examination of a great many advertisements of “Strayed,” “Taken up,” etc., of the period of about 1750, clearly establishes the fact that at that time the average height was a small fraction over thirteen hands and one inch. More were described as just thirteen hands than any other size, and they were nearly all between thirteen and fourteen. From this same advertising source I was able to glean conclusive evidence as to their habits of action, and found that just two-thirds of them were natural pacers and one-third natural trotters. Thus for more than a hundred years they had retained the peculiarities of their English ancestors in the reign of James I., in color, size, and gait. This in no way differs from the description of the Chincoteague Island ponies of to-day. As early as 1686 a law was enacted that all stallions less than thirteen and a half hands high found running at large should be forfeited; but this, like Henry VIII.’s laws in the same direction, had failed to increase the average size of the horses. From the indomitable passion for horse-racing which prevailed universally among the colonists, we may safely conclude that some animals were carefully selected and coupled with a view to the speed of the progeny, both at the gallop and at the pace, but the great mass were allowed to roam at large, and under such conditions no variety or tribe of horses has ever improved in size, or indeed in any other quality.
The early horses of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, afterward New York, were brought from Utrecht in Holland. As we would look at them to-day, they were small, but they were larger and better, and brought higher prices than the English horses of the Eastern colonies or than the Swedish on the West. It was conceded, however, that for the saddle they were not so good as the New England horses, and hence it may be inferred that they were not pacers. It is very evident, however, that the two breeds were soon mixed, as the saddle was then the universal means of travel, whether for long or short distances. During the time of the Revolutionary war a large accumulation of data bearing on the size and action of the horses of that period goes to show that the average size had then increased to fourteen hands and one inch, and in gait fifteen both paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. It is not pretended that these data represent the horses of the early colonial period, but only of the period above indicated. Strains of larger breeds had been introduced, but the little New England pacer had made his mark on the habits of action.