Odom's Mountain Horse Ranch

The Narragansett Pacer, Continued.

The Narragansett Pacer was a king of his day, and one of the most popular sports of its time was racing along beaches.
Betting was brisk, competition keen and enthusiasm high. "A purse of $ 100 was offered to run such a race on a course
'at Easton's Beach," read one account. Littleneck Beach, now a bathing beach, had a racecourse one mile in length, with
silver tankards and money the purse of the day. Some of these prized tankards may still be found in local Rhode Island
antique shops. Records show that as late as the mid-1700s, Narragansett Pacers races were held in the Carolinas,
Virginia and Philadelphia.

Owning a Narragansett Pacer was a great status symbol, and consequently the demand grew greater than the supply.
Agents from the West Indies and Cuba came to New England and bought any and all available stock, and a few of these
prized animals were introduced into England as fine ladies saddle horses under the name of the Spanish Jennet. But the
majority of the horses were still sent to the West Indies.

This demand became one of the chief causes of extinction. Agents bought so many horses and shipped them during any
kind of weather, so only horses with superior stamina could survive the oppressive sea crossing. Also, land in Cuba and
the West Indies earned such large sums of money producing sugar that hay and grain became secondary crops. Horses
were driven off pastureland, which was replanted with sugar cane. Between exposure to foul weather and the lack of
food, the pacers all but vanished.

During the Revolutionary War, trotters became more valuable for teaming work and roads became more passable by
carriages. With their smooth gait no longer such a necessity, saddle horses began to lose value. Although horse trade
did resume after the Revolution, the British Sugar Islands were no longer open to Yankee traders, so exports were
restricted to Cuba and the southern ports of the United States. This would account for traces of the famous amble gait
preserved in many of our modem, smooth-gaited homes. As a breed, and once the world's most popular horse, the
Narragansett Pacer became long gone, but not forgotten.

© Ride! Magazine, October 1996. Reprinted with permission from Ride! Magazine.