CONTEMPORARY A R T I S T I C E V I D E N C E FROM AMERICA AND THE ISLANDS

Drawings and paintings of Colonial Era horses are not common—they were seldom rendered perhaps because the horses were everywhere and thus did not seem a remarkable or exciting subject for artistic effort. Where they did render them, artists generally tried to do it realistically—and this helps the student of history, because the pictures are obviously not those of Thoroughbreds, which are much taller and rangier than horses of Hobby extraction. Well-fed Hobbies

Author’s rendition of a detail from “View of Boston,” by an anonymous artist, dated about 1780. Note the size of the rider compared to that of the horse. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Pacers presented a round-bodied and rather muscular conformation. Typically, colonists neither docked their horse's tails nor roached or braided their thick manes. As they went at an easy ambling pace, ladies rode them sidesaddle; sometimes the artist specifically shows the mbling or acing ction of he legs. RSE D RIDER, a 1780 "THE END OF THE HUNT" (DETAIL) "T TW Detail from “The Residence of David Twining in 1787,” by Edward Hicks. (The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, Williamsburg, Virginia)

“The End of the Hunt,” dated about 1770, was painted by an anonymous artist. In this enlarged detail, the rider in the center has “come a cropper” over a rail fence, while the huntsman in the lead on the gray sounds his horn. Note the natural tails, arched necks, punchy body form and small size of the horses. There were no Thoroughbreds in Virginia at this time, so wealthy plantation owners hunted on the livestock that was available. (National Gallery of Art) PLANTATION HORSE

Author’s rendition of a detail from “Cutting Cane in the Bermudas,” 1823, by an anonymous artist. As he sits atop his small, speedy horse, the sugar plantation overseer gives instruction to the headman of a slave gang. This image provides an idea of the type of export (Hobby x Andaluce–o = Narragansett Pacer) produced by Rhode Island stock producers such as Thomas Hazard.