Riding-habits were hardly known until
a century ago, and even after their introduction were never worn
a-pillion-riding, so the Puritan women rode in their best attire.
Sometimes, in unusually muddy or dusty weather, a very daintily dressed
"nugiperous" dame would don a linen "weather skirt" to protect her fine
silken petticoats.
The wealthier Puritans were mounted on fine pacing horses, "once so highly
prized, now so odious deemed;" for trotting horses were not in much demand
or repute in America until after the Revolutionary War. There were, until
that date, professional horse-trainers, whose duties were to teach horses
to pace; though by far the best saddle-horses were the natural-gaited
"Narragansett Pacers," the first distinctively American race of horses.
These remarkably easy-paced animals were in such demand in the West Indies
for the use of the wives and daughters of the wealthy sugar-planters, and
in Philadelphia and New York for rich Dutch and Quaker colonists, that
comparatively few of them were allowed to remain in New England, and they
were, indeed too high-priced for poor New England colonists. The natural
and singular pace of these Narragansett horses, which did not incline the
rider from side to side, nor jolt him up and down, and their remarkable
sureness of foot and their great endurance, rendered them of much value
in those days of travel in the saddle.
Pages:
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318