They were also phenomenally
broad-backed,--shaped by nature for saddle and pillion.
When trotting-horses became fashionable, the trainers placed logs of wood
at regular intervals across the road, and by exercising the animals
over this obstructed path forced them to raise their feet at the proper
intervals, and thus learn to trot.
Long distances did many of the pre-revolutionary farmers of New England
have to ride to reach their churches, and long indeed must have been the
time occupied in these Sunday trips, for a horse was too well-burdened with
saddle and pillion and two riders to travel fast. The worshippers must
often have started at daybreak. When we see now an ancient pillion--a relic
of olden times--brought out in jest or curiosity, and strapped behind a
saddle on a horse's back, and when we see the poor steed mounted by two
riders, it seems impossible for the over-burdened animal to endure a long
journey, and certainly impossible for him to make a rapid one.
Horse-flesh, and human endurance also, was economized in early days by what
was called the "ride and tie" system. A man and his wife would mount saddle
and pillion, ride a couple of miles, dismount, tie the steed, and walk
on. A second couple, who had walked the first two miles, soon mounted the
rested horse, rode on past the riders for two or three miles, dismounted,
and tied the animal again.
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