From a large number of facts collected for the years 1777 and 1778 the horses then averaged about fourteen hands and one inch, and when compared with earlier data it is evident they had increased in height. In the gaits of those advertised, fifteen both paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. As this was in the period of the Revolution, and right in the center of hostilities, some allowance should be made for horses from other colonies. The people of this colony, like those of all the others, branded their horses and turned them out to seek their own living in the summer season, and this resulted in many losses, and oftentimes in much bad feeling. The Dutch were not accustomed, in the “old country,” to building fences around their crops high enough and strong enough to keep out all the droves and herds of animals running at large. In the line of improvement and increase of size in their horses, they provided that all stallions running at large, of two years and nine months old, must be fourteen hands high or be castrated. This law was in force in 1734, and no doubt was effective. Among the many laws for the suppression of vice of different kinds, I find one prohibiting horse racing on Sunday, and from this we might infer that it was not forbidden on other days of the week. In old newspapers, advertisements, etc., we sometimes come across “Esopus Horses, Esopus Mares,” and, for years, I was not able to tell what this term meant. The locality of Kingston was originally called Esopus, and in that neighborhood there were several farmers who bred horses largely, at an early day in the history of the colony, and the locality became famous for the character and quality of the horses produced there. They were of the best and purest Dutch blood, and for what we would call “all-purpose horses” their fame was very wide in that day. Hence I infer that the term “Esopus” was used to indicate what was considered the best type of Dutch horses. There is danger of going astray in the meaning of the term “Dutch horses,” as in later times it was applied to the great, massive draft horses of Pennsylvania. They were better “for agricultural purposes,” as Van der Donck puts it, than the Connecticut horses, because they were larger and stronger, but they were sprightly and active and some of them could run very well. They had a fine reputation in the adjoining colonies.