These last cost him a total of L317.17.6, the price of the highest being L25.7.6 and of the cheapest L22.10.These mares were unusually good animals, as an ordinary beast would have cost only five or six pounds.
In November, 1785, he had on his various Mount Vernon farms a total of one hundred thirty horses, including the Arabian already mentioned.
Among the twenty-one animals kept at the Mansion House were his old war horses "Nelson" and "Blewskin," who after bearing their master through the smoke and dangers of many battles lived in peace to a ripe old age on the green fields of Virginia.
In his last days he bought two of the easy-gaited animals known as Narragansetts, a breed, some readers will recall, described at some length by Cooper in _The Last of the Mohicans._ A peculiarity of these beasts was that they moved both legs on a side forward at the same time, that is, they were pacers.

Washington's two proved somewhat skittish, and one of them was responsible for the only fall from horseback that we have any record of his receiving.

In company with Major Lewis, Mr.
Peake, young George Washington Custis and a groom he was returning in the evening from Alexandria and dismounted for a few moments near a fire on the roadside.

When he attempted to mount again the horse sprang forward suddenly and threw him.

The others jumped from their horses to assist him, but the old man got up quickly, brushed his clothes and explained that he had been thrown only because he had not yet got seated.