JOHNA.SEAVERNS 
 
Webster Fairiii^ , ..^ediciftt 
 
 GmmmQjt Schoci o* \': '.arinary Medicine at 
 
 Tufts University 
 
 aOOWestboroRoad 
 
 ^loitti Gfaflon, MA 01536 
 
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 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 THE HARNESS HORSE 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR WALTER GILBEY, Bart. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 VINTON & Co., Ltd. 
 
 9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.G. 
 
 1898 
 
1 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 Reasons for Breeding Saddle-horses in the Past ... 5 
 The Roadsters of the Coaching Period... ... ... 6 
 
 Breeding Stock Sold to Foreigners 9 
 
 The Continental Policy ... ... ... ... ... 12 
 
 Continental Demand for Hackney Sires ... ... 13 
 
 The Anglo-Norman Breed ... ... ... ... 15 
 
 Want of Carriage Horses in England ... ... ... 16 
 
 London Dealers purchase Abroad ... ... ... 18 
 
 Imports of Horses ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 
 
 Value of Horses Exported and Imported ... ... 22 
 
 Horses can be Bred for all purposes ... ... ... 25 
 
 Action at the Trot v. Action at the Gallop ... ... 27 
 
 Organisations for the Promotion of Horse Breeding... 28 
 To encourage the Breeding of Harness Horses ... ... 30 
 
 What is the Proper Shape and Action of a Carriage 
 
 Horse? ... 
 How have we Failed to Produce the Carriage Horse 
 The Success of Foreigners in breeding ... 
 How to Breed Carriage Horses ... 
 The Market for Carriage Horses 
 The Pedigree of the Modern Hackney... 
 Characteristics of the Hackney ... 
 
 31 
 
 32 
 34 
 35 
 37 
 39 
 42 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Darley Arabian ... ... ... Frontispiece. 
 
 Lord Chesterfield's Norfolk Hackney "Hazard" Face p. 8 
 
 R.H.A. Gun-Team Horse... ... ., 13 
 
 Barouche Horses, i6'2 to 17 hands ... ... ,, 16 
 
 Landau Horses, 15 "3 to 16 hands ... ... „ 21 
 
 Victoria Horses, \y\ to 16 hands ... ... ,, 27 
 
 Coach or Post Horses, 15 "3 hands ,, 32 
 
/ take it for granted that the readers of 
 these few pages ar-e at one with the zvriter 
 in regarding preservation of the character 
 of our English horses as a matter of high 
 national importance. I need therefore make 
 no apology for calling attention to the desira- 
 bility of breeding horses for harness, and 
 releasing Britain from her present state of 
 dependence for these upon the foreign breeder. 
 
 ElsenJiain Hall., Essex., 
 July, 1898. 
 
THE HARNESS HORSE. 
 
 REASONS FOR BREEDING SADDLE-HORSES IN 
 THE PAST. 
 
 It cannot be denied that we as a nation 
 devote our attention almost exclusively to 
 the breeding of saddle-horses, namely for 
 racing, steeple-chasing and hunting ; and in 
 doing so we betray our inherent taste for 
 sport. Time was when the saddle-horse 
 held a position in our national economy 
 which compelled exclusive attention to the 
 breeding of such stock. In the days 
 of Queen Elizabeth, when England was 
 traversed by none but bridle-paths, when 
 roads for wheeled traffic, in the absence 
 of coaches, were unknown, travelling was 
 accomplished and merchandise transported 
 on horse-back ; and of necessity the saddle- 
 horse and pack-horse stood alone in their 
 importance. With the introduction of roads, 
 however, and their rapid spread all over the 
 kingdom, the economic necessity for the 
 
saddle and pack-horse disappeared ; and 
 the places of these animals were taken, in 
 very large degree at all events, by the 
 coach-horse and post-horse. 
 
 When railways became established and 
 it was recosfnised that the coachincr era was 
 at its close, there prevailed a strong feeling 
 that harness horses would no lonoer be 
 required ; and this belief, combined with the 
 depression in agriculture at the period be- 
 tween 1835 and 1845, led the farmers to 
 abandon horse-breeding and sell their mares 
 to 00 abroad. 
 
 THE ROADSTERS OF THE COACHING PERIOD. 
 
 In the coaching and posting days the 
 roadster was an absolute necessity, and 
 universal and continuous demand naturally 
 produced on the spot a supply of horses 
 in which soundness of constitution and limb, 
 speed and endurance were indispensable. 
 The past history of the Norfolk and York- 
 shire breeds is full of passages reflecting 
 their merits. Mr. H. R. Phillips in his 
 evidence before the Lords' Committee on 
 Horses in 1873, says: "The Hackney is a 
 class of itself We date them back from 
 Mr. Theobald's 'Old Champion,' which cost 
 
i,ooo guineas." In the earlier days of Mr. 
 H. H. Dixon ("The Druid,"), when the 
 Norfolk hackneys were growing scarce, that 
 authority wrote {'"Posi and Paddock,'' 1856): 
 " About a quarter of a century since Norfolk 
 had an almost European fame for its strong- 
 made short-legged hackneys, which could 
 walk five miles an hour and trot at the rate 
 of twenty. Fireaway, Marshland, Shales, 
 and The Norfolk Cob were locomotive 
 giants in those days, and the latter was 
 the sire of Bond's Norfolk Phenomenon, 
 1 5' 2, who was sold to go into Yorkshire 
 in the year 1836, and afterwards went to 
 Scotland when he had seen his twentieth 
 summer, and astonished his canny admirers 
 by trotting two miles in six minutes. Those 
 now left are descended from these breeds, 
 but as they arrive at maturity they are sold 
 to go to France." The writer goes on to 
 remark that " Four or five very good 
 hackney sires are still in the county, and 
 among them Baxter's red roan, Performer, 
 15-3, foaled 1850, for which 500 guineas 
 is said to have been refused. The chestnut, 
 Jackson's Prickwillow, i5'2, and a son of 
 his, Prickwillow, out of a very noted 
 mare belonging to Mr. Charles Cooke, of 
 Litcham, which is said never to have been 
 
' out-stepped,' is also highly spoken of. 
 Mr. Wright, of Tring, has a bay, ' Shales,' 
 1 6 hands, foaled 185 1, with rare action; 
 and a black 14*2 cob, foaled in 1852, of 
 Mr. Baldwin's, has earned a much more 
 worthy mention than we can give him, 
 by winning the first hackney stallion prize 
 at the last Norfolk Agricultural Show. 
 Lord Hastings has two hackney stallions 
 of the Fireaway breed, which are occasion- 
 ally seen in harness." A grand example of 
 the Norfolk Hackney at this period was 
 Hazard, a cabriolet horse belonging to Lord 
 Chesterfield. The symmetrical shape and 
 bold action of this horse is well shown in 
 the portrait here reproduced. Hazard could 
 trot at the rate of sixteen miles an hour, 
 and when put up for sale at Tattersall's in 
 1836 was purchased for t,;^o guineas by the 
 Marquis of Abercorn. 
 
 Earlier records show that in the seven- 
 teenth century Norfolk had a reputation for 
 its roadsters Marshall, in his Riwal Econoiuy 
 of Norfolk, published in i 795, says that before 
 Queen Anne's reign the farmers of the 
 country used an active breed of horses which 
 could not only trot, but gallop ; and the 
 curious team-races this writer describes, 
 prove that that Norfolk breed of the seven- 
 

teenth and eighteenth centuries was sure- 
 footed as well as active. The team consisted 
 of five horses which were harnessed to an 
 empty waggon ; thus Marshall speaks as an 
 eye witness: — "A team following another 
 upon a common broke into a gallop, and, 
 unmindful of the ruts, hollow cavities and 
 rugged ways, contended strenuously for the 
 lead, while the foremost team strove as 
 eagerly to keep it. Both were going at full 
 gallop, as fast indeed as horses in harness 
 could go for a considerable distance, the 
 drivers standing upright in their respective 
 waggons." There can be no doubt but that 
 the Norfolk Hackney traces his descent on 
 the dam's side to this breed ; of his pedigree 
 on the male side we shall speak later. 
 
 BREEDING STOCK SOLD TO FOREIGNERS. 
 
 The "almost European fame" of these 
 horses was achieved at serious cost to our- 
 selves : in the middle of this century the 
 best of the Norfolk Hackneys were sold to 
 go to France, where their intrinsic merits 
 were appreciated ; and the export trade in 
 roadster breeding stock has been continued 
 ever since. 
 
 It is a common cry that for years many of 
 
lO 
 
 our best mares have been bought up by the 
 foreigner ; it is true that the Continental 
 buyer has purchased mares in preference to 
 geldings ; and in exercising this preference 
 the Continental buyer has shown his longer 
 sightedness. For immediate use, for the 
 direct purpose as a saddle or harness animal, 
 the mare is quite as useful as the gelding 
 and, while costing no more, has the further 
 value to which the foreign purchaser with 
 his thrifty instincts is fully alive ; the mare is 
 used to breed from when her career of active 
 service is at an end, whereas the value of 
 the gelding when past work is neither more 
 nor less than that the knacker is pleased to 
 set upon his carcase. Further, there has 
 long been a strong prejudice in England 
 against mares for harness, the result being 
 that mares could be purchased at a lower 
 price than geldings ; a fact, in conjunction 
 with the advantage already indicated, which 
 has not been without its influence on the 
 Continental buyer. 
 
 Within the last thirty years or more the 
 effect of the Continental demand for roadster 
 breeding stock has been more keenly felt 
 than ever, owino- to the fact that forei^-n 
 buyers have materially raised the standard 
 of their requirements. Mr. J. East, of the 
 
1 1 
 
 well-known firm of Phillips & East, in givino^ 
 evidence before the Select Committee of the 
 House of Lords on Horses in 1873, said of 
 the French agents : " They buy the very best 
 and they get mares ; you cannot get them to 
 buy a bad mare." They did not confine their 
 purchases to any particular breed of mares : 
 roomy hunting mares and mares of that 
 class were eagerly purchased to cross with 
 Hackney sires. As with the mares so with 
 the stallions. All the experts examined be- 
 fore that Committee agreed that the foreign 
 buyers out-bid the English for animals of 
 good class, sparing neither pains nor money 
 to secure them. The late Mr. H. R. Phillips 
 informed the Committee that his firm sent 
 "from thirty to forty every year of those road- 
 ster stallions to France and Italy and different 
 countries." They sent as many as they could 
 procure. When asked how the number of 
 roadster stallions reported at that date com- 
 pared with the number reported ten or fifteen 
 years previously (say about the year 1858), 
 Mr. Phillips stated that "The number has 
 not increased because they (the foreigners) 
 have always taken as many as they could 
 get." It was as well the good stallions 
 should have followed the pick of the mares, 
 as, in Mr. Phillips' words (answer to Oues- 
 
12 
 
 tion 309), "you see we have only got the 
 mares to breed from which the foreigners 
 did not think good enough to take away," 
 We can hardly congratulate ourselves upon 
 such means of escape from the otherwise 
 inevitable deterioration of the stock which 
 remained. 
 
 THE CONTINENTAL rOLICV. 
 
 The discriminating intelligence the for- 
 eigner displays in making his purchases from 
 us is the keynote of his whole policy as a 
 breeder ; his success in developing a superior 
 class of roadster is due to the judgment and 
 selective skill he has brought to bear upon 
 the vital matter of mating and line breeding. 
 By constant attention to the principles of 
 mating, he has produced animals true to 
 type ; has, in fact, established a breed whose 
 conformation, grand carriage, and elastic step 
 are constant, to use a breeding term, and 
 which is admittedly superior to the horse 
 bred for the same purpose in Great Britain 
 and Ireland. 
 
 Nor have we far to look for the stimulat- 
 ing influence which has caused the Conti- 
 nental breeder to devote his attention to the 
 production of horses for road work. We, in 
 
^ 
 
 ^<<^ 
 
our insular security, have never felt so keenly 
 as European nations the necessity for supply- 
 ing the equine needs of vast armies ; and 
 while we have been able to devote our- 
 selves to breeding horses for racing, steeple- 
 chasinof, and hunting the Governments of 
 France, Germany, Hungary, Austria and 
 Italy have, on principle, encouraged the evo- 
 lution of an animal for road work ; a class 
 of horse on which they can depend for 
 cavalry, artillery, transport — in fact, for all 
 military purposes. 
 
 CONTINENTAL DEMAND FOR HACKNEY SIRES. 
 
 In 1883, two years before the death of 
 Mr. H. R. Phillips, the writer had an inter- 
 view at Wilton Crescent, Belgrave Square, 
 with that gentleman, who purchased Phe- 
 nomenon to go to Yorkshire. Mr. Phillips 
 then gave the following account of that 
 famous horse and his influence on the York- 
 shire breed : — 
 
 "The horses in Yorkshire were not good enough 
 for the London trade, and about the year 1838 I pur- 
 chased from Mr. John Bond, of Cawston, Norfolk, the 
 celebrated sire Phenomenon for Mr. Robert Ramsdale, 
 of Market Weighton, Yorkshire. I reckoned him at 
 that time the best stallion in England. In height 
 15 hands 2 inches, on well formed short legs, good 
 feet, deep girth, quarter symmetrical, full of courage, 
 
•4 
 
 with wonderfully all-round true action ; and Phenome- 
 non proved a valuable sire, as the Yorkshire mares, 
 although sizable, lacked girth, symmetrical form and 
 action. The stallions in use at that time, in the 
 district of Market Weighton, were very inferior and 
 leggy." 
 
 The success of Phenomenon in Yorkshire 
 induced Mr. Philhps to recommend his Conti- 
 nental customers to purchase sires of this 
 breed for use in their studs. His recommen- 
 dations were adopted, and with what meas- 
 ure of success we may gather from the 
 statement of Mr. Hetherington, who is a 
 large buyer of horses for Continental Govern- 
 ments. He stated in his evidence before the 
 Irish Commissioners of Horse Breeding that 
 he had purchased Hackney stallions for 
 the French Haras Department for the last 
 three-and-twenty years ; buying during that 
 period from twenty to upwards of thirty 
 stallions each year. These Hackney sires 
 are used to procure Artillery horses, because 
 " they do not want to canter, and they im- 
 prove the courage of the native mares." 
 Mr. Hetherington adds, "they are very 
 popular with the breeders ; they are used 
 in preference to the thoroughbred, and im- 
 prove their horses more than anything." It 
 would be difficult to furnish more convincing 
 evidence of the merits of the Hackney than 
 this. 
 
15 
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN BREED. 
 
 The success of the French in estabhshing 
 a breed of road-horses from a foundation of 
 Hackney blood, is nowhere more noteworthy 
 than in Normandy. So marked is the pre- 
 eminent merits of the animals bred in the 
 Province, that they are known on the Con- 
 tinent as the " Ang"lo-Norman " breed ; and, 
 what is much more to the point, their 
 superiority is so unanimously recognised that 
 Government agents of Austria, Hungary, 
 and most other Continental nations, regu- 
 larly visit Normandy to purchase their 
 stallions in preference to buying them in 
 England. Geographical convenience and 
 diminished risk of transport may have some- 
 thing to do with this preference ; but we 
 may be quite sure that if the Anglo-Norman 
 stallions were appreciably inferior to the 
 sires obtainable in this country, neither con- 
 venience, reduced risk, nor lesser expense 
 would induce these sagacious buyers to 
 accept the Anglo-Norman sire instead of the 
 English-bred horse. Surely these facts com- 
 pel the reflection that we still possess the 
 best materials to work upon ; we have the 
 "foundation stock," and its possession should 
 stimulate our endeavours to maintain the 
 
i6 
 
 historical reputation of Great Britain as the 
 breeding ground of the best horses in the 
 world. 
 
 WANT OF CARRIAGE HORSES IN ENGLAND, 
 
 Having indulged to the full our preference 
 for breeding horses suitable for purposes of 
 sport and pleasure, and having sold the bulk 
 of our roadster breeding stock to the foreign 
 buyers who were only too glad to get it at 
 any price, we have hitherto rendered our- 
 selves almost completely dependent upon 
 Continental breeders for our supplies of high 
 class harness horses. 
 
 English dealers who make a speciality of 
 horses for harness and (general road use tro 
 abroad in search of the animals they require, 
 knowing perfectly well that upstanding 
 carriage horses, possessed of shape and 
 action, are to be found in the breeding 
 centres of the Continent. Visit the stables 
 of any of the large London dealers who trade 
 in the best description of harness horses, and 
 if the owner see fit to disclose facts in con- 
 nection with his business, this statement will 
 be verified up to the hilt. 
 
 It will no doubt surprise many people 
 when they are told that those beautiful 
 
17 
 
 match pairs of carriage horses, standing from 
 15*2 to i6"2, and the good-looking teams 
 in private coaches which are among the 
 greatest attractions of our West-end streets 
 and fashionable resorts in the London 
 season, are not the English horses they are 
 fondly believed to be ; they are, with few 
 exceptions, importations from the breeding- 
 centres of France, Germany, Hungary, 
 Austria, Italv and Holland. 
 
 It is a matter of common knowledge that 
 the cream-coloured or pale dun horses used 
 in Her Majesty's carriage on State occasions 
 are Hanoverians or of Hanoverian descent ; 
 but it is not known, and perhaps would not 
 willingly be acknowledged, that the grand- 
 looking bays and dark browns w^th which 
 the Royal and Viceregal stables are stocked 
 are not the English or Irish bred horses 
 we would preferably associate with British 
 royalty, but are, a large proportion at all 
 events, importations from abroad. The 
 same applies with equal truth to the animals 
 with which the state carriages of our city 
 maofnates are horsed. 
 
 Enterprising and self-denying as our 
 French neighbours have been in their exer- 
 tions to obtain the best of our breeding stock 
 to supply their military requirements, there 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 is necessarily a limit to the price the Re- 
 public can pay her home breeders for young 
 animals ; and the French authorities view 
 with impatience and dislike the trade which 
 has been forced upon British dealers in high- 
 class harness horses by the paucity of suit- 
 able animals in England. In course of his 
 most interesting and instructive evidence 
 before the Lords' Committee on Horses in 
 1873, Colonel Conolly, Military Attache to 
 the Embassy in Paris, said that the remount 
 officers in France "complain very much of 
 all their best Norman horses going to Eng- 
 land for carriage horses. They say directly 
 there is a good promising young horse or 
 mare, it is sure to go off to England," The 
 special superiority of the Anglo-Norman 
 breed has already been noticed. 
 
 LONDON DEALERS PURCHASE ABROAD. 
 
 Though the countries specified above are 
 those whence we obtain the bulk of our 
 superior harness horses, our purchases are 
 by no means restricted to these markets. 
 Enterprising London dealers now have in 
 America, Canada, and other countries their 
 agents ever on the outlook for good-looking 
 animals suitable for carriage use and for 
 road work in London and other large cities. 
 
19 
 
 It is important to note the evidence given 
 by the two largest jobmasters in London 
 before the Royal Commission on Irish Horse 
 Breeding, in 1897. ^I^- Henry Withers, re- 
 ferring" to a period ten or twelve years back, 
 said " We went abroad a oreat deal and for 
 four or five years we had one buyer in 
 Lexington and another in New York." He 
 proceeded to say "We do not want to go to 
 America or to go abroad if we could only 
 buy in England or Ireland, but American 
 horses at that time were very dear, I 
 remember buying ten horses that just came 
 off the boat at Liverpool, and gave ^ijo 
 apiece for them. The week before last I 
 went from London to Hanover, where I 
 bought six horses ; from there I went to 
 Brussels ; from Brussels I went to Ghent, 
 where I bought four ; from there I went to 
 Lille. I went to Paris where I saw a large 
 quantity of horses. I bought two." 
 
 Mr. Wimbush in course of his evidence, 
 stated that he began to go to Normandy for 
 horses about ten years previously. " The 
 horses there are not very large, i5"3or 15*2, 
 and occasionally up to 1 6 hands ; but they are 
 horses of beautiful appearance, very hand- 
 some, and splendid goers, they not only step 
 well, but go most excellently on their hind 
 lees." 
 
20 
 
 IMPORTS OF HORSES. 
 
 The dimensions which have been attained 
 by this trade in foreign horses is proved by 
 the Annual Returns ; let us see what these 
 figures can tell us. We imported : — 
 
 In the ten years, 1863- 187 2... 29,131 horses 
 „ 1873-1882... 197,092 „ 
 „ 1883-1892... 145.763 .. 
 The falling-off in the importations of the 
 ten years ended in 1892 from the total ol 
 the preceding decade is sufficiently great to 
 invite criticism ; but it is to be feared we 
 may not lay the flattering unction to our 
 souls that the decrease proves our growing- 
 independence of the foreign supply. The 
 reduced importations of those ten years were 
 due, it cannot be doubted, to the depressed 
 condition of agriculture and the reduced in- 
 comes of those dependent upon land during 
 that period— a depression which would of 
 necessity make itself felt primarily upon 
 indulo-ence in such luxuries as hioh-class 
 carriage horses. That this explanation is 
 correct seems proved, to some extent at 
 least, by the returns for the next four years, 
 1893-96, which period, as we all know, has 
 witnessed some considerable revival. In the 
 
21 
 
 five years 1893-97, we imported 160,861 
 horses ; and if we maintain the average until 
 the year 1902, to complete the decade, the 
 total for the current period of ten years will 
 be 321,722 horses. 
 
 As proof of returning- prosperity, these 
 figures, no doubt, are eminently satisfactory ; 
 but that is not the light in which they are 
 likely to appear to the man who has at 
 heart the interests of British horse-breeding-. 
 During the last six years, to go no farther 
 back, we have paid away ^4,553,846, on the 
 average a sum of over ^758,900 per annum, 
 for horses. It is not pretended, of course, 
 that all this money has been laid out on 
 high -class carriage horses. The totals in- 
 clude animals of every grade : from those 
 that are extremely desirable down to those 
 which are not. It is of no great moment to 
 the British breeders whether they or their 
 Continental neighbours supply the British 
 coster with his pony. There must always be 
 a demand for cheap animals, and it does not 
 matter much who supplies them ; but these 
 totals embrace a large and increasing pro- 
 portion of a class of horse which, from every 
 point of view, it is exceedingly desirable we 
 should breed at home, namely, horses of the 
 best class for road work. 
 
22 
 
 VALUE OF HORSES EXPORTED AND IMPORTED. 
 
 The Official Returns show the extent of 
 our trade in horses ; these are the figures 
 for the last six years available : — 
 
 Exports of Horses. 
 
 Imi'orts ok Horses. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Horses. 
 
 Total Value. 
 
 Average 
 
 Value per 
 
 He.'id. 
 
 Number of 
 Horses. 
 
 Total Value. 
 
 .\verage 
 
 \'alue per 
 
 Head.' 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ S. 
 
 
 / 
 
 £ S. 
 
 1892 
 
 11,233 
 
 563,364 
 
 50 3 
 
 20,994 
 
 425,401 
 
 20 5 
 
 i«93 
 
 11,902 
 
 507,762 
 
 42 9 
 
 13,707 
 
 376,819 
 
 27 9 
 
 1894 
 
 16,457 
 
 449,804 
 
 27 6 
 
 22,866 
 
 548,058 
 
 23 19 
 
 1895 
 
 21,564 
 
 549,882 
 
 25 10 
 
 34,092 
 
 921,490 
 
 27 
 
 189b 
 
 29,480 
 
 671,562 
 
 22 15 
 
 40,667 
 
 1,027,736 
 
 25 5 
 
 1897 
 
 34,536 
 
 825,926 
 
 23 12 
 
 49,519 
 
 1,254,342 
 
 25 6 
 
 
 125,232 
 
 3,568,300 
 
 181,845 
 
 4,553,846 
 
 
 1 Note. — These figures include the selling price, £6 to £S, of many thou- 
 sands of ponies from Russia, Sweden, and Norway. 
 
 It will be observed in regard to the 
 exports, first, that the number of horses we 
 send abroad has been increasing with each 
 recurring- year ; and, secondly, that until 
 1897, when a comparatively insignificant rise 
 occurs, the value has been decreasing, show- 
 ing that the class of animal we export is 
 not what it was six years ago. 
 
 As regards the imports, it must be 
 observed parenthetically that 1893 '^"'^^ ^" 
 exceptional year ; with the exception of that 
 twelve-month the annual returns since 1886, 
 when we received 1 1,027 horses from abroad, 
 show a rapid and almost uniformly steady 
 
increase, until in 1897 ^^ purchased more 
 than twice the number of horses we purchased 
 in 1892 ; and what is quite as significant, 
 particularly in connection with the figures 
 relating to exports, paid a higher average 
 price for them. 
 
 The difference between the average price 
 received for our exports and that paid for 
 imported horses would convey a more 
 accurate impression of the state of affairs 
 could we eliminate from the former the large 
 sums paid by foreign Governments for our 
 best thoroughbred sires. The occasional 
 sale of such an animal as Ormonde for such 
 a figure as ^30,000, and Galtee More for 
 ^21,000, must be taken into account when 
 considering the average price received for 
 exports. In short, we are buying expensive 
 horses from the foreigner and obtaining only 
 low prices for those produced by our want of 
 system in breeding. 
 
 Now, we know what prices carriage horses 
 command in the London market — from 
 ^200 to ^300 for first-class single horses, 
 and any sum from ^500 to ^1,000 for 
 match pairs — and the difference between the 
 minimum sum that will buy a harness horse 
 of high stamp and the maximum average 
 quoted — ^27 9s. in 1893 — i^ so wide as to 
 
24 
 
 compel the reminder that a moiety of our 
 imported horses are of the cheapest sort, 
 including many ponies, worth, at most from 
 £6 to ^8, and also droves of animals worth 
 little more. It is necessary to emphasise 
 this factor in the statistical position because 
 its effect is to bring down the averages to 
 a level which contravenes our argument. 
 
 It would be highly interesting and in- 
 structive if the statisticians of the Board of 
 Trade would differentiate broadly between 
 the classes of the animal imported so far as 
 to show, say, the number of horses whose 
 value was declared respectively at over ^lo 
 per head, ^25, ^50, ^^75, and ^100. We 
 import few valuable heavy draught horses 
 nowadays, no hunters, and only an occasional 
 race-horse from Australia and America, so 
 few as not to appreciably affect the averages. 
 These negative factors in the case require 
 no proof, they are matters of common know- 
 ledge ; and by the method of differentiation 
 suoiiested we should see at a olance exactlv 
 how many valuable harness horses we w^ere 
 receiving each year. 
 
 There would of course still remain a 
 difference between the "declared value" of 
 importations and the actual sale price ; but 
 upon that disparity we need not lay stress ; 
 
25 
 
 its existence is a commercial fact, and the 
 figures with which the private individual is 
 concerned are those which represent the 
 final value, that is, the sum he has to pay for 
 a brougham horse or a match pair which 
 will satisfy an English gentleman's exacting- 
 taste. In the absence of such graduated 
 statistics, however, it may be asserted with- 
 out fear of contradiction that foreitrn carriaoe 
 horses for years have been streaming into 
 this country to realise the highest prices 
 obtainable. 
 
 HORSES CAN BE 15RED FOR ALL PURPOSES. 
 
 It is well known among breeders, not only 
 of the horse but of any animal, that con- 
 tinued endeavour to develop and perpetuate 
 one particular quality, while it results in 
 greater perfection of that sought charac- 
 teristic, is always accompanied by manifest 
 deterioration in other attributes. Take the 
 thoroughbred race-horse, for example : the 
 result of directing attention exclusively to 
 speed has been the sacrifice to some extent 
 of such qualities as action and stamina. For 
 generations now we have bred for speed and 
 speed only, with the perfectly natural con- 
 sequence that the qualities which are not 
 
26 
 
 primarily essential to a successful turf career 
 have to a very great extent disappeared. 
 
 It goes without saying that horses can 
 be bred as required to fulfil the wishes and 
 requirements of man. In this country the 
 blood of the thorouohbred has been souofht 
 and used as though swift movement at the 
 gallop on the turf and that alone were the 
 only essential ; in America the trotter has 
 been carefully cultivated to ensure the 
 highest speed on the trotting track, other 
 qualifications being ignored as completely as 
 in England for the development of the one 
 remunerative quality. Nothing else is to 
 be expected : the great value of the stakes 
 offered for racing and trotting naturally 
 compels studious endeavour to breed only 
 such horses as shall be likely to win money. 
 
 The thoroughbred sire is the only animal 
 from which to breed race-horses ; his in- 
 herent galloping action and speed are so 
 implanted in him by in-breeding during 
 nearly two hundred years that the typical 
 race-horse in England is as rarely suitable 
 to beget stock for general purposes as is his 
 collateral descendant the American trotting 
 sire. Let it not be supposed for one 
 moment that it is sought to disparage the 
 Enolish race-horse or the American trotter 
 
/^^"^'^^^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 ■ ^ 
 
 si 
 
27 
 
 for the purpose for which each respectively 
 has been produced with such infinite care ; 
 but it is necessary to lay stress on the 
 cardinal point in view, namely, that success- 
 ful endeavour to develop one and only one 
 quality involves the depreciation of other 
 qualities as a natural consequence. 
 
 ACTION AT THE TROT V. ACTION AT 
 THE GALLOl'. 
 
 The action of the horse at the trot differs 
 widely from the action at the gallop ; and 
 when it becomes necessary to perform a long 
 journey, which requires the horse to travel 
 on several successive days, the trot is the 
 pace on which dependence must be placed ; 
 to attempt the accomplishment of such a 
 journey at the gallop would obviously bring 
 the horse to an early standstill. We have 
 bred to secure these paces in their highest 
 perfection, and having established distinct 
 breeds each as nearly perfect for its purpose 
 as is humanly possible, we must measure 
 each by its appropriate standard of merit. 
 
 William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, 
 put this point in simple language in a work 
 published by Thomas Melbourne so long 
 ago as 1667. His Grace was a great 
 
28 
 
 authority on equine matters in his day, and 
 we cannot do better than quote him on the 
 subject. " On the perfect shape of a horse," 
 he says, "in a word I will show you the 
 ridiculousness of setting- down the perfect 
 shape of a dog- ! A mastiff is not a grey- 
 hound ; nor a greyhound a Lancashire 
 hound ; nor a Lancashire hound a Little 
 Beagle ; and yet all very fine dogs in their 
 kind." Precisely : the English race-horse, 
 hunter, and cart-horse are "all very fine 
 horses in their kind," because with each we 
 have for generations taken the utmost pains 
 to develop it and breed it true to type ; but 
 we have left it to the foreigner to supply us 
 with harness-horses, and he has shown us 
 that it is equally possible to produce the high- 
 class carriage horses we have neglected for 
 our own requirements. 
 
 ORGANISATIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF 
 HORSE BREEDING. 
 
 Distinct organisations have for some years 
 niade distinct breeds of horses their special 
 care, and it may truly be said that of these 
 England possesses the best in the world. 
 We may divide these organisations or 
 societies into two classes ; those which make 
 it their aim to direct and improve the breed- 
 
29 
 
 m<i£oi Li o'ht Horses, and those which care for 
 the interests of breeders of Heavy Horses for 
 draught and agriculture. The following list 
 shows that breeders are well represented : — 
 
 LIGHT HORSES. 
 
 General Stud Book (for thoroughbreds). — 
 Secretary, Mr. Edw. Weatherby, Old 
 Burlington Street, London : and New- 
 market. 
 
 Royal Comuiission on Horse Breeding. — 
 Secretary, Mr. J. Herbert Taylor. 22, 
 Great George Street, Westminster, S.W. 
 
 Hunters Improvement Society. — Secretary, 
 Mr. A. B. Charlton, 12. Hanover 
 Square, London. \V. 
 
 Hackney Horse Society. — Secretary, Mr. 
 H. F. Euren, 12, Hanover Square, 
 London, \\ . 
 
 Cleveland Bay Horse Society. - - Secretary, 
 Mr. F. W. Horsfall, Potto Grange, 
 Northallerton, Yorkshire. 
 
 Yorkshire Coach Horse Society. — Secretary, 
 Mr. J. White, Appleton Roebuck, 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Trotting Union of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. — Secretary, Mr. E. Cathcart. 
 7, Trinity Square, Brixton, London. 
 
30 
 
 Polo Pony Society. — Secretary, Mr. Frederick 
 
 R. Hill, Felhampton Court, Church 
 
 Stretton. 
 New Forest Pony Society. — Secretary, Mr. 
 
 H. St. Barbe, Lymington, Hants. 
 Shetland Pony Society. — Secretary, Mr. 
 
 Robert R. Ross, 35, Market Street, 
 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSES. 
 
 Shire Horse Society. — Secretary, Mr. J. 
 
 Sloughgrove, 12, Hanover Square, W. 
 Suffolk Horse Society. — Secretary, Mr. Fred 
 
 Smith, Woodbridge, Suffolk. 
 Clydesdale Horse Society. — Secretary, Mr. 
 
 Archibald MacNeilage, 93, Hope 
 
 Street, Glasgow. 
 London Cart Horse Parade Society. — Mr. 
 
 F. F. Euren, 12, Hanover Square, 
 
 London, W. 
 
 TO ENCOURAGE THE BREEDING OF HARNESS 
 HORSES. 
 
 Mention of these several oroanisations 
 naturally leads one to enquire what can be 
 done to enable Enoflishmen to breed sizable, 
 good-looking harness horses of the stamp 
 required to meet the ever-increasing demand. 
 
To answer this we must adopt the remark 
 of the Duke of Newcastle, before quoted, 
 and ask (i) What is the proper shape and 
 action of a carriage horse? (2) How have 
 we failed to produce him ? and (3) How is 
 he to be bred ? We must consider these 
 points separately. 
 
 WHAT IS THE PROrER SHAPE AND ACTION OF 
 A CARRIAGE HORSE? 
 
 To describe a perfect animal in writing 
 is impossible ; and the same may be said of 
 pictorial illustrations ; the attributes which 
 go to secure the essential qualifications of the 
 horse for active road work are beyond the 
 power of pen or brush to record, and can 
 only be appreciated in the moving animal 
 ^y men conversant with those qualifications. 
 
 To say that the breeder's aim should be to 
 produce the most valuable animal is to state 
 a general proposition whose soundness no 
 one will deny; and despite the unsatisfactori- 
 ness of verbal description it may be desirable 
 to sketch the outline of the perfect carriage 
 horse. He should be upstanding ; the neck 
 springing well from the shoulders, which 
 should be deep and well set back into the 
 loins ; back not too short or cob-like ; ribs 
 
well arched ; hind-quarters broad and 
 muscular ; and tail set hioh. In harness he 
 must bend, or in other words, wear himself 
 gaily, and be full of fire and animation ; he 
 must move with true, direct, and pliable 
 shoulder and knee-action in front, and with 
 freedom behind. 
 
 HOW HAVE WE FAILED TO PRODUCE THE 
 CARRIAGE HORSE ? 
 
 The reasons have alreadv been oiven ; 
 when it was thought that railways would 
 take the place of coach-horses and post- 
 horses, we ceased to breed them and sold 
 the vast majority of our breeding stock to 
 foreign buyers. Although there has been 
 a general and continuous demand for harness 
 horses, we have failed to produce them, but 
 our failure has been due to disinclination 
 rather than inability ; in other breeds we 
 have achieved such success that Continental 
 buyers will pay almost any sum to possess 
 themselves of our best. 
 
 In producing cattle, sheep and pigs, 
 English breeders stand pre-eminent, and the 
 nations of the world depend upon us for their 
 foundation stock, and for the fresh blood 
 needed to improve and raise the standard 
 
of their herds and flocks. Ever since the 
 time of Robert Bakewell, who made so 
 conspicuous a mark on the annals of stock- 
 breeding in the last century, Englishmen 
 have displayed marked judgment in their 
 endeavours to establish distinct varieties of 
 cattle, sheep, and pigs ; and their successes 
 remain to bear witness to the soundness of 
 their methods. Among cattle we have now 
 the Shorthorn, Hereford, Polled Angus, 
 Devon, Sussex, Jersey, Guernsey, and 
 others, each variety perfectly distinct in 
 appearance ; among sheep we find equally 
 distinct breeds developed to the same 
 standard of perfection ; and again the same 
 evidence of judicious selection in the case of 
 the pig. 
 
 The carriage horse of high class stands 
 alone among domestic animals as the one we 
 cannot, or at all events do not, produce at 
 home in numbers sufficient for our require- 
 ments. The haphazard method of breeding 
 which is far too common in England is likely 
 to produce horses fit for use in any sphere 
 but in harness. Mr, E. Greene, M.P., made 
 the following pregnant statement in course 
 of the evidence he gave before the Lords' 
 Horse Breeding Commission in 1873 : " I 
 think that harness horses are really the most 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 scarce animals ; that is to say, a carriage 
 horse, a phaeton horse or a horse to driv^e in 
 a dog-cart. The quahfications for a hunter 
 are not of the same description. With a 
 hunter men put up with a good deal. A 
 horse that will jump is called a hunter, and 
 people manage to find horses in that way ; 
 but for a harness horse you want a certain 
 amount of power and shape to till the eye 
 and they are very difficult to get." The 
 Enoflish breeder's choice ol a sire almost 
 inevitably falls on a thoroughbred horse if 
 one be available, and the thoroughbred has 
 not the trotting action necessary in a harness 
 horse ; he has been bred to gallop, not to 
 trot, and his progeny will resemble him. 
 Mr. Greene said in reply to a question put 
 by Lord Rosebery that unless the thorough- 
 bred get a hunter, "the horse he gets is not 
 a horse of oreat value from lack of action 
 nothing is so valuable as a horse 
 that steps well and that a thoroughbred does 
 not often get." 
 
 THE SUCCESS OF FOREIGNERS IN BREEDING. 
 
 Those students of this important question 
 who wish to realise for themselves what can 
 be done by judicious mating, should start 
 
35 
 
 with an open mind and make a tour throuo-h 
 some of the breeding areas of Europe. The 
 unbiassed traveller who set about his self- 
 imposed task in a receptive spirit would soon 
 be convinced that the French achieve the 
 most marked success in breeding beautiful 
 and valuable harness horses. The road 
 horses produced by other nations are not 
 far behind them, but there is no doubt that 
 in France we find the best. For many years 
 past the Government of the Republic have 
 controlled, in a great measure, the breeding 
 operations of the country. Responding to 
 the spur of necessity the French authorities 
 set themselves the task of ascertaining how 
 the animal most serviceable for France as 
 a nation could be produced ; and, having 
 settled this point, adopted and steadily pur- 
 sued the policy which has resulted in giving 
 the French the horse most suitable for 
 military purposes ; in other words, the ideal 
 road horse. This stamp of animal in France 
 and in other countries has been developed, 
 as has been already shown, by the introduc- 
 tion of the Hackney stallion. 
 
 HOW TO BREED CARRIAGE HORSES. 
 
 A good Hackney stallion is the best horse 
 in the world. It is not extreme speed merely 
 
36 
 
 which makes either a good harness horse or 
 the horse required for mihtary purposes ; it 
 is strength, activity, quickness of perception, 
 and docility ; anci all these qualities are as 
 prominent in the Hackney as swiftness is 
 in the thoroughbred horse. He has been 
 tried on his merits in European countries, 
 and has been retained on his merits ; and 
 on their merits alone, without enquiry into 
 descent or pedigree, we pay high prices for 
 his progeny sent over to us as carriage 
 horses. 
 
 Fortunately for ourselves we still possess 
 in our several breeds of horses material that 
 cannot be equalled by those of any country 
 in the world ; we still possess the very best 
 of the old Hackney breeding stock, and 
 though it is as yet more remarkable for 
 quality than quantity its numerical strength 
 increases yearly, thanks largely to the exer- 
 tions of the Hackney Horse Society during 
 the fifteen years of its existence. 
 
 It is not, surely, too much to ask breeders 
 to admit that the horses got in England by 
 Hackneys from judiciously chosen mares are 
 likely to be at least as good as horses got 
 by Hackneys in France or Hungary.'^ The 
 breeding grounds of those countries are not 
 superior to ours, nor do they possess any 
 
Z1 
 
 great climatic advantages over those of 
 England. Granting, therefore, that our 
 opportunities are at least equal to those of 
 our Continental neighbours, we can, without 
 fear of challenge, assert that on the Hackney 
 sire we must rely to breed the stock of which 
 we stand in greatest need, namely, high-class 
 upstanding carriage horses. It goes without 
 saying that he must be used with discrimi- 
 nation and judgment ; but if mated with 
 sizable mares of his own breed, with 
 thoroughbred mares, with hunter mares 
 possessed of size and substance, or with big 
 mares called in the trade vanners and having 
 thoroughbred blood in their veins, his stock 
 can be depended on to supply the class of 
 animal we want. 
 
 THE MARKET FOR CARRIAGE HORSES. 
 
 Even when regarded as a business, we 
 can hardly be surprised that the breeding of 
 thoroughbreds and hunters should almost 
 monopolise attention ; the demand for high- 
 class carriage horses is a town rather than 
 a country demand, and appeals less to the 
 resident in horse-breeding districts ; but 
 should not English breeders who rear horses 
 for profit as well as for pleasure consider 
 
38 
 
 whether it be not desirable in their own 
 interests to devote more attention to the 
 harness horse ? Harness horses are in much 
 greater demand than riding horses ; it may 
 fairly be estimated that for one riding horse 
 in use, there are fifty harness horses. Pass- 
 ing reference has been made to the sums 
 obtainable for brougham horses and for match 
 pairs. That the moderate animals worth 
 comparatively small sums in the market form 
 the majority of stock noiv obtained is a 
 point which should not be urged as de- 
 terrent ; and for the reason that this is 
 so largely the result of lack of care in 
 mating. The success of the French con- 
 fronts us as proof of this. The reorganisa- 
 tion of the Remounts Department of the 
 Army too, has placed the breeder in a 
 better position as regards disposal of his 
 only moderate animals. There is always a 
 market here for three-year-olds which do 
 not give promise of furnishing into horses 
 likely to command high prices ; the reduc- 
 tion of the age from four to three makes no 
 inconsiderable difference in the matter of 
 profit. Given due care in mating, however, 
 there is no reason why a highly remunera- 
 tive proportion of young stock suitable for 
 the London carriage horse market should 
 
39 
 
 not be obtained. Can it be denied that the 
 demand for harness horses of the best stamp 
 is one that is pregnant with opportunity for 
 the breeder who will use the Hackney sire ? 
 He has no superior as a getter of road 
 horses, and his claim to be considered 
 as p2ire-bred as the race-horse cannot be 
 doubted. 
 
 THE PEDIGREE OF THE MODERN HACKNEY. 
 
 Incessant repetition of part of a truth is 
 certain in course of time to elevate the 
 fraction to the dignity of the whole ; frequent 
 reiteration of the one fact that our thorough- 
 breds are descended from a few horses of 
 Eastern origin is therefore likely to obscure 
 the larger fact that our thoroughbreds are 
 not the only descendants of that Eastern 
 stock. Modern thorouo-hbreds trace their 
 descent to the Byerly Turk imported in 
 1689, to the Darley Arabian imported in 
 1706, and the Godolphin Arabian imported 
 twenty-four years later. The term "thorough- 
 bred " was adopted to denote the progeny of 
 these three sires with the Royal Mares, 
 called " King's Mares," imported into Eng- 
 land from the East in the reign of King- 
 Charles ; and it cannot be too often and too 
 closely pressed home upon breeders that in 
 
40 
 
 all Hackney pedigrees the foundation sire is 
 found to be no other than that same Darley 
 Arabian whose blood in the race-horse is the 
 cachet of breeding fashion! There is diversity 
 of opinion as to which one of these three 
 Eastern sires wrought the greatest influence 
 on our breed of horses and did most towards 
 the estabHshment of the reputation England 
 has obtained for her thoroughbreds ; but 
 there is no question as to the one of the three 
 which was most beautiful in make and shape ; 
 and that was the Darley Arabian, imported 
 about 1 706 from Aleppo by Mr. Darley. 
 
 With scarcely an exception, the Hackney 
 sires of to-day descend in the direct line from 
 this famous race-horse. The Darley Arabian 
 begat Flying Childers (foaled 1715), the 
 speediest race-horse of his time, and con- 
 sidered by many a better horse than Eclipse ; 
 Flying Childers begat Blaze ; and it was 
 through Blaze that the county of Norfolk 
 achieved fame for its breed of Hackneys. 
 Blaze was the sire of the original Shales, 
 foaled in 1755 out of a Norfolk mare. How 
 directly the Hackneys of to-day are de- 
 scended from the Darley Arabian, however, 
 will be most clearly shown by giving the 
 pedigree in the male line of the defunct 
 Hackney sire Danegelt : — - 
 
41 
 
 The Darley Arabian, foaled 1702, begat 
 
 Flying- Childers, foaled 1715, who begat 
 
 Blaze, foaled 1733, who begat 
 
 Shales (the original, 699), foaled 1755, 
 who begat 
 
 Driver (187), foaled 1765, who begat 
 
 Fireaway (Jenkinson's, 201), foaled 1780, 
 who beo-at 
 
 Fireaway (West's, 203), foaled 1800, who 
 begat 
 
 Fireaway (Burgess', 208), foaled 181 5, 
 who begat 
 
 Wildfire (R. Ramsdale's, 864), foaled 1827, 
 who begat 
 
 Phenomenon (P. Ramsdale's, 573), foaled 
 1835, who begat 
 
 Performer (Taylor's, 550), foaled 1840, 
 who begat 
 
 Sir Charles (Beal's, 768), foaled 1843, who 
 begat 
 
 Denmark (Bourdas's, 177), foaled 1862, 
 who begat 
 
 Danegelt (174), foaled 1879, died 1894. 
 
 More than this — if remoteness of ancestry 
 be held proof of purity of blood in equine as 
 in human families, the Hackney must take 
 precedence of the thoroughbred. If only as 
 a matter of curiosity it is worth noting that 
 4 
 
42 
 
 the Hackney can trace his EngHsh orig-in to 
 an earlier date than the thoroughbred ; he 
 has in his veins the blood of the old English 
 race-horse, tracing on the dam's side his 
 descent from animals which ran on the 
 English Turf before the days of Charles I., 
 at a period when the great grandsires of the 
 Darley and Godolphin Arabians were yet 
 unfoaled. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HACKNEY. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind, too, that the 
 Hackney has more to recommend him than 
 the true action and elegant carriage required 
 of the high-class harness horse : good 
 temper and graceful manners are peculiarly 
 characteristic of the breed, and he possesses 
 the soundest of constitutions, a quality above 
 all things desirable in an animal which is 
 most liable to exposure under all conditions 
 of weather and is left so greatly to the care 
 of servants. The Hackney Horse Society's 
 records furnish some telling evidence con- 
 cerning the soundness of the breed in the 
 shape of statistics giving the number of 
 horses rejected by the examining veterinary 
 surgeons at the shows held during the last 
 few years. Prior to 1896 the practice was to 
 subject to veterinary examination only those 
 
candidates in a class which the judges 
 selected as likely to take the prizes. These 
 are the figures for the half dozen years ended 
 1895 ••- 
 
 Exhibition of. 
 
 Horses Examined. 
 
 Rejected as 
 Unsound. 
 
 Percentage of 
 Rejections. 
 
 1890 
 
 170 
 
 9 
 
 5-21 
 
 189I 
 
 116 
 
 4 
 
 3-44 
 
 1892 
 
 187 
 
 7 
 
 374 
 
 1893 
 
 249 
 
 8 
 
 3-21 
 
 1894 
 
 217 
 
 13 
 
 5-99 
 
 1895 
 
 223 
 
 4 
 
 179 
 
 In 1896 the system was altered and all 
 horses that entered the ring were required to 
 undergo veterinary examination before the 
 judges looked at them. These are the 
 figures for the past three exhibitions : — 
 
 1896 396 17 4'20 
 
 1897 438 23 5-47 
 
 1898 436 21 4'8o 
 
 These percentages speak for themselves 
 to those whose knowledge of equine matters 
 enables them to appreciate their significance. 
 
 The soundness of the modern Hackney 
 is merely one more proof of the results of 
 selective care exercised for generations ; for 
 nearly two hundred years the aim of the 
 breeder of this horse has been the develop- 
 ment of a robust and hardy constitution. 
 
 In the Hackney, therefore, we have shape, 
 action, courage, manners, staying power, and 
 soundness. What would you more ? 
 
Webster i-arf(i.j j^dici 
 
 CiJiiMinniings School • ■/' ■ -^ .- ; ..; iiia. , >V'.tt<.iM34ifKi < 
 Tufts I'-^ivcrraty 
 
 200 VW. •:?^