to a low-set tail. Fine action is the best criterion of everything fitting properly, and all a horse’s points ought to harmonize or be in proportion to one another, no one point being more prominent than another, such as good shoulders, fine loins or excellent quarters. If the observer is struck with the remarkable prominence of any one feature, it is probable that the remaining parts are deficient. A well-made horse wants dissecting in detail, and then if a good judge can discover no fault with any part, but finds each of good proportions, and the whole to harmonize without defect, deformity or deficiency, he has before him a well-shaped horse; and of two equally well-made and equitably proportioned horses the best bred one will be the best. As regards hue, the favourite colour of the ancients, according to Xenophon, was bay, and for a long time it was the fashionable colour in England; but for some time chestnut thoroughbreds have been the most conspicuous figure on English race-courses, so far as the more important events are concerned. Eclipse was a chestnut; Castrel, Selim and Rubens were chestnuts; so also were Glencoe and Pantaloon, of whom the latter had black spots on his hind quarters like Eclipse; and also Stockwell and Doncaster. Birdcatcher was a chestnut, so also were Stockwell and his brother Rataplan, Manganese, Mandragora, Thormanby, Kettledrum, St Albans, Blair Athol, Regalia, Formosa, Hermit, Marie Stuart, Doncaster, George Frederick, Apology, Craig Millar, Prince Charlie, Rayon d’Or and Bend Or. The dark browns or black browns, such as the Sweetmeat tribe, are not so common as the bays, and black or grey horses are almost as unusual as roans. The skin and hair of the throughbred are finer, and the veins which underlie the skin are larger and more prominent than in other horses. The mane and tail should be silky and devoid of curl, which is a sign of impurity.
Whether the race-horse of to-day is as good as the stock to which he traces back has often been disputed, chiefly no doubt because he is brought to more early maturity, commencing to win races at two years instead of at five years of age, as in the days of Childers and Eclipse; but the highest authorities, and none more emphatically than the late Admiral Rous, have insisted that he can not only stay quite as long as his ancestors, but also go a good deal faster. In size and shape the modern race-horse is unquestionably superior, being on an average fully a hand higher than the Eastern horses from which he is descended; and in elegance of shape and beauty of outline he has certainly never been surpassed. That experiments, founded on the study of his nature and properties, which have from time to time been made to improve the breed, and bring the different varieties to the perfection in which we now find them, have succeeded, is best confirmed by the high estimation in which the horses of Great Britain are held in all parts of the civilized world; and it is not too much to assert that, although the cold, humid and variable nature of their climate is by no means favourable to the production of these animals in their very best form, Englishmen have by great care, and by sedulous attention to breeding, high feeding and good grooming, with consequent development of muscle, brought them to the highest state of perfection of which their nature is capable. (E. D. B.)
Breeds of Horses
The British breeds of light horses include the Thoroughbred, the Yorkshire Coach-horse, the Cleveland Bay, the Hackney and the Pony; of heavy horses, the Shire, the Clydesdale and the Suffolk.
The Thoroughbred is probably the oldest of the breeds, and it is known as the “blood-horse” on account of the length of time through which its purity of descent can be traced. The frame is light, slender and graceful. The points of chief importance are a fine, clean, lean head, set on free from collar heaviness; a long and strongly muscular neck, shoulders oblique and covered with muscle; high, long withers, chest of good depth and narrow but not extremely so; body round in type; back rib well down; depth at withers a little under half the height; length equal to the height at withers and croup; loins level and muscular; croup long, rather level; tail set on high and carried gracefully; the hind quarters long, strongly developed, and full of muscle and driving power; the limbs clean-cut and sinewy, possessing abundance of good bone, especially desired in the cannons, which are short, broad and flat; comparatively little space between the fore legs; pastern joints smooth and true; pasterns strong, clean and springy, sloping when at rest at an angle of 45°; feet medium size, wide and high at the heels, concave below and set on straight. The action in trotting is generally low, but the bending of the knee and the flexing of the hock is smooth, free and true. The thoroughbred is apt to be nervous and excitable, and impatient of common work, but its speed, resolution and endurance, as tested on the race-course, are beyond praise.
Many of the best hunters in the United Kingdom are thoroughbreds, but of the substantial weight-carrying type. The Hunters Improvement Society, established in 1885, did not restrict entries to the Hunters’ Stud-Book to entirely clean-bred animals, but admitted those with breeding enough to pass strict inspection. This society acts in consort with two other powerful organizations (the Royal Commission on Horse-breeding, which began its work in 1888, and the Brood Mare Society, established in 1903), with the desirable object of improving the standard of light horse breeding. The initial efforts began by securing the services of thoroughbred stallions for specified districts, by offering a limited number of “Queen’s Premiums,” of £200 each, to selected animals of four years old and upwards. Since the formation of the Brood Mare Society mares have come within the sphere of influence of the three bodies, and well-conceived inducements are offered to breeders to retain their young mares at home. The efforts have met with gratifying success, and they were much needed, for while in 1904 the Dutch government took away 350 of the best young Irish mares, Great Britain was paying the foreigner over £2,000,000 a year for horses which the old system of management did not supply at home. The Royal Dublin Society also keeps a Register of Thoroughbred Stallions under the horse-breeding scheme of 1892, which, like the British efforts, is now bearing fruit.
The Yorkshire Coach-horse is extensively bred in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, and the thoroughbred has taken a share in its development. The colour is usually bay, with black or brown points. A fine head, sloping shoulders, strong loins, lengthy quarters, high-stepping action, flat bone and sound feet are characteristic. The height varies from 16 hands to 16 hands 2 in.
The Cleveland Bay is an ancestor of the Yorkshire Coach-horse and is bred in parts of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland. He is adapted alike for the plough, for heavy draught, and for slow saddle work. Some specimens make imposing-looking carriage horses, but they have low action and are lacking in quality. The colour is light or dark bay, with black legs. Though rather coarse-headed, the Cleveland Bay has a well-set shoulder and neck, a deep chest and round barrel. The height is from 16 to 17 hands.
The Hackney has come prominently to the front in recent years. The term Nag, applied to the active riding or trotting horse, is derived from the A.S. hnegan, to neigh. The Normans brought with them their own word haquenée, or hacquenée, a French derivative from the Latin equus, a horse, whence the name hackney. Both nag and hackney continue to be used as synonymous terms. Frequent mention is made of hackneys and trotters in old farm accounts of the 14th century. The first noteworthy trotting hackney stallion, of the modern type, was a horse foaled about 1755, and known as the Schales, Shields or Shales horse, and most of the recognized hackneys of to-day trace back to him. The breeding of hackneys is extensively pursued in the counties of Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln and York, and in the showyard competitions a keen but friendly rivalry is usually to be noticed between the hackney-breeding farmers of Norfolk and Yorkshire. The high hackney action is uncomfortable in a riding horse. Excellent results have sometimes followed the use of hackney sires upon half-bred mares, i.e. by thoroughbred stallions and trotting
