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 deg.; 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 L200 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 L2,000,000 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 _haquenee_, or _hacquenee_, 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 mares, but it is not always so.
As regards the movement, or "action," of the hackney, he should go light
in hand, and the knee should be well elevated and advanced during the
trot, and, before the foot is put down, the leg should be well extended.
The hackney should also possess good hock action, as distinguished from
mere fetlock action, the propelling power depending upon the efficiency
of the former. The hackney type of the day is "a powerfully built,
short-legged, big horse, with an intelligent head, neat neck, strong,
level back, powerful loins, and as perfect shoulders as can be obtained,
good feet, flat-boned legs, and a height of from 15 hands 2 in. to 15
hands 3(1/2) in." Carriage-horses hackney-bred have been produced over
17 hands high.
The _Pony_ differs essentially from the hackney in height, the former
not exceeding 14 hands. There is one exception, which is made clear in
the following extract from Sir Walter Gilbey's _Ponies Past and Present_
(1900):--
Before the establishment of the Hackney Horse Society in 1883 the
dividing line between the horse and the pony in England was vague and
undefined. It was then found necessary to distinguish clearly between
horses and ponies, and, accordingly, all animals measuring 14 hands or
under were designated "ponies," and registered in a separate part of
the (Hackney) Stud-Book. This record of height, with other particulars
as to breeding, &c., serves to direct breeders in their choice of
sires and dams. The standard of height established by the Hackney
Horse Society was accepted and officially recognized by the Royal
Agricultural Society in 1889, when the prize-list for the Windsor show
contained pony classes for animals not exceeding 14 hands. The altered
polo-rule, which fixes the limit of height at 14 hands 2 in., may be
productive of some little confusion; but for all other purposes 14
hands is the recognized _maximum_ height of a pony. Prior to 1883
small horses were called indifferently Galloways, hobbies, cobs or
ponies, irrespective of their height.
Native ponies include those variously known as Welsh, New Forest,
Exmoor, Dartmoor, Cumberland and Westmorland, Fell, Highland, Highland
Garron, Celtic, Shetland and Connemara. Ponies range in height from 14
hands down to 8 hands, Shetland ponies eligible for the Stud-Book not
exceeding the latter. As in the case of the hackney, so with the pony,
thoroughbred blood has been used, and with good results, except in the
case of those animals which have to remain to breed in their native
haunts on the hills and moorlands. There the only possible way of
improvement is by selecting the best native specimens, especially the
sires, to breed from. The thin-skinned progeny of thoroughbred or Arab
stock is too delicate to live unless when hand-fed--and hand-feeding is
not according to custom. Excellent polo ponies are bred as first or
second crosses by thoroughbred stallions on the mares of nearly all the
varieties of ponies named. The defective formation of the pony, the
perpendicular shoulder and the drooping hind quarters, are modified; but
neither the latter, nor bent hocks, which place the hind legs under the
body as in the zebra, are objected to, as the conformation is favourable
to rapid turning. One object of the pony breeder, while maintaining
hardiness of constitution, is to control size--to compress the most
valuable qualities into small compass. He endeavours to breed an animal
possessing a small head, good shoulders, true action and perfect
manners. A combination of the best points of the hunter with the style
and finish of the hackney produces a class of weight-carrying pony which
is always saleable.
The _Shire_ horse owes its happily-chosen name to Arthur Young's
remarks, in the description of his agricultural tours during the closing
years of the 18th century, concerning the large Old English Black Horse,
"the produce principally of the _Shire_ counties in the heart of
England." Long previous to this, however, the word Shire, in connexion
with horses, was used in the statutes of Henry VIII. Under the various
names of the War Horse, the Great Horse, the Old English Black Horse and
the Shire Horse, the breed has for centuries been cultivated in the rich
fen-lands of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, and in many counties to
the west. The Shire is the largest of draught horses, the stallion
commonly attaining a height of 17 to 17.3 hands. Though the black colour
is still frequently met with, bay and brown are more usually seen. With
their immense size and weight--1800 lb. to 2200 lb.--the Shires combine
great strength, and they are withal docile and intelligent. They stand
on short stout legs, with a plentiful covering--sometimes too
abundant--of long hair extending chiefly down the back but also round
the front of the limbs from knees and hocks, and when in full feather
obscuring nearly the whole of the hoofs. The head is a good size, and
broad between the eyes; the neck fairly long, with the crest well arched
on to the shoulders, which are deep and strong, and moderately oblique.
The chest is wide, full and deep, the back short and straight, the ribs
are round and deep, the hind quarters long, level and well let down into
the muscular thighs. The cannon-bones should be flat, heavy and clean,
and the feet wide, tough, and prominent at the heels. A good type of
Shire horse combines symmetrical outlines and bold, free action. There
is a good and remunerative demand for Shire geldings for use as draught
horses in towns.
The _Clydesdale_, the Scottish breed named from the valley of the Clyde,
is not quite so large as the Shire, the average height of stallions
being about 16 hands 2 in. The popular colour is bay, particularly if of
a dark shade, or dappled. Black is not uncommon, but grey is not
encouraged. White markings on one or more of the legs, with a white star
or stripe on the face, are characteristic. The long hair on the legs is
not so abundant as in the Shires, and it is finer in texture. It is
regarded as an indication of good bone. The bones of the legs should be
short, flat, clean and hard; the feet large, with hoofs deep and concave
below. With its symmetry, activity, strength and endurance the
Clydesdale is easily broken to harness, and makes an excellent draught
horse. This breed is growing rapidly in favour in Canada, but in the
United States the _Percheron_, with its round bone and short pasterns,
holds the field. A blend of the Shire and Clydesdale strains of the
British rough-legged draught horse (virtually sections of the same
breed) is a better animal than either of the parents. It is an
improvement upon the Shire due to the quality contributed by the
Clydesdale, and it surpasses the Clydesdale in strength and substance,
as a result of the Shire connexion. To secure success the two Stud-Books
will require to be opened to animals eligible to be entered in either
record. The blend is being established in U.S.A. as a National breed.
The _Suffolk_ is a horse quite distinct from the Shire and the
Clydesdale. Its body looks too heavy for its limbs, which are free from
the "feather" so much admired in the two other heavy breeds; it
possesses a characteristic chestnut colour. How long the Suffolks have
been associated with the county after which they are named is unknown,
but they are mentioned in 1586 in Camden's _Britannia_. With an average
height of about 16 hands they often have a weight of as much as 2000
lb., and this may explain the appearance which has given rise to the
name of the Suffolk Punch, by which the breed is known. The Suffolk is a
resolute and unwearying worker, and is richly endowed with many of the
best qualities of a horse. The _Suffolk Stud-Book and History of the
Breed_, published in 1880, is the most exhaustive record of its kind in
England. (W. Fr.; R. W.)