[Illustration:
MESSRS. FORSHAW’S PRESENT KING II. 19948.
Champion Stallion at the London Shire Horse Show.
_Photo by F. Babbage._]
]
It was not so much in regard to the numbers as the quality that made the
show of these farmers’ friends so great, and it may be that the
development of this element is so noticeable in the Shire as to make it
a very satisfactory occupation to breed him; it has specially fascinated
many great personages and sportsmen, from His Majesty the King
downwards, the exhibitors now including the Duke of Westminster, the
Duke of Marlborough, Marquis Campden, Earls Ellesmere, Egerton of
Tatton, Bathurst, M.F.H., Spencer, M.F.H., Beauchamp, Lords Middleton,
M.F.H., Southampton, M.F.H., Rothschild, M.S.H., Iveagh, Winterstoke,
Hothfield, Sir Berkeley Sheffield, Bart., Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., Sir
William Cooke, Bart., M.F.H., Sir Edward Stern, Sir Albert Muntz, Bart.,
the great welter of the Midlands, the Hon. R. P. Nevill, M.F.H., and
others of rank and wealth. The extension of the movement in regard to
improvement is indeed very marked. That the patrons of foxhunting should
ally themselves so closely with the Shire interest is possibly owing to
the desire to see the noble pastime identified with agriculture. It is
doing good to promote such a breed, both for the cause of the landlord
and the tenant.
From the yearling colts to the oldest of the stallions it was all
quality, and although the examples are bigger to-day than they have ever
been, they have more agility in their movements, are cleaner cut about
their heads and jowls, and more majestic in carriage. For the enormous
class of sixty yearling colts it was an honour indeed to take the first,
which fell to Mr. Frank Farnsworth from a great hunting district for the
promising young son of Lockinge Forest King hailed from Tooley Park,
Hinckley, within easy access of the Quorn and Atherstone. Leicestershire
appears to be the land for Shires, as besides Mr. Farnsworth’s stud,
which must be of great fame to include such colts as Ratcliffe
Conquering King and Ratcliffe Forest King (the latter very nearly the
winner of the two-year-olds, as he was second in a class of seventy),
there were several others from the hunting county. In Warwickshire also
they seem to thrive, as few more beautiful exhibits were seen at the
show than those of Sir Albert Muntz from Dunsmore, his three-year-old
mare winner, Dunsmore Fuchsia, being quite a model of her sort; all Sir
Albert’s ten exhibits were in the money or amongst the commendations.
Lord Egerton of Tatton sent up some very notable entries from the old
Cheshire cheese country; the defeat of the grand six-year-old stallion,
Tatton Friar, was much regretted by many onlookers: but it followed a
very notable victory in the two-year-old class of 70, in which Tatton
Dray King was the winner: it is something for one stud to take the
two-year-old colt and the two-year-old filly class, for the latter fell
to Lord Egerton with Tatton May Queen, a great beauty.
[Illustration:
MR. RAMSAY’S DIPLOMATIST, 7043.
Champion at London Hackney Show.
_Photo by F. Babbage._]
]
His Majesty, who goes in for everything useful on his Sandringham
estate, was an exhibitor of five, and a popular success was that of
Ravenspur, the thickest of horses on the shortest of legs; and here
again it was Leicestershire soil that claims credit for this success, as
the winner was bred by Sir Humphrey de Trafford at Hill Crest, Market
Harborough, making good the saying that where bullocks can fatten and
hounds can run, is the ground for the Shire. Lincolnshire, though, is
always a likely quarter, and the champion of the show hailed from this
county in the shape of Present King II., a very remarkable horse;
although eight years old this grass, he has been unknown to the general
public until now, and it says something for Mr. James Forshaw’s judgment
to have found him. He was bred by Mr. Joseph Phillipson, of Hainton,
Lincoln, and as he is a coal-black horse, with very little white about
him, and his dam is by Black Prince, he is living evidence of the old
Black horse reported to have been almost lost in its purity. Anyway, he
is a very bold, fine horse of quite the biggest size.
Lord Rothschild was not in the same lucky vein as he was last year, in
that the defeat of his champion, Girton Charmer, by an unknown quantity
like Present King II., was irritating; that the hitherto unbeaten
Childwick Champion should be beaten for the Special Cup by the
two-year-old winner, Tatton Dray King, was hardly expected. The great
Tring Park stud, though, won in other classes amongst the mares. It was,
in all, a very great show, though not without its disappointments, as
horses previously undefeated went down before new-comers. Among the
mares, as among the others, Mr. James Forshaw had found another in the
grey, Sussex Blue Gown, to win in her class, and she beat Lord
Rothschild’s Princess Beryl for the Champion Cup, the famous
Nottinghamshire stallion owner thus taking both cups for the horses and
the mares. The sales were good but not sensational, the only exception
being when Lord Beauchamp gave 510 guineas for the champion mare alluded
to.
[Illustration:
MR. W. SCOTT’S MENELLA 16799.
First and Champion in Harness at the London Hackney Show.
_Photo by F. Babbage._]
]