Grant should take the form of a subsidy in the shape of Premiums
for Thoroughbred Stallions covering at a moderate fee similar to
those offered by the Hunters' Improvement Society at their Annual
Spring Show, and this year by the Royal Agricultural Society at
Newcastle?"
In answer to Question 1, 194 replies were received in time for
tabulation; of these 79 were in favour of the grant being distributed
by a specially constituted Board of Trustees; 60 were in favour of
its distribution by the Royal Agricultural, Hibernian and Caledonian
Societies; 33 preferred that the duty should be vested in local and
county societies, and 22 offered no opinion.
Of answers to Question 2, 113 were in the affirmative, 44 replied "No,"
and partial concurrence was expressed by 19; a few gentlemen advised
subsidising roomy halfbred mares. The body of opinion so collected
and tabulated was placed in Lord Ribblesdale's hands about the end of
April; but not until August did opportunity occur for him to ask in the
House of Lords whether the Government proposed to take any action in
the matter. He referred briefly to the fact that the breeders of the
Kingdom had been circularised on the subject, but omitted to support
his enquiry by any analysis of the very important and valuable mass of
expert opinion thus placed at his disposal.
It is quite probable that during the months which elapsed between
receipt of the information we had collected for him and the date of
his August speech, Lord Ribblesdale had made use of them to influence
the Government in the desired direction; for the speech appeared to be
framed solely for the purpose of affording Lord Salisbury opportunity
to declare the intentions of his Government.
In brief, the Premier announced that it was proposed to devote the
money theretofore given as Queen's Plates to breeding; that this sum,
£3,000 a year, would be made up to £5,000 by a small addition to the
Estimates; and that it was proposed to assign the duty of administering
the fund to an independent Trust. The Royal Commission on Horse
Breeding was appointed, consisting of the Duke of Portland, the Earl
of Coventry, Lord Ribblesdale, Mr. Chaplin, M.P., Mr. F. G. Ravenhill,
Mr. John Gilmour, Sir Jacob Wilson and Mr. Bowen Jones; and, acting
in concert with the Royal Agricultural Society, the Commissioners, in
December, 1887, issued their first Report.
This document stated that only in recent years had any further
necessity arisen to encourage breeding apart from private enterprise;
the scarcity of horses was due, in their opinion, to the creation of
large breeding studs by foreign Governments, who came to us for their
stock and caused a drain upon our resources.
The Commission reported "there was little doubt that the Queen's Plates
had failed to fulfil their purpose;" but perhaps it had been nearer the
mark to say that the Royal Plates had _ceased_ to fulfil their original
purpose, owing to the multiplication of valuable stakes which reduced
the Royal hundred-guinea prizes to third-class rank and rendered them
useless as factors in the encouragement of breeding. The Commission
recommended the abolition of the Royal Plates and the application
of the money thereto devoted to a scheme of Queen's Premiums, under
which sound and approved thoroughbred sires should stand in specified
districts and under control of a local committee, serve mares at a low
fee. The scheme was at once adopted, and has worked well in practice.
The year 1896 saw the appointment of the Royal Commission to Inquire
into the Horse Breeding Industry in Ireland. Though the enquiry
resolved itself into a comparatively narrow issue, a very large amount
of evidence, much of it exceedingly interesting and instructive, was
recorded. In pursuance of their policy of encouraging the breeding
of all live stock in Ireland, it was proposed to send over selected
stallions, thoroughbred and roadster, for the use of owners of mares in
the horse-breeding districts. There was much diversity of opinion on
the propriety of establishing hackney sires in a country so famed for
its hunters, and the principal object of the Commission was to take the
opinions of experts on the proposed step.
While the majority of witnesses were averse from the introduction of
the hackney sire, on the ground that the happy-go-lucky methods of the
small Irish farmer would lead to intermingling of blood to the ultimate
deterioration of the Irish hunter, it was generally acknowledged that
the bone and substance of the hackney was eminently desirable in many
districts to improve the character of the local stock.
Could a workable system of mare registration have been devised to
prevent hunter mares being sent to hackney sires in those counties
where hunter-breeding is a valuable industry, there can be no doubt
that the introduction of such sires would lay the foundation in Ireland
of the breed of high class harness-horses in which Britain is so
singularly deficient, and which could be produced in Ireland with as
much, if not greater, success, as they are produced on the Continent.
Her Majesty's reign has seen the rapid growth of demands from every
civilised country in the world for British horses of every breed,
eloquent proof of the esteem in which our horses are held abroad and of
the success which has attended our endeavours to improve them.
We have, it must be confessed, "gone back" in our department of
horse-breeding; the supersession of coaches and their teams of fast
and enduring horses by railway traffic has brought about neglect of
this most useful stamp of animal. The tens of thousands of coach horses
formerly required created a large and valuable industry, and it is only
in the natural order of things that when railways made an end of the
coaching era that horse-breeders should have turned their energies into
new channels.
It is only within recent years that breeders have recognised how much
combined and systematic endeavour can do to assist them in their task
of improving our several breeds; and it is worth observing that the
most important societies for the promotion of horse-breeding (apart
from the General Stud Book) were all founded in the short space of
nine years, one after the other, till at the present day every breed
is represented by a body whose sole aim is to care for its interests.
LIGHT HORSES.
_The Hunters' Improvement Society_, founded 1885. Secretary, Mr. A. B.
Charlton, 12, Hanover Square, London, W.
_The Hackney Horse Society_, founded 1884. Secretary, Mr. Euren, 12,
Hanover Square, W.
_The Cleveland Bay Horse Society_, founded 1884. Secretary, Mr. F. W.
Horsfall, Potto Grange, Northallerton, Yorks.
_The Yorkshire Coach Horse Society_, founded 1886. Secretary, Mr. J.
White, Appleton Roebuck, Yorkshire.
_The Trotting Union of Great Britain and Ireland_, founded 1889.
Secretary, Mr. E. Cathcart, 7, Trinity Square, Brixton, London.
_The Polo Pony Society_, founded 1894. Secretary, Mr. A. B. Charlton.
_The New Forest Pony Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. H. St.
Barbe, Lymington, Hants.
_The Shetland Pony Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. Robert R.
Ross, 35, Market Street, Aberdeen.
HEAVY HORSES.
_The Shire Horse Society_, founded 1878 (as the English Cart Horse
Society; name changed in 1884). Secretary, Mr. J. Sloughgrove, 12,
Hanover Square, W.
_The Suffolk Horse Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. Fred Smith,
Woodbridge, Suffolk.
_The Clydesdale Horse Society_, founded 1883. Secretary, Mr. Archibald
MacMilage, 93, Hope Street, Glasgow.
_London Cart Horse Parade Society_, founded 1885. Secretary, Mr. Euren,
12, Hanover Square, London, W.
The dates when these Societies were established are given, as the
information eloquently bears out that passage in the Report of the
Royal Commission on Horse-breeding which refers to private enterprise.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Ponies Past and Present._ By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart, published by
Vinton & Co., Limited.
[2] "The History and Art of Horsemanship." By Richard Berenger,
Gentleman of the Horse to George III., published 1771.
[3] "London," by Stephanides. Leland's _Itinerary_, vol. viii.
[4] "The History of Newmarket." By T. P. Hore. (3 vols.) H. Baily & Co.
London, 1886.
[5] See _The Great Horse or War Horse_ (p. 26). Third edition. By Sir
Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co., Ltd. 1899.
[6] See _Ponies Past and Present_, pp. 5-6.
[7] _The Great Horse or War Horse_. Third edition. By Sir Walter
Gilbey, Bart., Vinton & Co., Ltd., 1899.
[8] "History of Newmarket."
[9] There is some doubt concerning the price paid by the King for
the Markham Arabian. The Duke of Newcastle, in _The New Method of
Dressing Horses_ (1667) says: "Mr. Markham sold him to King James for
five hundred pounds," and this statement has been repeated by Sidney
and other writers. In the _Times_ of September 1, 1878, however, a
correspondent signing himself "H" drew attention to the following entry
in the "Records of the Exchequer:" "Item, December 20, 1616, paid to
Master Markham for an Arabian Horse for His Majesty's own use £154.
Item, the same paid to a man that brought the same Arabian Horse and
kept him £11."
[10] _Coach and Sedan._
[11] _Pills to Purge Melancholy._
[12] "Remarks on the Early Use of Carriages in England," _Archæologia_,
1821.
[13] _Ibid._
[14] "Carriages: Their First Use in England," by Sir Walter Gilbey;
_Live Stock Journal Almanac_, 1897.
[15] _History of the Art of Coach Building_. By Geo. A. Thrupp, London,
1876.
[16] _The History and Art of Horsemanship._ By Richard Berenger,
London, 1771.
[17] "Half Bred Horses for Field and Road; Their Breeding and
Management," _Journal_ of the R. A. S. E. vol. xix., part 1, No. xxxvii.
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Transcriber's notes:
The following is a list of changes made to the original.
The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.
King Alfred (871 to 991) had a Master of the Horse, named Ecquef,
King Alfred (871 to 899) had a Master of the Horse, named Ecquef,
It is stated that, in the year 1752, sixty throughbred stallions,
It is stated that, in the year 1752, sixty thoroughbred stallions,
putting a man on a rough trotting horse, to which he is obliged
putting a man on a rough trotting horse, "to which he is obliged
GREY DIOMED, folded 1785. By Diomed--Grey Dorimant.
GREY DIOMED, foaled 1785. By Diomed--Grey Dorimant.
End of Project Gutenberg's Horses Past and Present, by Walter Gilbey