Horses Past and Present

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.

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.