THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



211 



thorough-bred decisions at this f.how. In 1854, tlie 

 public gave Maroon the decided call of Loutherbourg ; 

 next year The British Yeoman was generally thought to 

 fulfil the conditions of the prize, as a sire for getting 

 hunters, better than Riivenhill ; although no one could 

 dispute that the latter, as he has proved himself, is admi- 

 rably adapted ibr getting coachinghorses. The Yeomau 

 had it all his own way at Chelmsford the n^xt year ; and 

 at Salisbury the adherents of Hobble Noble (who was, 

 strange to say, in the town, on his way from >Iolyhead 

 to Cawston, and obliged to halt there, from a leg injury 

 which he had received in the train), found many to dis- 

 agree with them as to his right to either prize. The 

 judges, as it seemed to us, might have overlooked the 

 trifling lack of length inTheon, and given him the prize 

 there, and left Spencer second, a position which he held to 

 Ddgobert two or three weeks after, at York, in a much 

 stronger show-held. This year Theon did not show, 

 and the only opposition of the slightest moment to 

 Spencer came from Canute. The chesnut arrived with 

 four Yorkshire medals round his neck, and we believe 

 that he has once, if not twice, beaten Spencer, so that 

 "Kit" might well anticipate another victory. It was, 

 no doubt, a near thing ; but to our minds, thejudijes 

 were right. Spencer has improved so much , that we 

 did not remember him ; but, like Theon last year, he 

 had an unfortunate fit of the fidgets, and would keep 

 quiet for no one. He is about fifteen three-and-a-half, 

 shoulders and back all muscle, and very elegantly turned 

 in his barrel and forehead. In fact he is full of breed- 

 ing, and of a most selling cplour, which is always a great 

 point ; and the Bishop of Oxford, who knows better 

 than any one on the bench what a horse is, might well 

 say, " Oh ! charming !" when he reached him. There 

 was not actual fault to find with his legs, but perhaps 

 they were a trifle lighter-timbered than we like them. 

 He was trained by John Osborne, but achieved lothing. 

 Canute merely wants time to furnish out into a very fine 

 horse ; but strange to say, he is much the more coltish 

 of the two, though a year older. He is a more slashing 

 style of horse, so to speak ; and it is this, we think, 

 which must have found favour for him in the York- 

 shiremen's eyes. Owing to Spencer not going for the 

 special prize, Canute placed ^^50 to his owner's account 

 by the trip, and Spencer only ^£^30. The stalls of 

 Strychnine and Poynton were vacant, and an Irish- 

 looking chesnut, Comeaway, was third, but got no 

 commendation in such company. He is, we hear, an 

 excellent sound hunter, and is ridden by his owner with 

 the Atherstone, when he is not in his Rosamond's bower. 



There were many good rough points about him 

 plenty of length in his arms and thighs, but he had a 

 common head, and was rather cross-ankled. Johns- 

 town's feet were not right, and he had been fired for 

 ring-bone, &c. His colour was very beautiful, but he 

 was too narrow between his fore-legs. Peppermint 

 was a shallow creature, with no bone. Epinicia was 

 flashy and on a high leg, and had a large lump inside 

 the off hind one. Raven's colour was capital, and he 

 reminded us not a little of his sire, but he ought to be in 

 a coacher class. Mr. Stiggins was high on the leg, and 

 quite a showy charger getter, but his fore-legs were not 

 nice. Still he has improved since iast year. Gros- 

 venor was a neat pony edition of Touchstone, lacks 

 length, and is upright in his pasterns, and poor in his 

 back ribs. Surely Cheshire might have done much better 

 if she had sent Backbiter, and in all human probability 

 she would have won the prize if Buckthorn had been 

 retained at Eaton. It was a crying shame to see Burn- 

 dale in the yard, as no human end could have been 

 served by bringing such a little, thin-shouldered wretch. 

 Two men had to lead him when he came out, and there 

 he was all day, with his ears back, bound to the front 



rail of his siull, his head one mass of strap-gear, with 

 two if not three bridles, and a chain and a steel rod at- 

 tached to it, which fixed itself right above his nostrils. 

 There he stood, a picture of sullen, impotent fury, with 

 the steel rod, as it were, pressing the nostril till foam 

 fairly exuded from it. It was a sight to turn anyone 

 sick, and we wonder the stewards allowed it. If his 

 owner cannot cure him, there is no excuse for keeping 

 such a thirty-pound animal in the flesh, to torture him- 

 self, and to endangei grooms' lives. Has Mr. Rarey's 

 name never penetrated to " Madryn, near Pwlheli, 

 Carnarvon" ? This part of the Show is sadly disap- 

 pointing. It must be that the second prize tempts 

 owners to send any kind of animal on the oll'-chance ; 

 and certainly it is passing strange that when the other 

 stock departments can command the pick of everything, 

 that we should have the mere tag-rag of the horse world 

 here. The fact is, the Society began by despising this 

 department, and made it a nonentity for years ; and 

 thus it has fallen into disrepute, and the winning of the 

 prize confers no caste. We should like to see the second 

 prize abolished, and the head prize made £50 or £&0, 

 and then there might be some hope of bringing out good 

 horses. The judges this year were both hunting men, 

 and owners will not send unless a similar style of selec- 

 tion is adhered to. 



The Hackneys, Class II., were again an odd mixture of 

 competitors, and here exhibitors do not know what is 

 wanted. Last year the prize was won by Hotspur, a clever 

 blood horse who ran second for the Derby, against a 

 flock of coachers, Arabs, and we know not what ; and 

 this year the decision fell to quite one of the old trotting 

 stamp. The judges got as wide as the poles, at last, 

 between the winner and The Major. The former, 

 "Troubadour," was a chesnut roan, very even and good 

 throughout, with clean shoulders, well into his back, 

 capital loins, and a nice neat goer. " The Major" had 

 cari'ied John Walker with the Wynnstay for sevt n sea- 

 sons, as true as steel, and bore very slight traces of his 

 work. He had a great deal of The Colonel stamp about 

 him, but he was slightly cross-ankled, and not very 

 great in the girthing-place. Captain Barlow was all for 

 him, and Mr. Nainby for the winner, and the umpire 

 decided for the latter. We cannot help wondering that 

 they did not split the difference, and go for the horse 

 who was exactly the union of these two extremes — to 

 wit, a nice little brown, " Young Harkaway" ; but he, 

 like "The Major," was put back, as being a hunter out 

 of his class. 



"Dick" was quite small, " Capt. Brown" was 

 lengthy, but on short and rather stale front legs. 

 " Serenader," a son of "Troubadour's," reminded 

 many of the old line, " Until at last the old man was 

 beaten by the boy=" He had all the roadster style 

 about him, and with substance for ever ; but his head 

 was put on rather hatchet-fashion, and slid oddly 

 into his bosom, and his quarters were rather mean, and 

 not quite in keeping with his forehand. "Our fat 

 friend," Stotforth, resigned his hunter-sire pretensions, 

 and tried his luck in this class this year. He is cer- 

 tainly a nice phaeton horse, with the straightest back 

 we ever saw ; but his ankles are not to our mind, and he 

 looks quite set in a mould. " Brilliant 3rd'' was very 

 common and hairy-legged. " Tuft-Hunter Junior's" 

 head was like his sire's, and he had lots of length, but 

 his feet were not nice. His great peculiarity was that 

 his leg was enormously wide below the knee ; and for 

 his size we have seldom seen a horse beat him in that 

 point. 



Class III., for " Mares for breeding Hunters," was 

 weak. ." Coronella" had small knees, and by no means 

 nice hocks. The prettiest in the class, " Conqueress," 

 a flea-bitten grey, was too long-necked, but otherwise very 



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