94 The Horse-breeding Industry in Yorkshire. 



hunter-stock, though it may be admitted that some of the blood 

 sires that are travelled are not as good as they might be 

 and fall short of the standard usually reached by the 

 premium horses. The thoroughbred is, practically speaking, 

 the only kind of sire which plays any part in the hunter- 

 breeding industry. The " hunter-bred " or half-bred hiinter 

 stallion appears to be scarcely existent in the county nowadays, 

 any more than he is elsewhere in the country. In times gone 

 by, however, the latter was a good deal in evidence, and 

 originally had his prototype in the old-time Yorkshire cocktail 

 stallions which were freely used as sires here until the early 

 years of last century, and in frequent cases at a later period. 

 In some instances a colt sired by a coaching stallion may turn 

 out a useful hunting stallion if the dam is of a suitable type, 

 but that is somewhat exceptional. 



In former times a valuable influence was exercised upon the 

 improvement of the breed of hunters by the hunter races at 

 numerous local meetings, for the supporters of these events, 

 mostly hunting men, naturally tried to run horses as nearly 

 thoroughbred as possible, without their actually being in the 

 stud-book. 



The favourable conditions of soil and climate which render 

 the county so pre-eminently adapted as a breeding ground for 

 hunters of stout breed and with strong bone, as well as for 

 other kinds of half-bred horses, stand it in equally good stead 

 as regards the breeding of Thoroughbreds for racing purposes 

 which have always been bred in this country with conspicuous 

 success. Yorkshire is very closely associated with the early 

 history of this breed, for The Darley Arabian, one of its 

 famous foundation sires, stood in Yorkshire. This horse was 

 imported from the East and owned by a Mr. Darley, of Buttis- 

 cramb, near York, some time between 1700 and 1715. He 

 sired, among other good racehorses, the two historic horses 

 Devonshire or Flying Chiiders, bred near Doncaster by Mr. 

 Childers, and subsequently owned by the Duke of Devonshire, 

 and Bartletfs Childers. The foi*mer made a great mark as 

 a racer and was i^eputed the fastest horse in training in his day, 

 while the latter, although never trained and raced himself, 

 became the sire of several racehorses of note, but is principally 

 known to fame as the great-grandsire of Eclipse. Coming 

 nearer to our own times there was the celebrated Flying 

 Dutchman, by Bay Middleton out of Barbette, winner of the 

 Derby in 1849, who was bred on Yorkshire soil by Mr. 

 Vansittart, of Kirkleatham. A foremost place in the 

 many historical associations existing between Yorkshire 

 and the thoroughbred breed is held by the Sledmere stud, 

 which became famous in the times of the predecessor of the 



