THE HEAVY-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 73 



The best early history of the county of Yorkshire 

 appears in three separate prize essays by different writers, 

 published in the ninth volume of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society (England) Report, published in 1848, from which 

 the following reference by George Legard is taken : 

 " Formerly, a large, powerful, bony animal was required 

 for carriage purposes ; the fashion of the present day has, 

 however, changed this particular, and now it is necessary 

 that the London carriage horse should be at least three 

 parts Thoroughbred. Consequently, all traces of the 

 original pure coaching breed or Cleveland Bay, as it was 

 termed, are nearly obliterated." Another writer on 

 Yorkshire in the same report, page 518, says : " The 

 Cleveland, as a pure-bred, is losing something of its dis- 

 tinctiveness. It is running into a proverb that a Cleve- 

 land horse is too stiff for a hunter and too light for a 

 coacher, but there are still remnants of the breed, though 

 less carefully kept distinctively than may be wished by 

 advocates of the breed." 



Other causes, too, were operating to change the type of 

 the breed and encourage the more liberal use of Thorough- 

 bred blood. One of these was that the abundant grass- 

 land was converted into tillage-land. The high price of 

 grains, due to the war, induced an unusual activity in 

 farming, and a heavier horse was called for. The coal 

 industry also demanded a heavier horse. Again, the use 

 of the horse on the road, because of lighter vehicles, called 

 for a lighter horse, so that, in a multitude of ways, the 

 old type of Cleveland was undergoing dissolution. When 

 the outlook seemed darkest, the American trade opened 

 up, and, in 1884, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society was 

 formed, and a stud-book established. At this time 

 Thoroughbred blood was used very liberally. So much 



