CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



from which it was imported to England. One of 

 its immediate descendants was the celebrated 

 Flying Childers, bred by Mr Childers of Carr 

 House. This beautiful racer is reputed to have 

 been the fleetest runner ever known in England, 

 or perhaps in the world. On one occasion he ran 

 (carrying nine stones two pounds) round the course 

 at Newmarket which measures three miles, six 

 furlongs, and ninety-three yards in six minutes 

 and forty seconds. 



Horse-racing is essentially an English sport, 

 with its head-quarters at Newmarket, Epsom, 

 and Doncaster. Of recent years it has been 

 taken up with ardour both in France and 

 America. Many object to it as cruelly taxing 

 the strength of a noble animal ; but when the 

 distances to be run are not too great, and where 

 steeple-chasing is prohibited, the race becomes a 

 legitimate test of fleetness, courage, and endur- 

 ance, and thus tends to perpetuate and improve a 

 superior breed. Unfortunately, the sport is too 

 often mixed up with dissipation, fraud, and gam- 

 bling. 



Hunters, Coach-horses, Hackneys. 



The hunter is a combination of the thorough- 

 bred race-horse and half-bred horses of greater 

 strength and boe ; but changes are continually 

 taking place in its character. The older race of 

 hunters has been giving place to one of lighter 

 form and higher breeding, and even the thorough- 

 bred horse is now employed by numerous sports- 

 men. In his improved state, the hunter may rank 

 as a saddle-horse of the first class, combining 

 strength with fleetness. The prime qualities of a 

 hunter may be briefly summed up head small, 

 neck thin, crest firm and arched, a light mouth, 

 broad chest, body short and compact, the hocks 

 well bent, power behind to push him over diffi- 

 culties, and broad well-made feet turned outward. 

 The charger or cavalry-horse partakes of the 

 qualities of the hunter. 



The better kind of coach-horses owe their origin 

 to the Cleveland bay, and are principally bred in 

 Yorkshire, Durham, and the southern districts 

 of Northumberland ; and some few have been 

 produced in Lincolnshire. The coach-horse is 

 produced by a cross of the Cleveland mare with a 

 three-fourth or thorough-bred horse, which is pos- 

 sessed of sufficient substance and height. The 

 full-sized coach-horse is, in fact, only an over- 

 grown hunter, too large for that sport. 



The term Hackney, in common use, is employed 

 to denote a kind of horse fitted for general ser- 

 vices, and is therefore understood to exclude the 

 horses of the highest breeding, as the thorough- 

 bred horse and hunter; and there is further 

 associated with the idea of a hackney, an animal 

 of moderate size, not exceeding fifteen hands, and 

 possessing action, strength, and temper. The trot, 

 rather than cantering or running, is the distin- 

 guishing characteristic of a good hackney. In- 

 deed, they should never be permitted to go at any 

 other pace than a trot, which is undoubtedly much 

 better adapted for the road than cantering. 



Nothing is more essential in a hackney than 

 sound strong fore-legs, and also well-formed hind 

 ones ; his feet must be quite sound, and free from 

 corns, to which -hard-ridden horses are very liable ; 

 and he ought only to lift his fore-legs moderately 

 high. Some are of opinion that he cannot lift 



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them too high, and conceive, while he is possessed 

 of this quality, he never will come down. There 

 is a medium, however, in this, as a horse that 

 raises his fore-legs too high in trotting is always 

 disagreeable in his action, which greatly shakes 

 and fatigues the rider ; besides, he batters his 

 hoofs to pieces in a few years. The principal 

 thing to be attended to is the manner in which 

 the hackney puts his feet to the ground ; for if his 

 toes first touch the road, he is sure to be a 

 stumbler. The foot should come flat down on the 

 whole sole at once, otherwise the horse is not to 

 be depended upon in his trotting. 



The proper kind of saddle-horse is only a variety 

 of the hunter, possessing less or more breeding, 

 according to the nature of the work required of 

 him, and the taste of the breeder. Of the great 

 varieties of saddle-horses, there may be said to be 

 a chain of connection, as respects spirit and form, 

 from the racer to the cart-horse; and therefore 

 the station which any individual occupies is 

 almost undefinable. The saddle-horses of Eng- 

 land are celebrated for their beauty and action ; 

 and nowhere are seen so many of elegant forms as 

 in London. Latterly, the breeds have been tend- 

 ing to greater lightness, the state of the roads not 

 now requiring the weight and substance which 

 was at one time necessary. 



The Cart or Draught Horse. 



The cart-horses of Great Britain are extremely 

 variable in point of size as well as in shape, differ- 

 ing in almost every county. One principal char- 

 acter, however, is weight, to give more physical 

 force in the draught. They should not be above 

 sixteen hands high, with a light well-shaped head 

 and neck, short pointed ears, with brisk sparkling 

 eyes ; their chests should be full and deep, with 

 large and strong shoulders, well-raised withers, 

 and deep wide chest. The back should be straight, 

 and rather short, the ribs well arched, and the 

 space between the last rib and the haunch-bone 

 short. A long-carcassed, flat-ribbed horse tires 

 easily, eats voraciously, and thrives badly. The 

 limbs, strong, flat, and muscular, and well placed 

 under the body, should not be disfigured by too 

 much hair a very common fault in the heavier 

 English horses. The joints should be large and 

 pliant, the feet wide, tough, and sound ; and with 

 limbs and feet such as these, the cart-horse will be 

 able to walk easily four miles an hour, or plough 

 his acre daily. For ordinary farm-work, we prefer 

 strong-boned, clean-limbed horses with some 

 breeding, and with the activity and courage which 

 accompany breeding, to the coarser, heavier, 

 more sluggish race still too prevalent. 



In the midland counties of England Warwick- 

 shire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and 

 Nottinghamshire there is a very large breed, 

 called the great cart-horse. It was bred in the 

 lowland rich alluvial pastures of the plains of these 

 counties, from the Flemish and Dutch horses with 

 the larger English breed. Mr Bakewell intro- 

 duced horses, and also mares, from the Nether- 

 lands, and thus produced those fine animals 

 with Belgic blood both on the side of the sire and 

 dam. The very large horses of seventeen hands 

 and upwards are only useful for the purposes of 

 brewers' drays, wagons, and the slop-carts of Lon- 

 don. It is, however, doubted if they answer the 

 better for their gigantic size ; and all who have 



