130 VARIETIES OF THE HOESE 



they became regarded no doubt diminished the number of admirers of the 

 lighter horse. The advent, or perhaps it may be more properly termed 

 the resuscitation of the Hackney, has also proved beyond all doubt injurious 

 to the progress of the Cleveland Bay, and the steady increase in the 

 stature of the former breed causes it to become a more formidable rival 

 every year. Public taste, too, has rather set in in favour of action, and 

 here again the Hackney takes precedence of the big horse; whilst the 

 hardness of the times has caused many scores of country gentlemen to 

 reduce their studs; and in most instances the ooach-horses, the duty of 

 which was to draw the family landau round the Park during the London 

 season, have been the first to go. At the same time the Cleveland Bay's 

 position in the equine world is, at the time of writing, a very long way 

 removed from being an unsatisfactory one. Indeed, it is incomparably 

 superior to what it would have been had there been no Society at the 

 back of the breed to look after its interests, and to provide some satis- 

 factory guarantees as regards the genuineness of pedigrees. Many dealers 

 too are consistent in their su^jport of the big coach-horses, and favour 

 the Cleveland Bay — when they can get them at a reasonable price — above 

 all others; but in the case of professional purchasers, wlio only buy to 

 sell again at a profit, their support is naturally more a matter of pounds, 

 shillings, and pence than a sincere devotion to the breed they patronize. 

 Consequently it must always be borne in mind that when a dealer has 

 made his connection as a seller of a certain class of horse, it is to the 

 highest degree imjirobable that he will forsake that particular variety 

 for another if he can by any possibility avoid so doing. 



It may, however, be once more repeated, that the resuscitation of the 

 breed was accomplished by the ajjpearanee, in 1884, of volume 1 of the 

 Cleveland Bay Stud-hooh, and since that date the managements of some 

 of the great horse shows have evinced a disposition to try and give the 

 variety a help along. This, it may be stated, has not invariably been 

 associated with profitable results, and even the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England has found it necessary to amalgamate the classes of Cleveland 

 Bays and Yorkshire Coach-horses, to the extreme concern, expressed and 

 implied, of the admirers of either breed, who, nevertheless, have only 

 themselves to thank for the reduction of their prizes, as they did not 

 support the shows sufficiently. This rather suggests the existence of an 

 apathetic spirit on the part of breeders of Cleveland Bays, who certainly 

 are not to be credited with the push and go which characterizes the action 

 of other horse-breeders; Ijut against this charge the excuse may be made 

 that the breed is in, comparatively speaking, a few hands, as the Cleveland 

 Bay, though an excellent horse in his own particular line, is scarcely to 



