—61 — 



Tlie crest and withers are almost invariably good, the head 

 bon}', lean, and well set on. Ewe-necks are, probably, rarer in 

 this family than any other, unk^ss it be the dray-horse, in which 

 it is never seen. 



The faults of shape to which the Cleveland bay is most liable are 

 narrowness of body, and flatness of tLe cannon and shank bones. 

 Their color is universally bay, rather on the yellow bay than on 

 the blood bay color, with black mane, tail and legs. 



They are sound, hard}^, a.tivo, powerful horses, with excellent 

 capabilities for draft, acd good endurance, so long as they are not 

 pushed bej^ond their speed, which may be estimated at from six 

 to eight miles an hour, on a trot, or from ten to twelve— the latter 

 quite the maximum — on a gallop, under almost any weight. 



The large and more showy of these animals, of the tallest and 

 heaviest tj^pe, were th.e favorite coach horses of their day; the 

 more springy and lightly built, of equal height were the hunters, 

 in the daj^s when the fox v. as hunted by his drag, unkenneled, 

 and run half a dozen hours or more, before he.was either earthed or 

 worn out and worried to death. Then thc^, shorter, lower, and more 

 closely ribbed up were the roadhackne- . a st^^le of horse unhappily 

 now almost extinct, and havingunequally substituted in its place a 

 wretched, weed}', half-bred or .three-quarters-bred beast, fit neither 

 to go the pace with a weigh o on its back nor to last the time. 



From these Cleveland Bays liowever though in their pure 

 state nearly extinct, a very superior animal lias descended, which, 

 after several steps and gradations, has settled dov/n into a com- 

 mon family, as the farm horse, and ri(''- g or driving horse of the 

 firmers. has about two crosses, moie or less, of blood on the 

 original Cleveland stock. 



The first gradation when pace became a desideratum, vv^as the 

 stint'ng Ox" the bes' Cleveland Bay mares to good thorough-bred 

 horses, with a view to the progeny turning out hunters, troop 

 horses, or, in the last resort, stage-coach horses, or, as they were 

 termed, machines. The most promising of these well bred colts 

 were kept as stallions ; and mares of the same type, with their 

 dams, stinted to them produced the improved carrriage horse of 

 fifty years ago. 



