22 Breeds of Horses 



15^ hands high". Crisp's horse left four sons, one of which was 

 of a dark chestnut colour. 



In 1764 a Mr. Blake brought into Suffolk Blake's Farmer, a 

 four-year-old Lincolnshire trotting stallion. He travelled in a small 

 district, and was used by the farmers to cross with their Suffolk 

 mares. The resulting blood became famous. In fact, Blake's blood 

 was a security of good things, and we are told that 400 gs. was 

 refused for a horse of this line. Gradually the origin of the Blake 

 strain becarrie less known, and Blake was nothing loath to keep 

 the true breed of his Farmer a secret. For several years the 

 demand for this line continued, but by degrees it became less in 

 evidence, and to-day nothing but the memory of the breed of horses 

 exists. 



Barber's Proctor, originally a riding horse stallion, was another 

 so-called Suffolk that travelled in the county. Its history is highly 

 humorous. It so happened that whilst the horse was undergoing 

 the operation of nicking in order to give it the appearance of a 

 riding horse, an accident occurred, and its tail was broken off. The 

 owner, without much regret, deemed it advisable to travel him as 

 a Suffolk cart horse. In those days the mark of a good Suffolk 

 was a " bung tail ", that is to say, the tail was cut off close to the 

 quarters, and so in at least one respect, if in no other. Barber's 

 Proctor somewhat resembled a Suffolk. And we can little wonder 

 that Proctor's blood, similarly to that of Blake's Farmer, is now 

 no longer in existence. 



The only other impurity of any importance which might have 

 mixed with the pure old breed was that of a Flemish horse which 

 was introduced in the pedigree of a mare towards the end of the 

 eighteenth century. This, I believe, is not proven, and even if it 

 were, it would result, as the editor of the Suffolk Horse Stud Book 

 remarks, in the amount of Flemish blood in the present-day Suffolk 

 being practically nil. 



Fortunately for the breed, the old Suffolk yeomen by degrees 

 reverted to the pure old stock, and the various foreign strains 

 gradually died out. It is astonishing that all the horses that have 

 left our shores, and those which are now in stud and farm, are 

 every one a direct descendant of one particular horse. Crisp's 404. 

 Crisp's horse had four sons; three of these carried on their respec- 

 tive lines for a few generations only, whilst it was deed's horse of 

 Dickleburgh, the remaining son, that had so much to do with the 

 subsequent Suffolk race. 



deed's horse left three sons, but only one again. Smith's horse 

 of Parham. carried on the blood by Brady's Briton and Julian's 



