CHAPTER II 



BREEDS OF HORSES 



2. LIGHT HORSES AND PONIES 



By W. SCARTH DIXON 



Cleveland Bays and Yorkshire Coach Horses 



There is such an affinity between the Cleveland Bay (see plates 

 pp. 48, 49) and the Yorkshire Coach Horse (see plates pp. 56, 57) 

 that it seems advisable to treat the two breeds under one heading. 

 The Cleveland Bay was to a certain extent bred on the same lines 

 as were afterwards adopted and modified, and of course consider- 

 ably developed, in the breeding of the Yorkshire Coach Horse. 



It is the opinion of many authorities that the Cleveland Bay 

 nearly approaches in character the original horse of the country — 

 the horse that drew the war chariots which gave even Caesar's 

 veterans a severe shock. It is highly probable that they are direct 

 descendants of those horses, which must have been something out 

 of the common to have attracted the attention of such a fine judge 

 and horseman as Julius Caesar. It is, however, very possible that 

 the native breed of the country was considerably modified during 

 the Roman occupation of Britain. Here is one way by which it 

 might have been improved. We are informed that the Roman 

 cavalry stationed at Doncaster {Danum) in the 2nd century A.D. 

 were mounted on Barb stallions. What so likely as that some 

 of these would be used to improve the breeds found in the East 

 and North Ridings of Yorkshire? There is also historical evidence 

 that the Eastern horse was found in Yorkshire in another con- 

 nection, for we are told that when the Emperor Severus was 

 staying at York some of the Roman officers organized for his 

 amusement a race meeting at Wetherb}', which was possibly the 

 first race meeting of importance held in England. 



It has been suggested that the ancestor of the Cleveland 

 Bay was in all probability the horse of the age of chivalry, which 



TO 



