Hackneys 37 



Cleveland Bays of the Coach Horse type, and his Coach Horse 

 mares of the Cleveland Bay type. When he has been a little 

 amongst them he will find that it is not such a paradox as it looks 

 on paper. It would be, in the present condition of the breeds, 

 patriotic certainly, and perhaps more profitable to breed on stud- 

 book lines, for good prices are given for good stallions. One word 

 of warning may be given about working either Cleveland Bays or 

 Coach Horses on the land. Steady men must be sent with them. 

 A "flighty", bad-tempered man will cause mischief They are 

 quiet enough, but high-spirited, and will not stand knocking about. 

 There has been a suggestion that the Cleveland Bay and York- 

 shire Coach Horse Societies should amalgamate with the Hackney 

 Horse Society, but it is not worth serious consideration. 



Hackneys 



(Plates, facing pp. 64, 6j) 



At one time Hackney breeding was practically confined to the 

 East Riding of Yorkshire and to Norfolk and Suffolk — East Anglia. 

 No doubt the breed as we now know it had its origin in those 

 districts, and that for a very long time something which did the 

 same work as the modern Hackney and which was much esteemed 

 in its day, was bred in them many hundreds of years ago. We 

 have, for instance. Dame Paston writing in the thirteenth century 

 to her husband to inform him that " three fayre trottyng horses " 

 have been sent to him from St. Faith's fair; and a couple of centuries 

 later Blundeville draws attention to what were no doubt the founda- 

 tions of the Hackney, when he says that mares to breed from should 

 be " strongly made, large and fayre, and have a trotting pace, as the 

 Mares of Flanders, and some of our own Mares be ". These mares 

 of Flanders, no doubt, had something to do with the origin of the 

 Hackney. 



The improvement of the roads, which followed as a matter of 

 course on the termination of internecine broils and the consequent 

 increase of inland trade, was, if not exactly the cause of the 

 modern Hackney's origin, undoubtedly the reason of his rapid 

 development. He was wanted — very much wanted — and it was 

 essential that he should be fairly fast, possessed of considerable 

 stamina, and of quick recuperative powers. There was the founda- 

 tion in the "trotting mares, fayre and large", which had by this 

 time become indigenous to Yorkshire and East Anglia, and in the 

 Thoroughbred there was the combination of quality and stamina 

 necessary for the formation of the ideal Hackney or Hack. 



