44 Breeds of Horses 



that the Hunter is a type and not a breed. A curious fact which 

 came under the writer's own observation seems confirmatory of 

 this, and it also would seem to have a bearing on the whole ques- 

 tion of Hunter breeding. 



It has frequently been remarked by men who flourished in 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century how certain Cleveland 

 Bay horses carried their owners to hounds. The late Mr. Lumley 

 Hodgson spoke of one which carried his owner, Parker of Cundale, 

 near Boroughbridge, right to the front with hounds, and which 

 could live alongside any hunter when hounds ran fast and far. 

 Mr. Hodgson, however, was not able to give a pedigree of Cun- 

 dale's horse, and he might have had a Thoroughbred cross pretty 

 near the top of his dam's pedigree. In the cases that I am about 

 to give there was nothing of this sort. The pedigrees were correct 

 Cleveland Bay pedigrees. Two sisters were by Barnaby, dam by 

 Master William, then came two more Cleveland Bay crosses, the 

 names of which I cannot call to mind, but the breeder was a mar 

 who had a famous line of Cleveland Bays, and I do not think 

 he ever bred anything else. Now the elder of these two fillies wa? 

 named Star, and she was one of the finest show jumpers I ever 

 saw. She was a very capable hunter, and could get there, but was 

 a little time in doing it. Her sister was not a very great jumper — 

 that is, she was nothing approaching a show jumper, but she could 

 get over a country, and was fast. This is a curious case of rever- 

 sion to undoubtedly remote ancestors, and such cases are occa- 

 sionally cropping up. I knew of another similar reversion, and 

 in the same breed, but not in the stud of the same breeder. A 

 Cleveland Bay mare of undoubted pedigree threw a chestnut foal 

 to a Cleveland Bay horse. There was nothing but bays with black 

 legs on either side for generations, and all the rest of the mare's 

 foals were of the orthodox colour. The chestnut was made a hunter, 

 and I have seen her go fairly, but it is a long time since, and I have 

 no very keen recollection of her performances. 



The most difficult thing to generalize about is Hunter breeding. 

 No sooner does a man enunciate a theory than some instance is 

 at once brought to his notice which proves that in one instance, 

 at any rate, he is utterly wrong. Here is a case that occurred with 

 the writer some years ago. A friend mounted me with a well- 

 known and very fashionable pack of hounds, where jealous riding 

 was very much in evidence. The horse met me at the station, a 

 big upstanding bloodlike horse, too. The hounds were gone on, and 

 I had to gallop on to catch them. We had a long hard day, and 

 my horse never put a foot wrong. We took a short cut home over 



