386 



TPIE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC 



[CH. 



Yorkshire cart-mares with a Barb, from Avhich sprung the well- 

 known Cleveland Bays, which almost always had a black dorsal 

 striped That bay colour accompanied by such a mark should 

 result from the introduction of Barb blood is a very important 

 fact. But, as greater speed in coaching was required, the York- 

 shire coach-horse (Fig. 107)- was developed by crossing Cleveland 

 Bays with thoroughbred blood. 



The old English roadsters — the Norfolk Trotter (which 

 owed its trotting qualities to blood imported from the Low 

 Countries, p. 341) and the Hackney — after frequent crossing 

 with thoroughbred blood have given us the modern Hackney 

 (Fig. 108). ' 



According to so high an authority as Col. St Quentin^ the 

 Irish horse-breeding at the present time " is the wonder and 

 envy of continental nations, who support their breed by State 

 aid," and he attributes to the limestone subsoil of the great 

 central plain of Ireland " the indisputable excellence of our 

 indigenous breed," and he holds that " it is an undoubted fact 

 that blood carries more weight comparatively under a strain 

 than bone, and to blood alone I feel assured is due their speed 

 and stamina, and that it makes them what they are, the best in 

 the world." Sir Walter Gilbey^ holds the same view respecting 

 the value of the Irish limestone subsoil. As the typical Irish 

 horse is "the best in the world," in the opinion of one who 

 though he in the extract just given identifies himself with 

 Ireland is nevertheless an Englishman, it is of special import- 

 ance for the present inquiry that we should know its origin. 

 Though for the last 150 years many high-class thoroughbred 

 stallions and mares have been imported from England into 

 Ireland, and though the Irish Parliament voted mone}^ for the 

 improvement of horse-breeding, the Irish horses were famous 

 long before the Godolphin Barb, the Darley Arabian, and the 

 Byerley Turk, or even the Markham Arabian were heard of. 



1 Haj'es, Points of the Horse, p. 332. 



• I am indebted to the Royal Agricultural Society (through Sir Ernest Clarke) 

 for permission to use this and the following illustration. 



■* Eeports by the Conuiiissioners appointed to inquire into the Horse-breeding 

 Industry in Ireland, 1897, p. 6. 



^ Young Thoroughbreds, pp. 27 sqq. 



