CHAPTER XXI 



THE CLYDESDALE 



The native home of the Clydesdale horse is in western Scot- 

 land, in the southern section, in a region contiguous to Glasgow 

 in the valley of the Clyde. Early historical evidence points to 

 the county of Lanark as the location where the breed first re- 

 ceived recognition. The adjoining counties of Ayr and Renfrew 

 also were more or less the centers of early Clydesdale breeding. 

 This region lies between latitudes 55-56 N., fully one thousand 

 miles north of New York City ; the climate is raw and cold in 

 winter and never especially warm in the milder seasons. The 

 land about the Clyde valley is hilly, but yields great crops of the 

 small cereals, roots, hay, and potatoes. 



The early history of the Clydesdale is veiled in more or less 

 obscurity. Scotch writers on the horse state that in the seven- 

 teenth and early part of the eighteenth century there was doubt- 

 less an interchange of draft-horse blood between Scotland and 

 England. Scotch cattle dealers driving herds into England re- 

 turned north with English mares, which were bred to stallions in 

 the northland. This was prior to the use of the word " Clydesdale." 

 Claims have been made that the Duke of Hamilton brought black 

 stallions from Flanders in Belgium to Scotland about the middle 

 of the seventeenth century and bred them to the native Scotch 

 mares. This, however, is traditional. Undoubtedly very mixed 

 blood was in the early breeding. 



The origin of the modern Clydesdale seems to trace back to 

 about 1715 or 1720. John Paterson was a tenant farmer of Loch- 

 lyoch in Carmichael parish in the county of Lanark. This county 

 is in southern Scotland, and through its center flows the river Clyde, 

 from which the name " Clydesdale " is derived. Written testimony 

 of the family shows that at about the above period Paterson 

 brought a black Flemish stallion from England to Lochlyoch, 

 which was bred to the mares in the region thereabouts. The 



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