Roan Trotting Horses. 103 



decided foreign demand. They are not crossing them so much with blood. The foreigners 

 do not object to a coarse head if tliey can get strength and action. For my own part, I always 

 try for a pure roadster, one whose pedigree goes back to roadster sires for several generations ; 

 as they say in Yorkshire, ' I like brandy or water, and not brandy and water ready mixed.' The 

 great fault now is, that people look too much to fore-leg action, and forget the more important 

 hind-leg action. 



" I remember well the old trotting roan Phenomenon of Mr. Lines. When in action coming 

 toward you, all his four legs were up close to his belly ; all you saw was a barrel rushing towards 

 you like the boiler of a steam-engine, with a head and neck on it. Nowadays, they pick up 

 their fore-legs prettily enough, but leave their hind-legs behind them. Foreigners are giving 

 very large prices for Norfolk sires, so I think we may expect the breed to be more cultivated ; 

 they don't mind coarseness, or ugly heads, if they can get bone with action. I dare say you 

 have remarked that the foreigners who come here to buy horses, whether French, Germans, 

 or Italians, are remarkably good judges of every point of a horse, and know exactly what they 

 want. As to size below the knee, I have never found one that fairly measured nine inches. Eight 

 inches and a half is a good girth for a trotter. Legs are very deceiving to the eye, and tell 

 different tales under the tape. Trainers do not like a very big leg in a thoroughbred horse 

 (trainers want quick not hunter sort of liorses). As a rule, the shoulders are the weak points 

 in modern trotters, and will not bear comparison with the pictures of the old sort. In my 

 opinion, the present show-horses are too high on the legs, rather more coach-horses than hack- 

 neys. The pure Yorkshire coach-horse we have not got in the Eastern Counties, and perhaps 

 it is no loss. 



" I prefer roan trotters to any other colour, because they are more likely to possess the 

 old trotting blood ; but many of the present roans are dreadfully coarse, only the leavings 

 that the foreigner won't buy. In trying this year to buy two Norfolk trotters for New 

 Zealand, I saw a good many, but quite failed to get what I wanted. They are too big or too 

 small, with no sharpness of action ; vulgar heads, and high rumps. The old roadsters had 

 beautiful heads, like Arabs."* 



At the present time, with the exception of a few coaching sires of great size travelling in 

 Yorkshire, those who do not resort to thoroughbred stallions employ Norfolk trotters. 



Roadster trotters were largely purchased by the agents of the French stud-farms under the 

 Empire, to improve the Norman breed ; and some of the best mares, kept for posting purposes in 

 the Imperial stables, were the produce of trotting sires. 



In a conversation with General Fleury, the Master of the Horse to the Emperor, when 

 the writer expressed his admiration of the big, cobby, high-stepping, dark bay mares, with 

 their tails en queue, their picturesque harness, breast-collars, and bells, of the Imperial posting 

 establishment — exhibited at the Paris Horse Show — the General answered, " You have the same 

 animals, but put them to a different purpose. Some of these are English." 



The late Mr. Crisp, famous for his Suffolk cart-horses and Suffolk pigs, once exhibited at 

 a Suffolk agricultural show a thoroughbred stallion by Fandango, out of a mare by Grey 

 Momus, which he had purchased from Sir Tatton Sykes, and obtained a prize in a trotting 

 class ; but this was generally considered by the Suffolk breeders of trotters a mistake on the 

 part of the judges, due to an extravagant preference for blood " at any price." 



Trotting is not one of the amusements of the English gentleman. Those whose tastes lie 



• Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Barlow, of Husketon. 



