252 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



at a high rate of speed, carrying heavy weight; 

 and that they were in high repute as " riding 

 horses for general purposes." 



In our Morgan horses of fifty years ago we 

 had a near approach to the modern English 

 Hackney in size, form, and gait. The typical 

 Hackney is pre-eminently a practically useful 

 road horse. Very compactly and strongly built, 

 with good strong legs and feet, seldom over 15J 

 hands high, short in the back, large at the girth, 

 closely ribbed up, the trotting action short, 

 quick and "trappy," they constitute a breed of 

 horses peculiarly well adapted to use on the 

 road. They have not been fancied in England 

 for many years past as riding horses, neither 

 has any especial effort been made to develop 

 speed at the trotting gait, but they have been 

 for a long time bred especially with a view to 

 the development of a horse fit to draw any sort 

 of rig at a quick pace on the road; and for this 

 purpose they are considered in that country as 

 without an equal in the whole world. They 

 are of all colors, but bays, browns and chest- 

 nuts are more frequently seen than any other. 

 An active demand has sprung up in the United 

 States for these horses within the past five 

 years and a stud-book organization has been 

 effected, with Dr. Wm. Seward Webb of New 

 York as Secretary. 



