442 



The Royal Commission on Horse-Breeding gives King's pre- 

 miums of about 150 to sound, selected Thoroughbred stallions 

 which are allocated to certain specified districts throughout the 

 country, and stand at the moderate fee of 2 for each mare. 

 About 60 per cent, of foals are left. For the benefit of the War 

 Office and the Remount Department, a record has been kept of all 

 breeders who have had mares served by the premium stallions 

 since 1888. 



Similar work is done in Ireland under the Royal Dublin Society, 

 which issues a Register of Thoroughbred Stallions for service under 

 a horse-breeding scheme formulated in 1892, and revised in 1905. 



The Hunters' Improvement Society exists " to improve the breed 

 and promote the breeding of Hunters and other horses used for 

 riding or driving, and for military purposes." It receives a grant of 

 nearly 500 a year from the Royal Commission on Horse-B reeding, 

 and spends about 4000 a year in the numerous directions in which 

 it operates. 



The Brood Mare Society " obtains (free from hereditary disease) 

 strong hunter-bred mares by gift or purchase, and lends them to 

 farmers and others on certain conditions, the object being to keep 

 good brood mares in the country, and restrict their wholesale 

 exportation and the consequent deterioration in the breed of horses 

 in the United Kingdom." 



The Hackney is believed to have sprung from a foundation stock 

 of Norwegian horses landed by the Norse invaders in Norfolk and 

 Yorkshire. The very high and free action, both before and behind, 

 is a distinguishing feature of the breed. The ancestors of both the 

 Hackney and the Thoroughbred of the present day have been freely 

 crossed by imported horses from the same foreign stocks, but they 

 have been bred for different objects and in different environments. 

 It is to the original native mares, in each case, that the trotting 

 habit of the one and the galloping habit of the other are due. 



The Hackney horse of to-day is a powerfully-built, shortlegged, 

 big, broad horse, with an intelligent head, neat neck, strong, level 

 back, powerful loins, and as perfect shoulders as can be produced ; 

 good feet, flat-boned legs, and a height of from 15-2 to i5'3V 2 hands. 

 Hackney-bred carriage horses of 17 hands high can be obtained. 



The Cleveland Bay is the oldest type of the large-size carriage 

 horse, and has existed probably without much variation in the 

 North and East Ridings of Yorkshire for more than 200 years. 

 Hays traces its origin to Yorkshire cart mares, descended from the 



