74 LIGHT HORSES : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



About the breeding of hunters from a Cleveland Bay mare, 

 great difference of opinion exists. Some assert that animals 

 bred in this way are soft and useless as hunters. That is 

 certainly at variance with the experience of many well-known 

 hard riders in Yorkshire, men who can hold their own in any 

 country. The late Lord Middleton had a famous mare named 

 Magic, who was the daughter of a Cleveland Bay, and some 

 descendants of hers are still to be found in the Birdsall stables, 

 and right good hunters they are. If it is desired to breed 

 hunters from a Cleveland Bay foundation, in the first place a 

 short-legged wide mare with good shoulders and back should 

 be selected. A mare answering this description can be found 

 with a little trouble. Then comes the more difficult task 

 of selecting a suitable stallion with which to mate her. The 

 prevailing partiality I had almost said craze for a big horse 

 is to be carefully avoided. Neither do I consider that the 

 bone measurement is of paramount importance. The sire I 

 should choose to cross with Cleveland mares should certainly 

 not exceed 15.3, and I should like him no worse if he did not 

 exceed 15.2. Quality would be the great thing required. His 

 head and neck must be well set on, and above everything his 

 shoulders must be well placed and muscular, and his back 

 loins and quarters powerful. The shape and quality of the 

 bone would be considered rather than its size, and his action 

 would be also of more importance in my eye than his capacity 

 to carry weight according to the recognised standard. Such 

 a horse as I have endeavoured to describe was Perion, who 

 was perhaps the sire of more good hunters than any horse of 

 his generation. 



It has been considered by men of experience that the 

 second cross from the Cleveland mare produced the best 

 hunters, and there can be no doubt that they have more 

 quality, and amongst horses bred this way are to be found 

 the best-looking and hardiest animals, of course, always 

 excepting thoroughbreds. In mating a mare by a thorough- 

 bred sire from a Cleveland mare, rather a different stamp of 



