CLEVELAND BAYS AND YORKSHIRE COACH HORSES. 77 



Book were drawn much closer, and nothing with the direct 

 thoroughbred cross was admitted." The pure bred Cleveland 

 Bay is however recognised as a Coach Horse, probably because 

 of the fact to which I have already alluded, viz., that the best 

 Coach Horses happen to be a cross between the Yorkshire 

 Coach Horse and the Cleveland Bay. How far such a policy 

 is expedient is a question which I do not propose to enter into 

 here. I may say, however, that it certainly does appear ano- 

 malous that an animal can be entered in two stud books as 

 pure bred. The similarity in many physiological respects of 

 the breeds which have been crossed to produce the Yorkshire 

 Coach Horse does, however, seem to give colour to what, in 

 the case of any other breeds, would appear to be little else 

 than meaningless and arbitrary. 



The Coach Horse, though by no means boasting of so 

 ancient an origin as the Cleveland Bay, yet has a claim to 

 respectable antiquity, and is much older than many of our 

 breeds of domestic animals. For fully a hundred years he 

 has had a recognised existence, and prizes were given for him 

 in Howdenshire as early as 1805. It is somewhat curious 

 that on some of the old stallion cards the term " Cleveland 

 Coach Horse" is used, and that these old horses, notably 

 Victory and Volunteer, are claimed both by Cleveland Bay 

 and by Coach Horse breeders as the tap roots of famous 

 strains of horses. As bearing on the question of the name 

 of the breed it is also worthy of remark that the "Druid," 

 speaking of Mr. Jolly, of Acomb, and the trade he did with 

 the Indian Government, refers to his Coach Horses as 

 Howdenshire Clevelands. 



I am inclined to believe that a good many of the earlier 

 Coaching stallions were cock-tails. For instance, looking 

 through the first volume of the Yorkshire Coach Horse Stud 



* Since this was written the Yorkshire Coach Horse Society has again 

 admitted a single thoroughbred cross ; a policy which some admirers of the 

 breed strenuously opposed as reactionary, and as calculated to cause harm to 

 the breed eventually. 



