118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



behind "Lord Brilliant." It was the battle of the giants. 

 Batonyi at once saw that his only chance with the smaller 

 horse to beat " Forest King" was to show more speed, more 

 quality, more action, and, withal, more "brilliancy;" and 

 added to this must be the power to go twenty-five to thirty 

 minutes round and round the tan bark ring. Judge Moore, 

 who had driven ' ' Forest King " only once before, and had 

 possibly never been up behind a hackney until that time, at 

 once attempted to follow the flying "Brilliant." He was 

 able to do so for a few turns of the rinof, but after that it 

 was all over, — but the shouting. Batonyi would carry 

 " Brilliant," with his little side step, around the corners and 

 set him down at the long side of the ring at a 35 or 40 gait, 

 head up, eyes flashing, ears pricked forward, his beautiful 

 neck with just enough sul)stance about it to show strength 

 and crest, and just enough lightness about it to show the 

 necessary curves and quality. The old horse w^ent almost as 

 fast as he had ever gone. 



When you think that he was originally kept in the stud at 

 Illinois as a trotting sire ; shipped to Boston in 1896 with a 

 carload of horses, and sold at auction there for $145 to 

 Charles F. Baker, who has the honor of developing him as a 

 heavy harness horse ; was first shown at the national horse 

 show in 1897, and for five successive seasons has been the 

 champion winner there, — one can readily see that he had a 

 record behind him that no heavy harness horse can ever 

 expect to equal. I grant that he is a bit old, but still the 

 fire and dash were there ; and it were far better to still hold 

 him up as the type, and acknowledge him as the champion 

 of American heavy harness horses, than to give the blue 

 ribbon to the imported hackney, with his beautiful manners 

 and high knee action, but thick-necked before the withers, 

 light middle piece, and lacking endurance and speed. 



In talking Avith Fownes, who, with his brother, are the 

 best-known four-in-hand and coaching experts in England 

 (in fact, it was in their honor that the Fownes driving glove 

 was named), he stated that hackneys were never used on the 

 coaches in England, they always preferring some breed 

 with a dash of the thoroughbred. 



