CLEVELAND BAYS. 19 



muscle, would in these flying days be tolerated, when nothing 

 will suit the pui-pose but animals, which can go the pace and 

 keep it up, under the saddle, or before a draught, in a style 

 which can be done by nothing but a large admixture of the best 

 thorough blood. 



The second great English family which may, perhaps, be 

 regarded as the true type of the English horse of the Midland 

 Counties, from the remotest times, is that of the far-famed 

 Cleveland Bays. Cleveland, a district of the East-riding of 

 Yorkshire, and the Yale of Pickering, in the same county, has 

 been from a very distant period the principal breeding region for 

 carriage horses, hunters, troop horses, and hackneys, of the high- 

 est grade ; and it still preserves its character in that particular; 

 although the character of the animals themselves, used for all 

 these j)urposes, is now entirely altei-ed ; and although, in con- 

 secpience of the alteration of the demand, the original breed is 

 rapidly passing away, and a pure Cleveland Bay, of unmixed, 

 or unimproved blood, is now rarely to be met with, even in its 

 own native district. 



The Cleveland Bay, in its natural and unmixed form, is a 

 tall, powerfully-built, bony animal, averaging, I should say, 

 fifteen hands tliree inches in height, rarely falling short of fif- 

 teen and a half, or exceeding sixteen and a half hands. 



The crest and withers are almost invariably good, the head 

 bony, lean, and well set on. Ewe necks are, probably, rarer in 

 this family than in any other, unless it be the dray-horse, in 

 which it is never seen. 



The faults of shape, to which the Cleveland Bay is most 

 liable, are narrowness of chest, undue length of body, and flat- 

 ness of the cannon and shank bones. Their color is universally 

 bay, rather on the yellow bay than on the blood bay color, with 

 black manes, tails, and legs. 



They are sound, hardy, active, powerful horses, with excel- 

 lent capabilities for draught, and good endurance, so long as they 

 are not pushed beyond their speed, which may be estimated at 

 from six to eight miles an hour, on a trot, or from ten to twelve — 

 the latter quite the maximum — on a gallop, under almost any 

 weight. 



The larger and more showy of these animals, of the tallest 



