112 THE HORSE 



to a pony mare, and that Fireaway came from that alHance." 

 (This is not quite correct, for it was Blaze, the son of Flying 

 Childers, who was mated with a pony, the progeny being 

 Old Shales.) 



The origin of the fashion of hog-raaning horses so 

 universal with hackneys, no doubt may be traced to a 

 desire to copy the horses figuring in antique friezes. These, 

 however, may have owed their short manes to nature, and 

 not to the hand of man, for Dr. Conrad Keller, professor of 

 zoology at the Zurich Polytechnicum, has just published 

 an account of a breed he has discovered in the Island 

 of Majorca. These are naturally hog-maned, and closely 

 resemble in appearance the horses depicted on ancient 

 Greek vases. 



Ameeican Hobses, 



Besides these three pure breeds already mentioned, 

 which have arrived at the dignity of possessing a Stud Book 

 to conserve their interests, there are horses of various 

 nationalities employed in harness work in England, of 

 which before the days of mechanical traction there were very 

 large numbers indeed. Though they cannot be classed 

 amongst "foreigners," great numbers of powerful Irish 

 hunter-bred horses were, and are still, bought for this 

 purpose, especially by the great London dealers and job- 

 masters, and when Mackintosh was filling the vicinity of 

 Limerick with beautiful black-browns, Messrs. East bought 

 vast numbers of them, many of which seemed much too 

 good to pass their lives in harness. 



American horses, too, have been greatly valued, for the 

 great attention which has been paid to the perfecting of the 

 trotter has had an immense influence on the general horse- 

 stock of the country, besides the direct infusion of our own 

 race-horses, originally imported from England. The old 

 black harness horse of Canada, too, whatever his real origin, 

 was an animal of transcendant merit, honest, hard-working, 

 hardy, and a fast trotter, and the American trotters and 

 pacers owe much to the blood of the famous old Canadian 

 black horse, Pilot. The blood of which he was the most 



