CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 185 
As the Flemish mare succeeded the shire horse, 
so the Cleveland bay succeeded and vastly improved 
upon the Flemish importation. Cleveland bays are 
still bred, constituting with their cousins, the York- 
shire coach horses, and with the stout fast-stepping 
hackneys, the three strains of harness horse now 
to be found in England. I shall have a word to say 
about them ali. 
The Cleveland bays originated, as the name imports, 
in Cleveland, a district of the East Riding of York- 
shire, and they date from about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Remotely, they sprang from a 
cross between the native black cart horse, already 
mentioned, and the thoroughbred; but the type be- 
came a fixed one, and is thus described by Frank 
Forester : — 
“The Cleveland bay, in its natural and unmixed 
form, is a tall, powerfully built, bony animal, aver- 
aging, I should say, 15 hands 3 inches in height, rarely 
falling short of 154, or exceeding 16} 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 thinness of the cannon and shank bones. Their 
color is invariably bay, rather on the yellow bay than 
on the blood bay color, with black manes, tails, and 
legs. They are sound, active, powerful horses, with 
excellent 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 
