CHAP. IV THE VARDY 51 
produce, instead of a perfect combination of strength 
and substance with quality and pace, a coarse, mis- 
shaped horse, with clumsy feet, round soft legs, ugly 
carting quarters, and a coarse head ; or a horse with 
the frame of a draught horse and the limbs of a 
weed. In fact, there is no counting on the result. 
Even the attempt to get a carriage horse by the 
apparently simple course of crossing the hackney 
with the Cleveland, in order to combine the perfect 
action of the one with the beautiful coaching form 
of the other, is not likely always to succeed, as 
the result will often be disappointing, in that the 
horse, even if big enough, will have the ugly short 
quarter and short neck of the hackney. When good 
judgment is used, and great pains are taken, this 
cross is a success; and in point of view of service, 
and wear-and-tear qualities, there is nothing left to 
be desired. The best results are obtained by cross- 
ing those distinct breeds which approach each other 
in type, and that therefore most easily assimilate— 
eg. the Shire and the Clydesdale, the Cleveland 
and Yorkshire bay, the Cleveland or Coaching mare 
and the Thoroughbred, the Half-bred mare and the 
Thoroughbred. 
We live in an age of great revolution in horse- 
breeding, the results of which are so far-reaching 
that it is impossible to estimate them. It is the era 
of stud books and pedigrees, when each type is being 
permanently fixed by the lines drawn round each 
breed by Stud Book societies—such as the Clydes- 
dale, Shire, Suffolk, Hackney, Cleveland bay, York- 
shire bay, etc., etc.; and our example is being 
followed on the Continent and in America. Our 
