Iv CLEVELAND AND YORKSHIRE BAY 57 
—an evidence of long-established purity of breeding. 
It is hard to trace many Cleveland pedigrees back 
to beyond the beginning of this century, though in 
the eighteenth the breed was regarded as the peculiar 
pride of certain districts in the North Riding, and 
was of a distinct colour and stamp. The model has 
probably been in the eye of farmers for centuries, 
but it is useless to declare that there is no cross 
of outside blood in the Cleveland bay. In all 
probability there are some far-back strains of racing 
blood, and later strains of what would be called 
coaching blood, but the way in which the type has 
been maintained and inbred, in a restricted area, 
has given it great prepotency and power of influenc- 
ing the produce of any horse or mare with which 
the Cleveland is coupled; and I think justifies its 
claim to be the oldest of English breeds. 
Put the Cleveland mare to even the Thoroughbred, 
be he brown, black, chestnut, or grey, it is fifty to 
one that the Cleveland influence will maintain itself, 
and that the foal will be the colour of the dam. 
The Cleveland has a large amount of quality—as 
much, in fact, as it is possible for a farm horse to 
carry—and is the best combination of power and 
quality to be found. Clean sinewy legs, with large, 
fine, dense bone, an elegant and stately carriage, a 
coat that rivals the Thoroughbred, all speak to an 
innate quality which makes it the finest basis from 
which to obtain the half-bred, the carriage horse, or 
the weight-carrying hunter. If the Yorkshire Bay 
Horse Society desires to prevent the loss of sub- 
stance that infallibly follows the continual mating of 
coach horse and coaching mare for successive 
