6b 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



constitutional vigor, bottom and general powers 

 of endurance.* 



"The term Hackney, in common use, is em- 

 ployed to denote a kind of horse fitted for gen- 

 eral services; and is, therefore, understood to 

 exclude the horses of the highest breeding, as 

 the Thoroughbred horse and Hunter; and there 

 is further associated with the idea of a Hackney, 

 an animal of moderate size, not exceeding fif- 

 teen hands, and possessing action, strength and 

 temper/ 5 But he adds — " The Hackneys of 

 the present day [1840, and much more so in 

 1855,] are of lighter form than those formerly 

 sought for, and there is greater difficulty in 

 obtaining them to suit the services required 

 from our present mixed varieties of half-bred 

 horses, than when horsemen were contented 

 with the older class of Hackneys of stouter 

 form but inferior breeding." It is important 

 to bear in mind that Low, in the passage just 

 cited, means part-bred by half-bred, and that 

 the , English apply the term half-bred to every 

 horse with any degree of breeding, no matter 

 how minute, if it be appreciable, nor how great, 

 provided it be short of fall blood. 



The term saddle-horses sometimes signifies 

 only Hacks,-— no body now-a-days taking the 

 trouble to say Hackneys,— but it is commonly 

 employed in a more general sense to embrace 

 Hunters and Chargers as well, but not Race 

 Horses, although they go under the saddle on 

 the turf. Horses for the field or the chase are 

 Hunters. Horses used only for road purposes 

 under the saddle, or for road . ricflng in contra- 

 distinction to both field-riding and turf-riding, 

 are Hacks. The most showy and elegant va- 

 riety of Hacks are called Park Hacks, the no- 

 bility and gentry of the British Empire riding 

 them in Hyde' Park in Rotten Row during the 

 London season. Harry Hieovcr,f if I recol- 

 lect rightly, divides Hacks into three classes, 

 and gives his opinion of them respectively, in 

 substance, as follows : 



" The thoroughbred or nearly thoroughbred 

 Hack," whose trot is nothing to boast of, and 

 whose chief gaits are the walk, canter and gal- 

 lop. This is, according to the English phrase, 

 a most "gentlemanly horse" in appearance. 



" The general Hack," not so highly bred as 

 the foregoing, but with general paces, — one who 

 canters and gallops well but does not "slip 

 along" like the thoroughbred or nearly tho- 



* On the turf stoutness is userl in eont^adistinc 

 tioa to mere speed; and it is applied to a horse 

 who ca t ru i a id wi i Ion » races, and many of them 

 to an advance;! a_>e, with heavy jockeys, on deep 

 ground, a > I, if-uMsfl be, make his final brudh with 

 advantage up hid. 



*f Practical Horse aaVship. 



roughbred, and^lso trots well, but not like the 

 Trotter or Trotting Hack, next to be mentioned. 

 This is quite a gentlemanly-looking animal, and 



entirely a gentleman's horse. 



The Trotting Hacks or Trotters [resembling 

 the Yorkshire Roadsters] differ a good deal in 

 their breeding, but are not as highly bred as 

 the first two classes. Harry Ilieover evidently 

 thinks the riding a strongly pulling trotter at 

 his fast pace presents a very vulgar and butcher- 

 like appearance. He likes, however, fast trot- 

 ters in harness in light vehicles, and considers 

 their looks in action then not ungentlemanly. 



Under all circumstances Harry Hieover unites 

 with the French in condemning as abominable 

 the gait of the amble or pace to which some of 

 our Virginians at the present day are so par- 

 tial.*' He complains of the term Cob as a 

 hacknied one, and it is plain from his under- 

 current of opinion that he dislikes the whole 

 class of Gobs as ungentlemanly brutes. Cobs, 

 from the docility and quietness of their tem- 

 pers and their nearness to the ground {pres de 

 terre) are well adapted to the service of inactive 

 and old men, — old fogies, as Young America 

 would disrespectfully say. I remember to have 

 seen Lord Lansdowne, among others, riding a 

 Gob, taking care, however, to have the sorry 

 figure he made redeemed, in a measure, by an 

 attendant groom mounted on a horse of the 

 most distinguished style. 



The Eev. John 31. Wilson f speaks of the 

 Hunting Horse as the country gentleman's sad- 

 dle horse, and of the Hack or Hackney as a 

 riding or road horse of any kind. He adds — 

 " The common saddle horse, technically a Hack- 

 nei/, may possess any character intermediate 

 between that of a well-tempered, easy-going 

 and long-enduring Hunter, and that of the 

 most miserable road hack. The farmer's saddle 

 horse is, in some instances, a Hackney, in some 

 a Hunter, but in the great majority, a horse of 

 all work, adapted equally to the saddle and to 

 draught." 



I have not .the English or any unmutiiated 

 edition of Youatt, but I believe he speaks of 

 " the farmer's horse," and describes him as half 

 Hackney and half Gart Horse. He probably 

 refers to a horse very similar in character to 

 the heaviest Yorkshire Roadsters or the old 

 Road Horses mentioned by Low. Cecil and 

 other well known English writers, I think, em- 

 ploy the term Roadster in so vague a sense a» 

 to embrace every thing of the horse kind thai 

 can go out of a walk, and is used on the road^ 

 whether in harness or under the saddle, in con- 



* The best Virginia horsemen of the old school 

 did not ride pacers. 

 f Rural Cyclopedia— Edinburgh and London. 



I 



