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Half-bred  Horses  for  Field  or  Road : 
Me.  T.  Parrixgtox. 
Naturally  one  of  the  first  persons  it  occurred  to  me  to  apply 
to  was  Mr.  Parrington.  I relied  on  his  friendly  feeling — the 
colleague  of  years — nor  was  I disappointed.  A famous  sports- 
man, delighting  in  the  noble  animal  the  subject  of  his  letter, 
his  experience  is  life-long — and  wide  as  continuous.  Few  men 
have  known  so  much  of  horses  and  horsemen  as  the  late  self- 
unsparing and  altogether  typical  Secretary  of  the  Yorkshire 
Agricultural  Society. 
“ My  Lord,  “Ravenswtke,  Kirbymoorside,  July  15,  1882. 
“ You  ask  me  to  give  you  my  opinion  as  to  the  best  method 
of  breeding  and  rearing  half-bred  horses  of  superior  quality  for 
riding  and  driving  purposes.  I will  endeavour  to  comply  with 
your  Lordship’s  request  in  as  concise  a form  as  possible,  first 
treating  of  the  mare,  then  of  the  stallion,  and  lastly  of  the 
produce. 
“ There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  pure  Cleveland  bay 
mare  is  the  best  animal  from  which  to  breed  valuable  half-bred 
horses  ; and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  foreigners  have 
been  buying  them  up  for  years,  until  it  is  now  difficult  to  find 
such  mares  in  the  hands  of  farmers,  and  the  pure  breed  is  almost 
extinct.  If  the  sort  of  mare  I now  speak  of  was  put  to  an  active, 
short-legged,  thoroughbred  stallion,  the  produce,  if  a colt,  was 
sure  to  make  a valuable  carriage-horse  ; if  a mare,  and  then 
crossed  again  with  blood,  the  produce  would  probably  be  a most 
valuable  hunter,  for  in  all  my  experience  I have  always  found 
the  best  and  most  enduring  horses  bred  in  this  wray — i.e.  got  by 
a thoroughbred  horse,  dam  by  a thoroughbred  horse,  grand-dam 
a pure  Cleveland  bay  mare  ; in  fact,  I have  known  many  ex- 
cellent horses  from  Cleveland  bay  mares  with  only  one  cross  of 
blood  ; and  forty  years  ago,  short-legged  stallions  of  high  quality, 
such  as  ‘ Perion,’  ‘ MacOrville,’  ‘ President,’  and  ‘ Theon,’  not 
unfrequently  got  from  such  mares  excellent  hunters,  that  sold 
at  from  one  to  two  hundred  pounds  each,  a great  price  in  those 
days. 
“ There  is  an  old  saying,  ‘ it  is  bad  to  get  butter  out  of  a 
dog’s  throat,’  and  the  foreigners  having  got  our  best  mares,  we 
shall  never  get  them  back  again.  Some  people  will  say  that 
the  farmers  should  not  have  parted  with  them  ; but  the  tempta- 
tion of  a high  price  in  times  of  depression  is  hard  to  resist. 
“At  the  different  Agricultural  Shows  now  held  all  over 
England,  how  seldom  we  see  a good  Class  of  Brood  Mares  ! 
Among  the  Hunting  Mares  all  sorts  of  inferior  creatures  are 
