79 
Uorse-lr ceding for Profit. 
and workers of Harness-horses, who know most about it, say 
emphatically No ! and I thoroughly agree with them. There 
are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and it may occur, with 
good luck, and where the cart-mare has action, courage, and 
endurance, that such a mare may throw some useful and showy 
stock. But the risk in mating the two extremes, viz. the 
thoroughbred with the cart horse, or vice versd, seems to be that 
you get instead of a combination of the substance, and perhaps 
action, of the cart-mare with the quality and coui’age of the 
Thoroughbred, either an animal all common or all light — either 
quality and no action, or no quality and good action, a common 
top and light bone, and nine times out of ten an animal that is 
a slug, without courage and without “ bottom.” Authorities 
are good and numerous on this point, and in addition to one I 
have quoted above, I might mention a very competent one. 
Mr. Burdett-Coutts, M.P., who is a large breeder, and a most 
keen observer, and who has studied the question in England 
and abroad, speaks, in one article, of a fact which many of us 
have tried hard enough for a long time to impress upon horse- 
breeders in this country, viz. : — that the acme of harness-horse 
breeding is not to be found in the cross between a Thoroughbred 
stallion and a cart-mare. And again he declares we want size, 
for the foreign market especially, but we must have it without 
cart-blood. 
For myself, I have never seen a carriage-horse, possessing 
this cross of cart-blood, that had an outline which could be com- 
pared for a moment with that of the Cleveland, or with that off- 
shoot of the Cleveland — the Yorkshire Coach-horse. The elegant 
crest, the beautifal curves carried back over the withers along 
the fine top line of the back to the lengthy level quai’ter and the 
high-set tail, these cannot be found in the progeny of a cart- 
horse or a cart-mare. They will have a common top line — most 
probably a coarse short quarter, and, as in the Hackney breed, 
the tail set low. 
Now, there appear to me to be three ways in which a breeder 
can make half-bred horse-breeding successful and very profitable. 
Let the farmer provide himself, if he is without them, at the 
first decent opportunity, with two well-timbered mares of the 
strong Cleveland Bay type. If they are pure bred he can always 
use them when the demand is great for breeding pure Cleveland 
stock. Their purity adds to their value in the market and in 
insuring uniformity in their produce. Let them be strong 
mares, on short legs, with good action, always remembering 
that action is beauty, pace, and money. Let them above all 
things be sound and hardy, fit to do their full share of farm 
