THE HORSE FOR THE MARKET. 
BREED WHAT IS WANTED. 
About 10 weeks ago we gave a picture of a fine 
Hackney stallion. This week we show another cele¬ 
brated horse, M. P. 1852, the horse that has twice won 
first prize in the celebrated London show. The Rural 
New-Yorker has often advised its readers to consider 
the merits of the Hackneys. We have also referred to 
the great Vermont horse farm of Dr. Webb where 
some of the best Hackneys in the world have been 
gathered. In showing the picture of “ M. P.,” we are 
glad to print an article written originally by Dr. Webb 
for the Hack¬ 
ney, the new 
paper devoted 
to the interests 
of this breed. 
By the courtesy 
of its editor we 
are enabled to 
reprint the pict¬ 
ure and article. 
The Farmer's 
Horse.—His 
Breeding. 
Since I estab¬ 
lished my farm 
in Vermont, I 
can scarcely 
say how much 
I have been im¬ 
pressed with 
the degenera¬ 
tion of the 
famous Ver¬ 
mont horse. 
Years ago the 
State of Ver¬ 
mont was justly 
celebrated for 
its horses, 
which were 
valued not only 
for their speed 
but for their 
hardy constitu¬ 
tions and un¬ 
tiring road 
qualities. The 
distinguish i n g 
characterise c s 
of these horses 
were neatness 
and compact¬ 
ness of form, 
hardiness of 
constitution, 
with' general 
soundness o f 
wind and limb; 
strong diges¬ 
tive organs, en- , 
abling them to live on little food; good action making 
them fast travelers, or “ all-day” horses; and finally 
a high degree of intelligence and spirit. 
I have always been a lover of the horse, and when I 
stocked my farm, I determined that instead of engag¬ 
ing in the commendable and pastoral vocation of 
raising cows and sheep, I would endeavor to do some¬ 
thing to elevate the condition of the Vermont horse, 
and bring him back, if possible, to the high position 
he occupied in the favor of all horse lovers of the 
country years ago. The first thing I did was to look 
about for a good horse with bone, size and action. I 
found all these combined in the French Coaching stal¬ 
lion Incroyable. The French Coachers are noted for 
their docility, endurance, and road powers. They are 
descended from the celebrated postilion horses used 
in France on stage coaches prior to the opening of 
railroads. They have since been improved by a cross 
with the English thoroughbred, and are now the breed 
that furnishes the magnificent coach and carriage 
horses so celebrated for their style and action, used in 
the parks of London and Paris, and fast becoming 
popular, and commanding high prices in New York, 
Boston, and other large cities in the United States. 
Although this horse was a fine, big, showy animal, 
and had won numerous prizes at the New York and 
Hackney Stallion M. P 1852. Twice Champion London Show. Foaled, 1887. Fig. 132. 
other horse shows, and was purchased at a very large 
price, yet he did not make any particular impression 
on the Vermonter, whose ideas run altogether to the 
trotter; simply because he could not do the work of 
the trotter, they did not think he was a great horse. 
I next bought a large thoroughbred stallion Sid- 
dartha, imported by Mr. Pierre Lorillard. He was 
short-backed, round-ribbed, and had good bone, and 
was much more appreciated by the people in the 
neighborhood, and I believe did great good in the 
vicinity. I next sent to Kentucky and there bought a 
Happy Medium stallion and an Almont stallion. The 
latter stands 16.2, and is out of a George Wilkes mare, 
has enormous bone, short back, and is, in fact, an 
elegant stamp of a carriage horse sire. My brood 
mares have been native mares of good size, round- 
ribbed, short in the back, and almost all brought from 
New York State, Canada and Maine—hardly one from 
Vermont. My results from breeding these to the 
French Coach horse and the thoroughbred have proved 
exceedingly satisfactory, and I have kept all the fillies 
for breeding purposes, and am now using the Hackney 
on them. 
After the introduction of the French horses, I still 
felt that I was not accomplishing quite fast enough 
the work I had set out to do ; so, in the spring of 1890, 
I bought in En¬ 
gland 35 Hack¬ 
ney mares and 
four stallions. 
But, strange 
as it may ap¬ 
pear, I could 
not dispose of 
some of these 
stallions to my 
neighbors i n 
Vermont at 
one-fifth the 
cost of the ani- 
m a Is . One 
Hackney and 
one Coach horse 
stood at St. 
Albans, Vt., for 
$10, and not 
enough money 
was received 
from the enter¬ 
prise to pay the 
expenses of the 
groom and 
horse, to say 
nothing of the 
groom’s salary. 
One of these 
horses cost 
$4,000; took 
second prize at 
St.-Lo, France, 
and first prize 
at New York in 
the fair of 1891. 
The other was 
aprize-winning 
Hackney stal¬ 
lion. The same 
season I sent 
two of the kind 
to Middlebury, 
Vt. These two 
) did a little bet¬ 
ter, and at $10 
each paid ex¬ 
penses. While 
I held my trot¬ 
ting horses at 
$50 and $100 each, and for the services of Hackneys 
and Coachers I charged nothing, yet many a farmer 
would come, and, with his hard-earned savings, take 
the service of one of these trotters against my advice. 
I am so firmly convinced of the good that can come 
from the infusion of the blood of these Hackney and 
French Coach horses with the blood of our native 
mares that I ha' e lately given to the town of Middle¬ 
bury the Hackney stallion Accident, winner of the 
first prize at the Paris Exhibition, and the French 
Coach horse Incroyable to the town of Rutland, on 
condition that the farmers are allowed their services 
for a nominal fee of $2 or $3. 
In the future I hope to make Vermont as celebrated 
