Riding and Driving for Women

by Belle Beach

The correct type for a park hack is the subject of much diversity of opinion in the show ring as well as in park riding. Some judges favor the thoroughbred type, while some go to the other extreme and favor the harness type. My choice for a park hack is a sort of a “betwixt-and-between”; a riding horse “smarter” and more “peacocky” than either the

thoroughbred or the Southern bred saddle horse; not necessarily bristling with quality, yet showing plenty of breeding, and with substance, style, and a snappy all-round way of going. In other words, a horse that fills the eye of the layman by his general showiness, and yet satisfies his rider by the niceness of his gaits and manners and the feeling of pride on being

mounted on something that compels universal admiration.

Combination Type (Mayo)

Of late the term “road hack” has come into use. This title does not yet denote a definite type. If I were attempting to define it I should say a horse more like the English cob, low in stature, not over 15.1, but great in substance, and with beauty somewhat sacrificed to utility. He must be well mannered, be as willing to stand as he is willing to go, and should have a fast, well-balanced trot, as the hardness of the roads often makes cantering impossible on the highway. He should resemble the park hack, but should be of a more useful and heavier type, and if he can jump a bit, so much the better.

In all horse shows there is now a class for what is called the “combination horse,” a type, as I have heard some people say, that cannot exist without detriment to either the riding or driving qualities of the animal. With this I personally do not agree. I think all saddle horses should be broken to drive, for there are many occasions when they will be more useful to their owners in harness than under saddle, and it is far better when one cannot ride to exercise one’s saddle horse by driving it to a light trap than to have it ridden by a groom or a stranger. In this country it is almost impossible to find a groom with “hands,” and one’s own saddle horse should be kept

for one’s own riding exclusively. Moreover, if one has “hands,” one has them quite as much in driving as in riding, and the horse will always feel that he is under his mistress’s own control. Of course one would never think of taking a schooled and beautifully gaited saddle horse and making him into a harness drudge, but occasional light work in the shafts will do one’s horse far more good than harm. While every saddle horse should go well in harness, it does not follow that every harness horse should go well under saddle, for the recognized type of harness horse is utterly unsuited to the saddle. It is not a question of training; no amount of training could make the stiff-necked, flat-withered, heavy-shouldered harness type into a saddle horse. He has been bred for generations for dragging and not for carrying, and he is an entirely distinct type from the saddle horse.

So we find that the combination horse ought to be rather a saddle horse that can be driven than a harness horse that can be ridden, and, for the show ring, the ideal combination horse is really a park hack well broken to harness.