The Cart-horse.—The Lincolnshire dray-horse is a large and magnificent animal, being the produce of a cross between the old English black and the Flemish horse, but being very slow, he has for some time been superseded by the Suffolk and Clydesdale horses. In his day he was in great request for brewers’ drays, but [136] ]owing to his want of speed he has now been almost discarded. The Lincolnshire dray-horse is now used for the production of carriage-horses by thoroughbred sires, and also some breeders of Clydesdale horses in Scotland are rather fond of crossing them with the Clydesdale, and selling the produce as thoroughbred Clydesdales, thus realising a thoroughbred price for a crossbred animal.
The Suffolk Cart-horse is chestnut, varying from a sorrel to a moderately dark chestnut colour; he is rather long in the back, deep-chested, full in the flank, and deep-bellied, having clean and wiry legs and a full crest. He is often seen in the South of England, but the Clydesdale is fast superseding him. Taking into consideration his make and shape, I do not see why the mares should not produce good carriage-horses, if mated with suitable thoroughbred sires.
The Clydesdale certainly is at present the king of the cart-horses in Great Britain; he is generally of a bay, brown, or black colour, the [137] ]bay and brown predominating. He has a neat well-bred head, a good neck, deep girth and round middlepiece, is short in the leg, the bone of which is remarkably large, and the fetlock covered with long hair. Much fashion depends upon the growth of hair at the fetlock; formerly it was curly, but now a Clydesdale will not pass muster unless he has about six inches of quite straight hair on these parts. Great prices are given for these horses, even when yearlings; when thoroughbred or supposed to be so, some good sires being let for the season at 500l. In Scotland they are all the rage, great care being taken with their breeding, although occasionally a breeder does sell a crossbred one as a thoroughbred, thus putting a nice little sum into his pocket.
Note.—Since the above was written, a Clydesdale Society has been formed, and a Clydesdale Stud Book is being compiled.
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Transcriber’s Note
Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained: break-in/break in, carthorse/cart-horse, flying-trot/flying trot, headstall/head-stall meantime/mean time, mouthpiece/mouth-piece, racecourse/race-course rocking-horses/rocking horses.