Coach-horse, s. A horse used for coaches.
This animal has fully shared in the progress of improvement, and is as different from what he was fifty years ago as it is possible to conceive. The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-shouldered, round-legged, black family horse, neither a coach nor a dray-horse, but something between both, as fat as an ox, and, with all his pride and prancing at first starting, not equal to more than six miles an hour, and knocking-up with one hard day’s work, is no more seen; and we have, instead of him, an animal as tall, deep-chested, rising in the withers, slanting in the shoulders, flat in the legs, with even more strength, and with treble the speed.
There is a great deal of deception, however, even in the best of these improved coach-horses. They prance it nobly through the streets; and they have more work in them than the old clumsy, sluggish breed; but they have not the endurance that could be wished; and a pair of poor post-horses would, at the end of the second day, beat them hollow.
The knee-action, and high lifting of the feet, in the carriage-horse is deemed an excellence, because it adds to the grandeur of his appearance; but, as has already been stated, it is necessarily accompanied by much wear and tear of the legs and feet, and this is very soon apparent.
The principal points in the coach-horse are substance well placed, a deep and well-proportioned body, bone under the knee, and sound, open, tough feet.
The origin of the better kind of coach-horse is the Cleveland-bay, confined principally to Yorkshire and Durham, with, perhaps, Lincolnshire on one side, and Northumberland on the other, but difficult to meet with pure in either county. The Cleveland mare is crossed by a three-fourth, or thoroughbred horse of sufficient substance and height, and the produce is the coach-horse most in repute, with his arched crest and high action. From the thorough-bred of sufficient height, but not of so much substance, we obtain the four-in-hand, and superior curricle-horse.
From less height and more substance, we have the hunter and better sort of hackney; and, from the half-bred, we derive the machiner, the poster, and the common carriage-horse; indeed, Cleveland, and the Vale of Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, may be considered as the most decided breeding country in England for coach-horses, hunters, and hackneys. The coach-horse is nothing more than a tall, strong, over-sized hunter. The hackney has many of the qualities of the hunter on a small scale.
How far we are carrying supposed improvement too far, and sacrificing strength and usefulness to speed, is a question not difficult to resolve. The rage for rapid travelling is the bane of the post-master, the destruction of the horse, and a disgrace to the English character.
There is no truth so easily proved, or so painfully felt by the post-master, at least in his pocket, as that it is the pace that kills. A horse at a dead pull, or at the beginning of his pull, is enabled, by the force of his muscles, to throw a certain weight into the collar. If he walk four miles in the hour, some part of that muscular energy must be expended in the act of walking; and, consequently, the power of drawing must be proportionally diminished. If he trot eight miles in the hour, more animal power is expended in the trot, and less remains for the draught; but the draught continues the same, and, to enable him to accomplish his work, he must tax his energies to a degree that is cruel in itself, and that must speedily wear him out.
Let it be supposed—what every horse cannot accomplish—that he shall be able, by fair exertion and without distress, to throw, at a dead pull, a weight into his collar, or exert a force equal to two hundred and sixteen pounds; or, in other words, let him be able to draw a load which requires a force of two hundred and sixteen pounds to move. Let him next walk at the rate of four miles in an hour; what force will he then be able to employ? We have taken away some to assist him in walking, and we have left him only ninety-six pounds, being not half of that which he could exert when he began his pull. He shall quicken his pace to six miles an hour—more energy must be exerted to carry him over this additional ground. How much has he remaining to apply to the weight behind him? Fifty-four pounds only. We will make the six miles an hour ten; for it seems now to be the fashion for the fast coach, and for almost every coach, and every vehicle to attempt this pace. How stands the account with the poor beast? We have left him a power equal to thirty-two pounds only to be employed for the purpose of draught.