Part 5

The practical disappearance from our country of such horses as those used in the mail and ordinary coaches and in post carriages was nothing short of a national calamity. They were horses of the essentially useful stamp, sound, hardy and enduring, just such animals as are indispensable for cavalry, artillery, and transport work on a campaign. And though the full importance of the loss which had befallen us was evident, the difficulties in the way of retrieving our position as breeders was not less evident. The breeding of horses had ceased to be remunerative, and as a natural consequence men had ceased to breed them, preferring to devote their energies and capital to stock of a stamp for which they could depend upon finding a market. Any horses of the useful class that were produced found their way, if worth having, into the hands of foreigners, as we have seen.

In March, 1887, Lord Ribblesdale took the matter up and in a very able speech drew the attention of the House of Lords to the question of the "Horse Supply for Military and Industrial Purposes." He rendered a tribute to the work that was being done by private persons and by societies and associations, thanks to whose endeavours the breeders of Shire horses and Clydesdales were prospering. The brisk foreign demand for British stock proved its merit, but so long as halfbred horses suitable for remounts and all useful purposes were as scarce as they were, while we were importing horses to the value of over a quarter of a million sterling annually, including harness-horses and match pairs of carriage-horses, we had evidence that we were not breeding high class horses up to the demand for our own daily increasing needs.

He urged that the money given in Queen's Plates be diverted from its then use and devoted to subsidising approved stallions, which should serve at low fees; and that large prizes should be offered from the public purse for foals, yearlings, and two-year-olds. As regarded military horses he advised the purchase of two-year-olds to be kept at maturing _depôts_ till old enough to take in hand; and in recommending the system of direct purchase from the breeder referred to the fact that direct purchase was approved by Baron Nathansius, the French Inspector General of Remounts, in a letter which that officer had addressed to the present writer.

Lord Ribblesdale paid me the compliment of seeking my assistance in his task: and in order to obtain the actual views of the horse-breeding interest in England, Colonel Sir Nigel Kingscote, Sir Jacob Wilson and the writer met in February, 1887, and drew up a series of questions.

These questions were printed and sent out to between three and four hundred of the best known horse-breeders in the Kingdom; to all, in point of fact, whose experience would lend weight to their views and whose addresses could be secured. The principal questions put were as follows:--

"_Q. 1._ Assuming that an annual Grant from the Government of £5,000 be made for the encouragement of the breeding of halfbred horses, to whom in your opinion ought such grant to be entrusted for distribution? Whether to a specially constituted Board of Trustees or to any other body?

"_Q. 2._ Is it your opinion that the distribution of the above Grant should take the form of a subsidy in the shape of Premiums for Thoroughbred Stallions covering at a moderate fee similar to those offered by the Hunters' Improvement Society at their Annual Spring Show, and this year by the Royal Agricultural Society at Newcastle?"

In answer to Question 1, 194 replies were received in time for tabulation; of these 79 were in favour of the grant being distributed by a specially constituted Board of Trustees; 60 were in favour of its distribution by the Royal Agricultural, Hibernian and Caledonian Societies; 33 preferred that the duty should be vested in local and county societies, and 22 offered no opinion.

Of answers to Question 2, 113 were in the affirmative, 44 replied "No," and partial concurrence was expressed by 19; a few gentlemen advised subsidising roomy halfbred mares. The body of opinion so collected and tabulated was placed in Lord Ribblesdale's hands about the end of April; but not until August did opportunity occur for him to ask in the House of Lords whether the Government proposed to take any action in the matter. He referred briefly to the fact that the breeders of the Kingdom had been circularised on the subject, but omitted to support his enquiry by any analysis of the very important and valuable mass of expert opinion thus placed at his disposal.

It is quite probable that during the months which elapsed between receipt of the information we had collected for him and the date of his August speech, Lord Ribblesdale had made use of them to influence the Government in the desired direction; for the speech appeared to be framed solely for the purpose of affording Lord Salisbury opportunity to declare the intentions of his Government.

In brief, the Premier announced that it was proposed to devote the money theretofore given as Queen's Plates to breeding; that this sum, £3,000 a year, would be made up to £5,000 by a small addition to the Estimates; and that it was proposed to assign the duty of administering the fund to an independent Trust. The Royal Commission on Horse Breeding was appointed, consisting of the Duke of Portland, the Earl of Coventry, Lord Ribblesdale, Mr. Chaplin, M.P., Mr. F. G. Ravenhill, Mr. John Gilmour, Sir Jacob Wilson and Mr. Bowen Jones; and, acting in concert with the Royal Agricultural Society, the Commissioners, in December, 1887, issued their first Report.

This document stated that only in recent years had any further necessity arisen to encourage breeding apart from private enterprise; the scarcity of horses was due, in their opinion, to the creation of large breeding studs by foreign Governments, who came to us for their stock and caused a drain upon our resources.

The Commission reported "there was little doubt that the Queen's Plates had failed to fulfil their purpose;" but perhaps it had been nearer the mark to say that the Royal Plates had _ceased_ to fulfil their original purpose, owing to the multiplication of valuable stakes which reduced the Royal hundred-guinea prizes to third-class rank and rendered them useless as factors in the encouragement of breeding. The Commission recommended the abolition of the Royal Plates and the application of the money thereto devoted to a scheme of Queen's Premiums, under which sound and approved thoroughbred sires should stand in specified districts and under control of a local committee, serve mares at a low fee. The scheme was at once adopted, and has worked well in practice.

The year 1896 saw the appointment of the Royal Commission to Inquire into the Horse Breeding Industry in Ireland. Though the enquiry resolved itself into a comparatively narrow issue, a very large amount of evidence, much of it exceedingly interesting and instructive, was recorded. In pursuance of their policy of encouraging the breeding of all live stock in Ireland, it was proposed to send over selected stallions, thoroughbred and roadster, for the use of owners of mares in the horse-breeding districts. There was much diversity of opinion on the propriety of establishing hackney sires in a country so famed for its hunters, and the principal object of the Commission was to take the opinions of experts on the proposed step.

While the majority of witnesses were averse from the introduction of the hackney sire, on the ground that the happy-go-lucky methods of the small Irish farmer would lead to intermingling of blood to the ultimate deterioration of the Irish hunter, it was generally acknowledged that the bone and substance of the hackney was eminently desirable in many districts to improve the character of the local stock.

Could a workable system of mare registration have been devised to prevent hunter mares being sent to hackney sires in those counties where hunter-breeding is a valuable industry, there can be no doubt that the introduction of such sires would lay the foundation in Ireland of the breed of high class harness-horses in which Britain is so singularly deficient, and which could be produced in Ireland with as much, if not greater, success, as they are produced on the Continent.

Her Majesty's reign has seen the rapid growth of demands from every civilised country in the world for British horses of every breed, eloquent proof of the esteem in which our horses are held abroad and of the success which has attended our endeavours to improve them.

We have, it must be confessed, "gone back" in our department of horse-breeding; the supersession of coaches and their teams of fast and enduring horses by railway traffic has brought about neglect of this most useful stamp of animal. The tens of thousands of coach horses formerly required created a large and valuable industry, and it is only in the natural order of things that when railways made an end of the coaching era that horse-breeders should have turned their energies into new channels.

It is only within recent years that breeders have recognised how much combined and systematic endeavour can do to assist them in their task of improving our several breeds; and it is worth observing that the most important societies for the promotion of horse-breeding (apart from the General Stud Book) were all founded in the short space of nine years, one after the other, till at the present day every breed is represented by a body whose sole aim is to care for its interests.

LIGHT HORSES.

_The Hunters' Improvement Society_, founded 1885. Secretary, Mr. A. B. Charlton, 12, Hanover Square, London, W.

_The Hackney Horse Society_, founded 1884. Secretary, Mr. Euren, 12, Hanover Square, W.

_The Cleveland Bay Horse Society_, founded 1884. Secretary, Mr. F. W. Horsfall, Potto Grange, Northallerton, Yorks.

_The Yorkshire Coach Horse Society_, founded 1886. Secretary, Mr. J. White, Appleton Roebuck, Yorkshire.

_The Trotting Union of Great Britain and Ireland_, founded 1889. Secretary, Mr. E. Cathcart, 7, Trinity Square, Brixton, London.

_The Polo Pony Society_, founded 1894. Secretary, Mr. A. B. Charlton.

_The New Forest Pony Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. H. St. Barbe, Lymington, Hants.

_The Shetland Pony Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. Robert R. Ross, 35, Market Street, Aberdeen.

HEAVY HORSES.

_The Shire Horse Society_, founded 1878 (as the English Cart Horse Society; name changed in 1884). Secretary, Mr. J. Sloughgrove, 12, Hanover Square, W.

_The Suffolk Horse Society_, founded 1891. Secretary, Mr. Fred Smith, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

_The Clydesdale Horse Society_, founded 1883. Secretary, Mr. Archibald MacMilage, 93, Hope Street, Glasgow.

_London Cart Horse Parade Society_, founded 1885. Secretary, Mr. Euren, 12, Hanover Square, London, W.

The dates when these Societies were established are given, as the information eloquently bears out that passage in the Report of the Royal Commission on Horse-breeding which refers to private enterprise.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Ponies Past and Present._ By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart, published by Vinton & Co., Limited.

[2] "The History and Art of Horsemanship." By Richard Berenger, Gentleman of the Horse to George III., published 1771.

[3] "London," by Stephanides. Leland's _Itinerary_, vol. viii.

[4] "The History of Newmarket." By T. P. Hore. (3 vols.) H. Baily & Co. London, 1886.

[5] See _The Great Horse or War Horse_ (p. 26). Third edition. By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co., Ltd. 1899.

[6] See _Ponies Past and Present_, pp. 5-6.

[7] _The Great Horse or War Horse_. Third edition. By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., Vinton & Co., Ltd., 1899.

[8] "History of Newmarket."

[9] There is some doubt concerning the price paid by the King for the Markham Arabian. The Duke of Newcastle, in _The New Method of Dressing Horses_ (1667) says: "Mr. Markham sold him to King James for five hundred pounds," and this statement has been repeated by Sidney and other writers. In the _Times_ of September 1, 1878, however, a correspondent signing himself "H" drew attention to the following entry in the "Records of the Exchequer:" "Item, December 20, 1616, paid to Master Markham for an Arabian Horse for His Majesty's own use £154. Item, the same paid to a man that brought the same Arabian Horse and kept him £11."

[10] _Coach and Sedan._

[11] _Pills to Purge Melancholy._

[12] "Remarks on the Early Use of Carriages in England," _Archæologia_, 1821.

[13] _Ibid._

[14] "Carriages: Their First Use in England," by Sir Walter Gilbey; _Live Stock Journal Almanac_, 1897.

[15] _History of the Art of Coach Building_. By Geo. A. Thrupp, London, 1876.

[16] _The History and Art of Horsemanship._ By Richard Berenger, London, 1771.

[17] "Half Bred Horses for Field and Road; Their Breeding and Management," _Journal_ of the R. A. S. E. vol. xix., part 1, No. xxxvii.

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Transcriber's notes:

The following is a list of changes made to the original. The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.

King Alfred (871 to 991) had a Master of the Horse, named Ecquef, King Alfred (871 to 899) had a Master of the Horse, named Ecquef,

It is stated that, in the year 1752, sixty throughbred stallions, It is stated that, in the year 1752, sixty thoroughbred stallions,

putting a man on a rough trotting horse, to which he is obliged putting a man on a rough trotting horse, "to which he is obliged

GREY DIOMED, folded 1785. By Diomed--Grey Dorimant. GREY DIOMED, foaled 1785. By Diomed--Grey Dorimant.

End of Project Gutenberg's Horses Past and Present, by Walter Gilbey