Nevada County picayune., 1890-01-15
EQUALITY IN FRENCH HORSES.
An English Horseman's Comments on the
 French Horse and His Points.

Speaking of the quality of the native French horses exhibited at the Paris show last spring, Mir. Burdette-Coutts, in London Livestock, Sports and Pastimes says: 'I have two general remarks to make. First, that up to i5.2, or possibly up to 153, hands our English horses, particularly now when the study and at- tention given to the Hackney breed has in five or six years produced such marked improvement, are tmmeasurably superior in every respect to any thing that Is bred in France. For barouchs horses from 16 to r hands high re- luctantly admit that the French breeder takes the brioche. The French have a race of carrossiers-that is, by constant- ly crossing the Hackney stallion with the big mares of Normandy, the latter probably enlarged by an earlier admixt- ure of Cleveland or Yorkshire coach- horse blood, they have created race from which their barouche horses are produced. am by no means satisfied with them. Their hind action is indifter- ent, their shapes are vastly inferior to our best Yorkshire type, showing neith- CT the lengthy and level quarter nor the long, elegant top line of the latter. But that which really shows horse in har- ness, aad which sells him at high price for that purpose, viz: high action in front, is very much more marked throughout the French-bred barouche horses than in our own.
 "It is not the best of action; it is often up and down, 'foppety,' and 'dishing,' but there is no doubt about it they do pop 1t up A pair of Yorkshire coach horses or of Cleveland bays-of that fine quality which my friend Mir. A. F. Pease, M. P, does not appear to consider either a natural or valuable character fstic of the latter breed, but which l be- lieve, by careful attention can easily be
 produced from tiff they had really high action in front, would be worth, in the eyes of any one who knows horses tail from his head, double the money
 that any French-bred pair ought to fetch. But, as rule, in our big horses of this type we have not got the action.
 There are one or two famous exceptions,
 and if these should succeed in reproduc- ing their own action while preserving
 their fine shapes we shall have solved
 the difficulty which to my mind should
 be matter of grief and consternation to English rse-breeders-yiz.: that VIC
 can not or do not at the present time
 produce big carriage horses suitable for the London state carriage.
 Tt Is a well-known fact that most of
 the big bay horses which we see in the
 Mall on a drawing room day, whatever 1 black blood may be In their veins, are 1 strangers in strange land. do not deny that some big horses with action
 are produced in Great Britain, but for
 the most part they are 'carriagey' hunt
 CTS from Ireland or the produce of Hack ney stallions and cart mares, and in
 neither case do they possess the curviIi-
 near and sweeping form which, to prac-
 ticed eye, is most beautiful for big harness horse. l have little doubt that
 some of the coarseness of shape, and par ticularly the low-set tail in the French carrossier, is due to the fact that many
 big so-called Hackney stallions have been imported into that country which get their size from a cross of oartlng
 blood. IL remains to be seen whether in
 this country we can not produce an ami
 nal with the requisite action and shape by crossing the Cleveland bay or the Yorkshire coach horse with pure Hack.
 ney possessed of extra size and quality. l Without the latter we shall do nothing tn this business.
 "One noticeable feature in French horses Is that in all sizes they are bred | for speed in trotting. The composition i of the ground in the Palais de eflndustrie
 Is suited to this peculiarity, being hard ! and not covered with tan, as in the case | of our shows. This is point which we
 seem to have lost sight of in favor of
 show action. And yet trotting speed must | be inherent in tho breed that comes from
 the loins of Marshland Shales, who did his r miles in 5d
 minutes, carrying IS st., or from Wroot's Pretender, who is credited with IS miles to the hour. carrying l6 st., as
 well as in the stock of that Yorkshire coach horse, brother to Wonderful, of
 whom we find the almost incredible record of IS miles in the hour, carrying IS st. In our competitions the pace which will make horse raise his knee to the highest point is the only one sought after, but any one who has visited one of the real old-fashioned Yorkshire breeders and seen these horses trotsnd
 without breaking on long rein to a galloway, the latter galloping alongside
 as fast as he can lay heels to the ground, or any one who remembers the large part which old Bellfounder played in
 the creation of the American trotting
 horse, will understand how easily the
 characteristic of speed could be resus- citated in these English breeds. - Breeders Gazette.