Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-02-05

the artillery was horsed from the same
region and with precisely the stamp of
horse which | now see daily before the
New York express vans; and | myself
heard a very distinguished officer of rank
who has won still higher distinction III
Crimea say that the artillery had never
in his knowledge of the service been bet
ter, if so well horsed, as it was while in
Canada.
1t may be worth while to add, that the
hussars, when ordered home, as is usual,
in order to save the expense of transport
tation, sold their horses but the dragoon
guards and artillery, unless | have been
most wrongly informed, toVk the quar-
ter part of theirs, and especially the
mares, home with them, owing to their
superior qlality.
OF the existence of this breed, there
fore, there can be no doubt, nor of its
excellence. In the old days, while
staging was in its perfection in New
England before the railroads had SUI
perseded coaching, it was the lighter
animals of this same breed and stamp
which drew the pOst-cOaches, in II style
that have never seen approached, out
of New England, in America; nor do
believe that it ever has been approach
ed elsewhere. For several years it was
years since, when Salem was the eX-
IRENE eastern limit of railroad travel.
to journey a good deal between Boston
and Bangor, in Maine; and, As | always
| preferred the box, with the double OBJ
! jpct of observing the country, and see
ing the horses work. having, also, a
tolerablc knacli of getting ON with the
coachmen, who, by the way, were
coachmeR, on those roads in those days,
not stable helpers-each one coaching
his own team along, as well or as badly
as he could, according to the fashion of
all the other States in which | have
journeyed-l contrived to pick up some
Information, concerning the quickly work
my, active, powerful, well conditioned,
and sound animals, which excited both
my wonder and my admiration.
My wonder. for that in my stage coach
experience in New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Upper Canada, from
the year 1888 to 1886, of which | had
enjoyed considerable opportunity-hav-
ing once vovaged in what was called,
by IA cruel irony, the Telegraph Line,
from Albany to Buffalo, through. in
three days and two nights had formed
anything but favorable estimate of
American stage coaching.
My admiration. for that over roads,
though very well kept for the state of
the country, which would have made AN
English whip open his eyes, and proba-
bly, his mouth also in imprecations both
loud and deep, and through a very
rough line of country. so far as hills
and long stages were concerned, | never
saw any horses in my life do their work
more honestly, more regularly or more
quickly.
The rate of going was nine miles, in
GLIDING stoppages; to do which 1t was
necessary to make between ten and
eleven over the road; the time was
punctually kept-as punctually as on
the best English mail routes, at that time
when the English mail was the wonder
of the world and | have no hesitation
in saying that ten and a half to eleven
miles an hour over those roads, is fully
equal to thirteen or fourteen over the
English turnpikes. as they were at the
time concerning which | am writing.
And speak on this subject, with the
conviction that | speak knowingly, for,
between the years 1925 and 1881, there
were not IL great many fast coaches on
the flying roads of the day, on the boxes
of which have not sat. nor few of the
fastest. on which | have not handled the
ribbons.
All these horses were evidently of the
very breed and stamp which | describe,
and learned on inquiry that it is from
the region | have named, namely. the
northern part of Massachusetts, YER
mont, and perhaps some portion of New
Hampshire, that most of the horses
came, and that from those quarters,
moreover, is the origin of the horse of
Maine, almost without admiXture.
Whence this admirable stock of horses
came. or how it has been created. there
! is, as | have observed, no record. | do
not, however, think it possible, or even
/ difficult to arrive at something not very
far from the facts of the natter if one
| look to the sources whence he might
reasonably expect such "A strain to be
deduced, and then find that such sources
are not wanting, and that ne irly in the
proportion one would have suggested.
In the first place. then, the size, the
action, the color, the comparative free
dom from hair on the limbs, the straight
ness of the longer hairs of the name and
tail, and the quickness of movement,
would at once lead one to suspect a large
cross, perhaps the largest of any, on the
original mixed country horse of Cleve-
land Bay. There are, however, some
points in almost all these horses, which
must be referred to some other foreign
cross than the Cleveland, not thorough
bred, and as | have mentioned above,
certainly not Norman or Canadian, of
which these animals do not exhibit any
characteristic The points to which |
have referred are principally the short
ness of the back, the roundness of the
barrel, the closeness of the ribbing up,
the general punchy or pony build of the
animal and its form and size, larger and
more massively muscular than those of
the Cleveland Bay, yet displaying fully
as large, if not larger share of blood
than belongs to that animal in its I'M
mixed form. The prevalent colors of
this breed, or family, if may so call it,
also appear to point to an origin differ
ent in part from that of the pure Cleve-
land Bays, which, as have before OBJ
served, lean to the light or yellow bay
variation, while these New Englanders
tend as decidedly to the blood bay, If
not to the brown bay or pure brown.
Now these latter are especially the dray
he. 1