The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-05-14
BrsErIrs OF THE HAoKNHY CROSS
An Excellent Article by Henry Fairfax In
"rhe Hackney"

I will endeavor to give you o bit of my
experience in breeding the hackne y
stations to our comm On mares, and In
order that may best illustrate 1 will
give the practical results obtained at
Oak Hill, 80 that 1 trust your readers
may not think 1t is an effort to sound
the praises of my stock, but simply to
give others wishing to breed the benefit
OF my efforts in the past four years.
In speaking of the Cross I will take
into my list the light draft or harness
mare, the saddlers, the .thoroughbreds
that will not produce racers, and trotters
of Questionable families that do not
produce winners on tho track and are Of
little value for their racing blood lines,
The farmer. In Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee we have as good an average
class OF such mares ascan be found In
the United States. These brood
mares have their weak points,
viz: narrow quarters. loosely-coupled
bodies and legs too light to
stand the hard city streets and park
roads, are lacking in style OF carriage,
notably about their heads and necks,
and decidedly lacking in what is now
absolutely needed in order to meet the
requirements of fashionable carriage
horses, viz action. In speaking of.ac-
ton mean that smart, snappy picking
up and putting forward Of the fore feet
done with the free use OF the shoulders,
bending the knee and fetlock we'll while
lifting 1t up, at the same time flexing
the hook, keeping one hind foot we'll
under the body, which takes much of
the shock from the front legs and
shoulders. and at the same time by It's
position under the center of gravity is
in readiness to recover from a slip Of
another foot, so liable to happen to the
horse while travelling the hard city
streets. This a,tion should be shown
at all times while in motion, either at
the walk going from two to four. or the
trot from four to fifteen miles per hour
both up hill and down, and should be
we'll balanced, giving the amin al the
appearance OF dancing along as his feet
come lightly down, lift we'll up, and
carry forward for the onward stride.
Some five or six years ago l deter
mined to give up keeping COWS and
cattle and try breeding horses upon the
farm. had seen for years the results
OF breeding all classes of horses in my
immediete neighborhood-th trotter,
the French coach, the thoroughbred
and the draft animal-but none Of them
filled the demand even then pressing
for well.balanced, well-mannered
pleasure horse. Not finding what I
wished at home L acquainted myself as
fully as possible with the different
types Of horse in Europe and Amer.ca
to secure the stations for breeding
upon the mares such as I could pick up
near home to produce more useful
and better horse than one generally
finds in the market, and at the same
time keeping we'll in mind the original
expense in putting such animals on the
market With this in mind / visited
the different cities of Europe and Eng
land during the summer and fall of 1888
and studied the horse I saw about the
parks and drives in London and other
cities in England. To all my
inquiries regarding the fine, light trap
horse, single, double, tandem and four
in hand, with many cfthe perfect park
hacks that saw, the answer was in.
variably "hackney blood" Wishing
to more thoroughly investigate the
hackney and 30 into the homes OF
these horses, was fortunate enough to
engage the services of Mr.. G. 1. Douglas,
of England. who's thorough familiarity
with the Hackney districts, enabled m
to see almost every choice specimen OF
that breed and 10 compare them. After
such an investigation it did not take
me long to determine that the hackney
or English roadster was what I needed,
and after carefully looking over many
stations, found in Yorkshire the one
wanted Matchless. of Londesboro,
Q5i7). With Matchless purchased
the then sucking colt, Northern Light
and Go, by Old Fireaway (249).
had very good luck in bringing these
horses to this country, and although
they were at first looked upon with dis
favor by many of my neighbors / Sc.
lected the best mares in my section to
mate with Matchless, in many cases
agreeing 10 purchase the foal at slip,
ulated price in order to secure the use
OF the mare. In this way Matchless was
bred to great many of the ordinary
mares of good formation in my neigh
borhood. And in Septem Der, 1890, Of
fared prizes for the get Of Matchless to
be shown at our county fair. held at
Leesburg. This was something entirely
new in the history OF our county and in
the scramble for these prizes about
twenty'o one youngsters entered the ring,
every one OF the foals showing dis
tinc'ly the characteristics of the sire as
we'll as the hackney type. With one ex-
ception they were all chestnuts-inits itself
a great tribute to the prepotency of
the hackney blood. They were won.
derfully we'll CHARTERED, with fine
round barrels, bent and used their hooks
to such an extent that some of my good
neighbors suggested, "They are nearly
all stringhalt in all four legs" Their
large bone and general appearance
pleased everybody who saw them, and
the hackney question, SO far as Lou
doun county was concerned, had been
solved. In speaking of these foals a
writer to Pennsylvania paper stated
in his comments, 1.-The foals OF Match.
less were as easily picked out from the