CLEVELAND BAY HORSE. From 'remote times the Cleveland and the Vale of Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, have been cele brated for their breeds of horses, adapted to gen eral work, hunting, carriage horses, and all that class of labor requiring style, a good turn of speed, and excellent bottom—a term used to designate staying qualities in the horse. As time passed, especially since the beginning of the present century, very many modifications ot this admirable kind was brought about by cross ing and selection, which, while preserving all the good points of the old Cleveland Bay, have modified them, so that to day, there is not an -animal to be found, even in the East Riding of Yorkshire, of the pure, unmixed and unimproved blood. The improvement has been brought about by crossing staunch thoroughbreds upon the original stock, and by selection, so they are acknowledged now to stand as a type of all that is excellent, in a horse of medium weight, (1,200 to 1,300 pounds) combining style, muscu lar activity, spirit, bottom, and good form in an eminent degree. On another page we give an illustration of the Cleveland Bay, of the present day, in his best form. They are constantly gain ing favor, especially in the West, where they are bred for horses for light and medium hauling, carriage horses, and all work where style and ' muscle are especially required. William Henry Herbert, Esqr , (Frank Forester) graphically describes the original Cleveland Bay, and the gradations by which he was bred up. From this we extract as follows: The Cleveland Bay, in its natural and unmixed form, is a tall, power fully-built, bony animal, averaging, I should say, fifteen hands three inches in height, rarely falling short of fifteen and a half, or exceeding sixteen and a half hands. The crest and withers are almost invariably good, the head bony, lean, and well set on. Ewe necks are, probably, rarer . in this family than in any other, unless it be the dray-horse, in which it is never seen. The faults of shape, to which the Cleveland Bay are most liable, are narrowness of chest, undue length of body, and flatness of the cannon and shank bones. Their color is universally bay, rather on the yellow bay than on the blood bay color, with black manes, tails and legs. They are sound, hardy, active, powerful horses, with excellent capabilities for draught, and good endurance, so long as they are not pushed .beyond their speed, which may be estimated at from six to eight miles an hour, on a trot, or from ten to twelve— the latter quite the maximum—on a gallop, under almost any weight. The larger and more showy of these animals, of the tallest and heaviest type, were the favorite coach horses of their day; the more wiry and lightly built, of equal height, were the hunters, in the days when the fox was hunted by his drag, unkennelled and run half a dozen hours, or more, before he was either earthed, or worn out and worried to death. Then the
shorter, lower and more closely ribbed up, were the road hackneys; a style of horse unhappily now almost extinct and having, unequally, sub stituted in its place, a wretched, weedy, half bred or three-quarter-bred beast, fit neither to go , the pace with a weight on its back, nor to last the time From these Cleveland Bays, however, though in their pure state nearly extinct, a very superior animal has descended, which, after several steps and gradations, has settled down into a family, common throughout all Yorkshire, and more or less all the Midland counties, as the farm-horse, and riding or driving horse of the farmers, having about two crosses, more or less, of blood on the original Cleveland stock. The _first gradation, when pace became a desideratum with hounds, was the stinting of the best Cleve land Bay mares to good thoroughbred horses, with a view to the progeny turning out hunters, troop-horses or, in the last resort, stage-coach horses or, as they were termed, machiners. The most promising of these half-bred colts were kept as stallions; and mares of the same type with their dams, stinted to them, produced the improved English carriage horse of fifty years ago. The next step was putting the half-bred fillies, by thoroughbreds out of Cleveland Bay mares, a second time, to thoroughbred stallions; their progeny to become the hunters, while them selves and their brothers were lowered into the carriage horses; and the half-bred stallions, which had been the getters of carriage horses, were used as the sires of new, improved cart-horses. Within the last thirty years, the Cleveland Bay has still further improved by careful selection. Vet they are constant and uniform in color, fully as much so as the Devons among cattle. The illustration we give would seem to leave but little to be desired in conformation and style. The editor has always regretted that this admi rable breed could not have been disseminated in the United States, about the time the Morgan horse fever raged. If so, the horse stock of the country would not have been degraded in size, and many millions of rnoney would have been saved to the country. It will take many years to breed out the mischief the Morgans have done, in dwarfing the size of our ordinary horses as found among the average farmers.