Light horses : breeds and management by Blew William Charles Arlington 1848-

Author:Blew, William Charles Arlington, 1848-
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Horses, Horses, Horse breeds
Publisher: London : Vinton
Published: 1919-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Hunter.

showing a wonderful amount of quality for the weight they have to carry; but all these horses we believe to be chance-bred ones.

We have only to go to horse shows to find out how rare are weight-carriers with quality. Out of about a couple of dozen entries, at least one quarter will be voted not up to the minimum weight; about the same number will be common, and only fit to follow harriers in a sticky, slow country; it will be possible to find faults more or less serious with some of the remainder, and when the judges come to make up their minds how the prizes shall be awarded, their choice will probably be limited to three or four. It will be observed, too, that as the limitations as to weight decrease, the classes grow very much larger. This has been less observable lately than it was a few years ago, for latterly, the tendency at horse shows has been to diminish the number of classes assigned to horses capable of carrying various weights. In connection with this question, the following extract from an Irish newspaper of 1886 may not be without interest:—" That our horse-breeding has changed within the last twenty-five years is evident by the great present scarcity of horses to carry over 14 stone, and the increase of those who can carry 12 stone. In last year's show (1885), although most substantial prizes were offered by the Royal Dublin Society, the proportion of classes were as follows :—For weight-carrying hunters up to 15 stone, five years' old, 64 entries ; hunters from 13 stone 7 lbs. to 15 stone, five years' old, 97 entries; while for the class for hunters up to from 12 stone to 13 stone 7 lbs., five years old, there were 143 competitors. Now, comparing this with the show held in 1876, exactly ten years since, the entries in the then respective classes were, 15 stone class, 25 ; 13 stone 7 lbs. class, 46; 12 stone class, 30."

Reference to the catalogues of our English horse shows

give very similar results. For example, when the Royal was

held at Nottingham in 1888, there were a dozen heavy weight

hunters and seventeen 12 stone horses; at Hull, in 1889,

8

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