UTILITY OR SHOW?

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1385, 11 March 1912, Page 8

UTILITY OR SHOW?

FASHIONS IN CLYDESDALES. "The tall horse which some experts favour is only laughed at by the Australian and New Zealandcr," says llr. M'Neilage, secretary of the Glasgow Clydesdale Society, in some remarks on tho class of draught stock now in'most request for.tho export trade. "The colonial," he says, "cannot see how that typo of animal can bo regarded as the ideal for draught purposes, and with his point of view we altogether sympathise. Some of our visitors this year were no mean students of horseflesh. They had given considerable attention to the subject, and their criticism, especially at the Royal, Norwich, where the facilities for comparing and contrastiiij; breeds were unique, were not quite pleasant to the ears of Clydesdale fanciers, In former days the best of the Scottish Clydesdales were shipped to Australia, and the type then favoured is still favoured by the Australian experts. This is strikingly illustrated by the sales in .Melbourne, where for the lirst time on record Shires made more money and were in keener demand than Clydesdales. It is not that the right kind of Clydesdales for these markets cannot be found at home, but judges will not give them a leading po-ition. "The position finds a parallel iu the history of "the modern Ayrshire. For years there was a divorce between the showyard type and the sale-ring type. It was a most unfortunate and unsatisl'aotory condition of things. Hut happily there were many men who did not at any time consent to the counsel of the judges. These men continued to breed, not what pleased the show-ring oracles, but what commanded the price in the auction mart, and today what holds the export trade in Ayrshires is the latter, and not I lie former. "So with Clydesdales. We can supply the foreign and colonial demand. Many breeders are giving no heed to the vagaries of fashion, 'I hey are producing big. weighty, short-legged, thick animals, and (illies of this type are being shipped in their hundred;. But it would be well were the show-yard type to be less fanciful and more commercial. A draught horse must be capable of drawing and the bevf type for that purpose is the Clyde-dale, sound of feet and limb, with deep. well-ribbed barrel, powerfully developed forearms and thighs long quarter* and short back, intelligent head, and good, straight action, more pleasing in its perfection when walking than when giving a showy display at Ibe trot, for ?uch animals there u, and always will be, a ' dcuwud.'-'-