The Clydesdale Horse

Southland Times, Issue 14516, 16 December 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Clydesdale Horse

From a paper by Mr R. Craig,Crondon Park, Essex.

When the Clydesdale horse first received its distinctive name I have been unable accurately to determine, but there is no doubt that it was from the farmers of the upper valley of the Clyde taking the earliest and greatest interest in the improvement of the old Scottish breed that its name was derived. In the end of the last and the beginning of the present century there we - e four districts with comparatively distinct breeds of their own—the central, or Clydesdale, comprising Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, and Renfrew, whose native breed has been mixed with Flemish and other kinds; Galloway, comprising the counties of Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries, which, from their peninsular position, had kept the old breed comparatively pure; Kintyre, also detached by water and mountains from the mainland, had its own breed of small Highland horses; and then Banff and Aberdeen,which had the old breed of Roman times, possibly mixed with horses from the North of Europe. The record of pedigrees in the Clydesdale Stud Book, started in 1878, shows us how the horses in all these districts have been improved by introducing stallions from Ayrshire and Clydesdale,and now at the present day they are so mingled as to be almost one family. In the tree of genealogy, as recorded in the Clydesdale Stud Book, we must allow a horse named ‘Glancer,’ foaled in 1810, as being the root. He was supposed to have been descended on his dam’s side from a Flemish horse bought in England by a Mr Paterson, near Lanark, between 1715 and 1720. Two great horses which must be noticed here are from different branches of that tree on the sire’s side, but out of dams by the same sire —‘Prince of Wales 673’—best.known as the Merryton Stud horse, was bred by Mr John Nicol Fleming, Drumburle, Ayrshire, in 1866, and died when over 22 years of age. He was a horse of great quality and grand action, could trot like a hackney ; his only fault was being a little too straight on his hind legs. At the dispersion of the Merryton Stud, on the death of the owner, Mr Drew, he realised 900g5., he being then eighteen years old. The other is ‘ Darnley 222,’ bred by Sir William Stirling Maxwell, of Keir. He was sold to Mr Riddel, Kilbowie, when a three-year-old, and was retained by him till his death when sixteen years old—a grand horse all over, with the exception of a little lightness about the thighs. Nearly all the horses of the present day are descended from one or the other, or both, of these two horses. To a son of the great ‘Darnley,’ named ‘Macgregor’ (the property of Mr Andrew Montgomery, Castle Douglas), may be assigned the title of king of the Clydesdale horses of the present day. He is twenty-one years old, is still fresh and sound, and was hired the other day as stud horse for the coming season, as he was the last, by Sir John Gilmour, of Montrave, one of her Majesty’s commissioners on horse-breeding. ‘Macgregor’ has been a most wonderful breeding horse, his name appearing oftener in the Stud Book than any other sire. At the great horse show at Kilmarnock he gained the first prize as sire of the best yearlings got by any horse for something like ten years in succession. His progeny was now distributed over the whole world, and at the great horse show at Chicago, two years ago, nearly if not all the prizes for both horses and mares were won by animals which claimed him as either sire or grandsire. The only other horse which I will mention is another son of ‘Darnley,’ and full brother to Macgregor, named ‘Flashwood.’ He was sold by his breeder in 1884, when one year old, and it is claimed that he was the first horse of the heavy breeds sold in Britain at the age which required four figures to write the price. I question if it has ever been exceeded, or even reached since. When champion at Glasgow in 1889 he was considered by many good judges to be the best type of a Clydesdale that ever had been seen. Unfortunately, he died when eleven years old, having left some good stock, principally mares.

The place where the Clydesdale horse is seen to the best advantage is at his work.

In the ordinary cart he steps freely out, and the business fashion in which he lays his whole weight into the collar and drags heavy loads uphill stamp him as a splendid work horse. In the streets of Glasgow he is possibly seen'tb best advantage; there he is to be met with at every corner singly dragging heavily-laden lorries, to which in London a pair would usually be attached. I have no doubt that the Shire horse, by his slow mot ions, best suits the brewer and wine merchant, not depreciating their liquor by allowing it to be more at rest, and who are satisfied with the large profits derived from their drays making one short journey per day, but to those who have to be content with making their fortunes in a slower way, for railway companies, contractors in every line where horses are required, farmers, and for all other purposes where a horse with stamina and agility is required, I maintain that the Clydesdale horse is without a rival. But where the Clydesdale excels over all other breeds is in his soundness. It is a rare occurrence to see a Clydesdale presented for competition thrown out for unsoundness by the vets. How different from the Shires, where they ruthlessly throw them overboard, at times scarcely leaving as many as take the prizes. There is not the least doubt that the Shire and the Clydesdale are both the same breed. They started from the same origin, have been mixed with the same foreign blood, but it is to the earlier and greater interest .in horse breeding by the breeders of the North, their different climate and soil, to the rich sand-mixed lands of Kintyre, the healthy herbage which covers the thin soils of Galloway, and the nourishing blades of grass which cover the lime-containing hills of Lanarkshire, that the Clydesdale of the present day greatly owes his activity and quality, characteristics which have always rendered him superior in the eyes of the foreigner when viewed alongside his market competitor in the South, reared on the ‘washy’ herbage of the fens. But by still intermingling the two, why may not a better breed be produced than either ? Why should the council of the Essex Agricultural Society confine their principal class to pedigree Shire, but make it open to all descriptions of heavy horses, as is done in Scotland, and let the best horse win, thereby encouraging the farmers by their judgment and skill in mating to improve the horses of this country 1 The present system compels them in a manner to breed from the unsound brutes, of which 50 per cent of the Shires are composed, thereby propagating a lot of unsound animals which are a nuisance and of little use to anyone.