war horse discourse

[sciatrix]

 In the aftermath of the recent horse discourse, arguing about what medieval horse types actually looked like in terms of modern breeds and whether a destrier resembled a modern Shire or Friesien, I wound up spending some time going back and reading one of my sources again because it was interesting (not uncommon for Messybeast).

This one is a mixture of primary sources from the nineteenth century discussing draught horse types and breeding. (It actually doesn’t just cover the Old English Black Horses that became the Shire: it also discusses the ancestors of today’s Clydesdales, Suffolk Punch, Percheron, and Cleveland Bay as well as a few other extinct draught breeds.) It's pretty cool because you don't see many descriptions of selective breeding for silly traits on a big expensive horse going back that far! 

This is a commentary on early Shires from c. 1831.

“The Heavy Black Horse is the last variety it may be necessary to notice. It is bred chiefly in the midland counties from Lincolnshire to Staffordshire. Many are bought up by the Surrey and Berkshire farmers at two years old, - and being worked moderately until they are four, earning their keep all the while, they are then sent to the London market, and sold at a profit of ten or twelve per cent.

It would not answer the breeder’s purpose to keep them until they are fit for town-work. He has plenty of fillies and mares on his farm for every purpose that he can require; he therefore sells them to a person nearer the metropolis, by whom they are gradually trained and prepared. The traveller has probably wondered to see four of these enormous animals in a line before a plough, on no very heavy soil, and where two lighter horses would have been quite sufficient. The farmer is training them for their future destiny; and he does right in not requiring the exertion of all their strength, for their bones are not yet perfectly formed, nor their joints knit; and were he to urge them too severely, he would probably injure and deform them. By the gentle and constant exercise of the plough, he is preparing them for that continued and equable pull at the collar, which is afterwards so necessary. These horses are adapted more for parade and shew, and to gratify the ambition which one brewer has to outvie his neighbour, than for any peculiar utility. They are certainly noble-looking animals, with their round fat carcases, and their sleek coats, and the evident pride which they take in themselves; but they eat a great deal of hay and corn, and at hard and long-continued work they would be completely beaten by a team of active muscular horses an inch and a half lower.

The only plea which can be urged in their favour, beside their fine appearance, is, that as shaft-horses, over the badly-paved streets of the metropolis, and with the immense loads they often have behind them, great bulk and weight are necessary to stand the unavoidable shaking and battering. Weight must be opposed to weight, or the horse would sometimes be quite thrown off his legs. A large heavy horse must be in the shafts, and then little ones before him would not look well.

Certainly no one has walked the streets of London without pitying the poor thill-horse, jolted from side to side, and exposed to many a bruise, unless, with admirable cleverness, he accommodates himself to every motion; but, at the same time, it must be evident, that bulk and fat do not always constitute strength, and that a compact muscular horse, approaching to sixteen hands high, would acquit himself far better in such a situation. The dray-horse, in the mere act of ascending from the wharf, may display a powerful effort, but he afterwards makes little exertion, much of his force being expended in transporting his own overgrown mass.

These heavy horses are bred in the highest perfection, as to size, in the fens of Lincolnshire, and few of them are less than seventeen hands high at two and a half years old. Neither the soil, nor the produce of the soil, is better than in other counties; on the contrary, much of the lower part of Lincolnshire is a cold, hungry clay. The true explanation of the matter is, that there are certain situations better suited than others to different kinds of farming, and the breeding of different animals; and that not altogether depending on richness of soil or pasture. The principal art of the farmer is, to find out what will best suit his soil, and the produce of it.”

Bolding, of course, is mine. Clearly size breeding in excess of function is not an issue new to horse breeders.
Here is another comment from 1853 on dray horses bred for the brewers in urban areas, also specific to the Old English Black:

“AN elephant among Horses, the mixed Flemish and Black Draught Horse is familiar to all Londoners as drawing the heavy drays on which beer is conveyed from the breweries to the purchaser. This enormous animal is really needed for his peculiar work, although a natural emulation that exists between the different firms leads them to rival each other in size and magnificence of their dray Horses, as well as in the excellence of their beer. It is a general idea that the dray Horses derive their huge bulk from being fed on grains and permitted to drink beer, and that the dray-men owe their large proportions and rubicund aspect to similar privileges. Such is, however, not the case, as the Horses are bred especially for the purpose, and the men are chosen with an eye to their jovial aspect. It would never answer for a brewer to keep a poor, wizened, starveling drayman, for the public would immediately lay the fault on the beer, and transfer their custom elsewhere.

The dray Horse is a very slow animal, and cannot be permanently quickened in his pace, even if the load be comparatively light. Its breast is very broad, and its shoulders thick and upright, the body large and round, the legs short, and the feet extremely large. The ordinary pace of the heavy Draught Horse is under three miles per hour, but by a judicious admixture of the Flemish breed, the pace is nearly doubled, the endurance increased, and the dimensions very slightly diminished. The great size of the dray Horse is required, not for the absolute amount of pulling which it performs, but for the need of a large and heavy animal in the shafts to withstand the extreme jolting and battering that takes place as the springless drays are dragged over the rough stones of the metropolis. And as a team of two or three small leaders and one huge wheeler would look absurd, it is needful to have all the Horses of uniform dimensions and appearance.”

There’s an incentive here to make these horses bigger and bigger as, effectively, a advertisement for the beer!

Here’s a comment from 1861:

According to “The Complete Grazier And Farmer’s And Cattle-Breeder’s Assistant” by William Youatt and R S Burn (1864): The Black Cart-horse, par excellence, the ‘Old English Black’ (fig. 27), of which the annexed is a delineation, is mostly bred in Leicester, Northampton, and Lincoln, and some of the neighbouring counties; but the largest kind, and that principally used in brewers’ drays and other heavy road-work, is chiefly reared m the fens of Lincolnshire. These counties have been from time immemorial in possession of a celebrated breed of black horses, from the lighter kind of which some of our heavy cavalry were formerly mounted.

Er. The lighter kind, you say? Mind you, this is heavy cavalry of unknown era, and this is exactly the time when the popular myth of the weighty, constricted knight was gaining prominence; but still, this is a useful point to the effect that the Shire as we know it today had been noticeably bred past the point of usefulness as a military animal quite early on.

Note that one comment from 1910 says of the breed

The Black had had a chequered history. In the days of armour it was the war horse; when heavy armour was discarded it still furnished remounts to Dragoons, and remained, up to the earlier years of the last century, in some request (though lighter horses were more in demand) for Army purposes. The Black was also in general use for coach and carriage work when vehicles were weighty and roads bad ; but improvements in carriages and roads led to its disuse.
 

Yet writers from 1790, when surely these black horses would still have been “in some request” well within living memory if not at the present time, mention nothing of the sort! In fact, the only comment on the subject:

The cavalry of England formerly consisted of this class of Horses; but their inutility being experienced in most situations, others of a lighter and more active kind have been generally substituted, except in a few re­giments.

Hm. Damned with faint praise, I should think.

 It is interesting that no one is aware of any purebred draught horse of a modern form used in British cavalry forces any time within living memory; the one notion of praise on the whole page for their use is a cavalryman praising the use of crossbreds with more [hot] blood in them as remounts, and that can hardly be surprising given the popularity of warmbloods and other draft crosses in sporting events today. But the pure heavy horse of the modern draught breed? You can see the mythologizing happening in these primary sources, and you can see how very vague authors are about these historical military uses at a time when English cavalry was in full use.