HORSES.
THE horses used in the provinces of Holland, Utrecht, Guelderland, and Fries- land, are of a peculiar breed. The best come from Friesland, where the race is carefully preserved. I immediately recognized the Spanish race in all of them ; and, since I was in Holland before the French Revolution, there is a considerable improvement in the shapes. Formerly they were slack in the reins, and too round in the ribs, and carried no belly, as the jock ies term it. Now they are compact, deep in the rib, but still preserve their firm lofty crest, well-shaped shoulder, and docile temper. They retain the high step and proud action which are handed down from the barb through the Spanish breed. Black is the favourite colour, although bays are common. There is another breed, the origin of which I cannot trace, which prevails in the province of Holland, and is much used in cabriolets and in winter in sledges. They are, called karddravers ; and are famed for their speed in trotting. They are generally brown in colour, short, compact, and not lofty or long in the crest ; the head not so fine and small as in the Frieslander ; but their speed in the cabriolet far exceeds anything we meet in England, except in singular instances of trotting powers. Horses of this breed sell in proportion to their speed. From our confidence in the blood of our horses, we conclude that no horses on the Continent can do their work in or out of harness. We are mistaken : except in the instances of our nearly thorough-blood hunter and carriage horses, the Friesland horse equals any we can produce, and is decidedly superior in speed, continuance, and figure, to that vile breed which we so pertinaciously adhere to—the thick, round-legged, heavy-shouldered, Yorkshire bay,—the very worst description of horse for quick draught. I have lately posted with Friesland horses, and they run seven or eight miles an hour with ease with a heavy carriage. Their legs are particularly fiat and sinewy, and 1 never met with a greased leg among the breed.
It is still a question with me, whether neck or breast collars are the best in
quick draught. The Dutch use breast, the Germans neck collars. The latter are enormous heavy machines, that half choke a horse in draught. The Dutch use the least possible quantity of harness. The breast-collar, the back-band, two trace-ropes, and a single snaffle bridle, constitute all the harness of a post-horse. The bearing-rein is never used, and even in many gentlemen's carriages it is dispensed with. In fact, the fine crested Fries- land horse does not require it, as he naturally carries his head well. In posting, blinders are seldom used, and even in cabriolets and country car- riages they find it best not to use them. The roads are the best in Europe, paved with brick slightly covered with sand, and are along canals on each side. The least start aside would plunge carriage and horses into the canal. Horses trained without blinders never will shy into such danger ; but here the breed assists, for I never saw a restive or shying horse among them. No doubt they are broke-in by the peasants in their four-wheeled light waggons with great care ; and their horses appear the most gentle yet spirited of any breed, thus partaking of a well-known quality of their ancestor, the barb.
About fifty years ago, no gentleman in England would use neck collars ;
and I can just recollect that the performances of squires' horses on the North road with breast-collars was fully superior to what they will perform now with the fashionable carriage, patent axles, neck-collars, and macadamized roads. I recollect that the common rate of travelling between London and York was, with a pair of horses in a chaise, but no dickey behind, forty milesa day, and this often continued to Newcastle. I think it would puzzle the Yorkshire bays with neck-collars to perform this feat. The price of the Friesland breed, of good figure, is from 301. to 401. a-head ; but the best kind are seldom brought to London. What the dealers have hitherto selected, are large heavy horses for funeral carriages, bred in the province of Holland.
A SPECTATOR IN THE NETHERLANDS.
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