Flemish horse

“ The Flemish horses are greatly inferior to the Dutch: they have almost all large heads, flat feet, and are subject to humours; and these two last defects are essential ones in coach-horses.
In France there are horses of all kinds, but very few handsome ones. The best saddle-horses come from the Limosin, which resemble much those of Barbary, and like them are excellent for hunting; but they are slow in their growth, require great care while young, and must not be used till they are eight years old. There are also some excellent foals in Auvergne, Poitou, and in Moroant in Burgundy ”

“ In fact, so low has the reputation of the Wappers fallen, that many Flemish folk think that their tribe is represented today by the Kludde.
The Kludde have no tongues, and they usually change themselves into old, worn out horses that are seen browsing in the sandy fields along the canals, in the heath country or in the Campine. A rustic fellow, thinking to get a ride, mounts the supposed horse. Then, at a gallop, the beast rushes forward and tumbles the man into the ditch, while the nag bounds away crying, or grunting out “Kludde, Kludde.” ”

“ This region is now cultivated pasture-land that produces the finest of horses, cattle, and dairy products. The dairy products go mainly to London. The Flemish horses, like those of the sand-barrens of Germany and France, are purchased in the large cities, where heavy draught-horses are required. Many of them are sold to the express companies of the United States.
Bordering the sand-barrens is a belt of land that produces grain and the sugar-beet. Flax is an important product, and its cultivation has had much to do with both the history and the political organization of the state. ”

“ There is a wide difference between the bull-like Suffolk Punch and the greyhound-like racer. The English and Irish racer is said to owe its origin to a cross between the old English light-legged breed and the Arabian. The most valuable kind of carriage horse is the joint product of the draught-horse and the racer. The dray-horse of these countries has a large share of Flemish blood in him. The best horses for agricultural purposes are unquestionably the Clydesdale and the Suffolk Punch. ”

“ The mares also of Flanders be of a great stature, strong, long, large, fair, and fruitful, and beside that will endure great labour." Of the Neapolitan horse Blundeville says, "In mine opinion, their gentle nature and docility, their comely shape, their strength, their courage, their sure footmanship, their well reining, their lofty pace, their clean trotting, their strong galloping, and their swift running well considered (all which things they have in manner by nature) they excel numbers of other races, even so far as the fair greyhounds the foul mastif curs." ”

“ All the world was to figure on horseback—the horses themselves no bad evidence of the exertions used to mount the party. Here was a rugged pony from the Ardennes, with short neck and low shoulder, his head broad as a bull’s, and his counter like the bow of a Dutch galliot; there, a great Flemish beast, seventeen hands high, with a tail festooned over a straw ‘bustle,’ and even still hanging some inches on the ground—straight in the shoulder, and straighter in the pasterns, giving the rider a shock at every motion that to any other than a Fleming would lead to concussion of the brain. ”

“ These dogs are never allowed to roam at will as in England or Canada. They are a fine robust breed, like small mastiffs with pointed wolfish ears. On the outside of each farmhouse one of the most prominent features is a big [153] upright wheel like a water wheel, fully fourteen feet in diameter. All day long the dogs run in this wheel driving the machinery for the dairy. After one dog gets tired he is taken out, and if the farm is a large one another dog is put in. The Flemish dogs certainly have to work for their living and make up for the lazy life of their brethren elsewhere. ”

“ I would wish him that seeketh to have a race of good horses, meet to serve in the field to get a Napolitan stallion if it be possible, if not let him take the high Almaine, the Hungarian, the Flanders,{33} or the Frizeland Horse, so that he be of convenient stature well proportioned and meete for the purpose. The mares should be of an high stature, stronglie made, large and fair, and have a trotting pace as the mares of Flanders and some of our own mares be. ”

“ I can imagine only one reason for the prevalence of the custom, and that is that the trotting horses are so rotund and ponderous that the shafts of no sulky would fit them, and if it did, no driver could spread his lower limbs so far apart as to drive the horse from the sulky’s seat. Large and ample as Percherons are some of these North Holland and Friesland horses, with long, well-groomed tails and manes; but they have a faster gait than they might be given credit for when seen hitched to a cart or a farm wagon. ”

“ Now I have to hire a man to repeat daily to me the number of my riding-horses, and I drive about Bloemfontein with a spanking team. I am aware that this confession will make the Provost Marshal's hair stand straight on his head; but let him have a little patience. Let him think what a glorious thing it is to find the one horse-thief in the army. I calculate that about 5,000 horses have illicitly changed hands during the advance from Modder River, and yet I have never found a man who has not most indignantly denied the merest, slenderest imputation of being concerned in a horse "transaction." ”

“ The size of their hoofs would not, however, be much larger than those of the breeds already in use in this country. During the reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1154) armour became very heavy both on horse and man, and the lance had grown so ponderous that it could only be used couched; 'great horses' were therefore required. These were probably the largest and strongest of the imported, but light races. In the 13th century, horses of greater size and power were eagerly purchased on the continent, where attention had been recently paid to rearing this kind of animal, and sent to England. ”

“ On Santa Klaas eve, each of the Dutch children sets out in the chimney his wooden shoe. Into it, he puts a whisp of hay, to feed the traveller's horse. When St. Nicholas first came to Holland, he arrived in a sailing ship from Spain and rode on a horse. Now he arrives in a big steamer, made of steel. Perhaps he will come in the future by aeroplane. To fill all the shoes and stockings, the good saint must have an animal to ride. Now the fast white horse, named Sleipnir, was ready for him, and on Sleipnir's back he made his journeys. ”

“ This rabbit was a giant in every sense of the word in his native state, but being bred down for various purposes, the Flemish has sacrificed something in size and weight. The natural Flemish is a sandy gray color, while the fancy breeds which have sprung up from it are known as Steel Gray, Dark Steel Gray and Black. There are many shades and colors in one litter. Oftentimes they come pure white. This failure to breed true to color is due to the fact that many breeds have been crossed with the sandy giant in order to work out color combinations for various show purposes. ”

“ Mr Roach Smith, at first incredulous as to this application of these articles, appears to have become convinced of its correctness by discovering that in Holland horses yet wear sandals. 'At the present day in Holland it is usual to bind long flat iron shoes to the horses' feet. They are fastened with a strap of leather, and are somewhat in the form of an ordinary horse-shoe, but much longer and wider; and, did we not know they are commonly used, would seem almost as unsuitable as the iron shoes under consideration. ”

“ The cattle trade of Friesland has here its headquarters, and a farmer needing agricultural implements must fare to Leeuwarden to buy them. The Frisian farmer Page 236certainly does need them, for it is his habit to take three crops of short hay off his meadows, rather than one crop of long hay in the English manner.
Not only cattle but also horses are sold in Leeuwarden market. The Frisian horse is a noble animal, truly the friend of man; and the Frisians are fond of horses and indulge both in racing and in trotting—or “hardraverij” as they pleasantly call it. ”

“ Now, these are all characteristics of the Denmark. Not all are characteristics of the Thoroughbred. For instance, in the slow gaits a Thoroughbred, particularly one that has ever been in training, is not sure-footed; he travels too close to the ground. Again, he is not docile, as he becomes very easily excited, and when his blood is up, wants to gallop at full speed. His mouth, owing to this easily aroused excitement, more frequently than not, gets all wrong, and he responds more to force than to that sympathy which makes a good saddle-horse, and his rider seem to be one. ”

“ In a while you may catch the steady trample of galloping hoofs, and presently three Boers—the girl’s brothers and her betrothed—each guiding a led horse, canter up to the wagons. Following at their heels is a Hottentot after-rider, also with a spare horse heavy laden. The men are hot, dusty, and sweat-stained. ”

“ The Abbé Cochet remarks, in reference to this fact: 'It ought to be mentioned that, up to the present time, nothing has proved more rare in Frankish graves than the shoes of horses. With the three or four horses we discovered at Envermeu no shoes were found, although all the limbs were present. But buckles and bits of a very characteristic shape were there. Lindenschmidt, who found the skeleton of a horse lying beside a warrior, at Selzen, positively asserts that it was without shoes. Of all its harness there was only found a bit and some small bronze rings. ”

“ For men being desirous of selling them at the dearest rate, they falsely pretend that they are of the best breed; which circumstance has induced us, who, by travelling frequently into so many different and distant foreign countries, are perfectly well acquainted with all kinds of horses, and have often kept them in our own stables, to explain the characters and real merit and qualifications of every nation. For not to mention the meaner services they are employed in, it is manifest that horses are chiefly necessary for three uses—for war, for the circus, and for the saddle. ”

“ The thing I want, if possible, to account for, is, how such small weak horses do manage to draw one’s carriage up hill, with so much unaccountable ease to themselves.
Now, in English, French, and German harness, there exist, as it were, three degrees of comparison in the manner in which the head of the horse is treated; for, in England, it is elevated, or borne up, by what we call the bearing-rein; in France, it is left as nature placed it (there being to common French harness no bearing-rein) ”

“ But Hendrik for the moment had forgotten that on such occasions he was seated, not on a boulder of rock, but in the saddle, and it was to his horse that he owed his immunity from danger.
Now that his horse had run off, and he found himself afoot upon the plain, with nothing between him and the rhinoceros but twenty yards of smooth level turf, he became truly alarmed. And no wonder at it—his life was in danger.
His first thought was to run up the rocks, thinking by so doing to get out of the animal’s reach. ”

“ The king then sent him another, which he submitted to the same test, and the struggle between man and horse was long and violent. At length, owing to the girths and the poitrail breaking, the steed got away, leaving the knight and his saddle suspended from the tree. This horse the Sire de Hemricourt kept, though an ignominious fate awaited it. When the knight and his associates came to the place appointed for the combat, the Arragonese did not appear, and the King of Sicily, taking advantage of the circumstance, meanly required that the horses should be returned. ”

“ When a man whose means only enable him to keep a few horses—or even one horse—and he wants both to ride and drive, the “combination horse” is the only animal that will enable him to go how and when he chooses. The Denmarks make splendid combination horses. They trot in harness with quite reasonable speed and very good action, and the road is seldom too long for them. My personal experience has not shown me that this change from saddle to harness worked any great harm. ”

“ It seems only reasonable that horses with the activity, the adaptability, and the intelligence to acquire the various gaits that are within a Denmark’s range would not necessarily be injured by driving in harness. At any rate, a man who has only a small stable can get more kinds of fun out of a Denmark than out of any other type of horse. ”

“ Three of these were held by Lord Clinton's grooms; they were great Flemish war-horses of a renowned breed, beside which the three English horses, held by the Sussex lads, looked small and insignificant. Yet these latter were wiry and strong; happily they were in excellent condition and fit for the long journey before them.
Before they mounted their horses the Englishmen closely inspected every part of the harness, to assure themselves that nothing was amiss. The lads' horses were examined with equal care, and the weapons of their riders underwent Geoffrey's keen scrutiny. ”

“ There were two, however, who still rode to the dogs with the keen ardour of sportsmen—Hendrik and Groot Willem; and from a feeling of rivalry, as already hinted at, each was determined to be in at the death.
Both were well mounted, though very dissimilarly. The horse that Hendrik rode was a beautiful coal-black, of medium size, with a dash of the Arab in him—just enough to make of him what is termed a “hunter,”—a breed the finest in the world, and for all purposes, except race-course gambling, finer even than the Arabian itself. ”

“ A dog of Flanders—yellow of hide, large of head and limb, with wolf-like ears that stood erect, and legs bowed and feet widened in the muscular development wrought in his breed by many generations of hard service. Patrasche came of a race which had toiled hard and cruelly from sire to son in Flanders many a century—slaves of slaves, dogs of the people, beasts of the shafts and the harness, creatures that lived straining their sinews in the gall of the cart, and died breaking their hearts on the flints of the streets. ”