The Yorkshire Coach Horse is an extinct horse breed once native to England. It was a large, strong, bay or brown horse with dark legs, mane and tail. It was said to be "a longer-legged carriage horse with unmatched ability for a combination of speed, style, and power" and "a tall, elegant carriage horse".
With the introduction of macadamized roads, the Cleveland Bay horse was considered not fast enough, and as a result, some Cleveland Bays were bred to Thoroughbred horses to produce the Yorkshire Coach Horse. In 1887 a Yorkshire Coach Horse Stud Book was introduced, which contained horses that were three-quarters Cleveland Bay and one-quarter Thoroughbred.
The Yorkshire Coach Horse was much in demand by the rich and royal. The late 18th Century was the golden age of carriage driving. Yorkshire Coach Horses were exported all over the world to provide matched pairs and teams. During the height of the London season, it is said that hundreds of pairs of Yorkshire Coach Horses could be seen in Hyde Park every afternoon.
The Stud Book was closed in 1936 with the decline of the coaching era. Since the foundation breeds of the Yorkshire Coach Horse still exist, it would be possible to re-start this breed.
Famous quotes containing the words coach and/or horse:
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We read that the traveller asked the boy if the swamp before him had a hard bottom. The boy replied that it had. But presently the traveller’s horse sank in up to the girths, and he observed to the boy, “I thought you said that this bog had a hard bottom.” “So it has,” answered the latter, “but you have not got half way to it yet.” So it is with the bogs and quicksands of society; but he is an old boy that knows it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)