THE YORKSHIRE ROADSTER

 The roadster was a product of the early eighteenth century when improved roads and increasing commerce brought about a need for faster means of travel. The older types of saddle horses, such as the palfrey and the hobby, had neither the strength nor the speed and many of both sorts were trained to move at the lateral gaits of the amble and the rack. While these gaits might be more comfortable for a rider who has not learned to post at the trot, trotting horses have more staying power and are able to cover long distances at a good pace. Breeders in the East of England especially sought to supply this growing demand by making use of stallions of Eastern blood that were becoming more generally available.

Sidney in "The Book of the Horse" (1874) has a good description of the best roadsters as he knew them fifty years earlier.

The roadsters of our grandfather ‘s time were strong, for they had to carry besides the horseman in his heavy jackboots, leather breeches and broad skirted coat, tied on the saddle were a horseman’s cloak, saddle-bags and holster pistols. They were tolerably swift, for the rider might have to owe his own safety to his nag’s pace. They had good shoulders and plenty before the pommel, capital legs and feet, and action more sure than showy, neither daisy trot, yet with knee-action which is essential for admiration in the fine charger or the park hack. They were hardy in constitution, or they could not have borne long days of rough weather, course fodder, and indifferent stables. They were required to carry their riders not for an hour or two occasionally for the sake of constitutional exercise or fashion, but from day to day, for two or three hundred miles, and that with an even easy walk, trot or canter.

During the latter part of the eighteenth century, short notices began to appear in newspapers about road riding matches intended to show the superiority of one owner’s horse over another’s, or simply against time. One such reports the result of a match against time ridden by John Shaw, a jockey and horse trainer of Malton, between Bridlington and Hornsea Bridge for 500 guineas, a huge sum in those days. Shaw was allowed 36 minutes to cover the distance of 14 miles and this he accomplished with one minute in hand.

This works out at a speed of 24 miles an hour which is much faster than any trotter could perform in those days and it is probable that Shaw was allowed to use whatever pace he chose. But in the Fens of South Lincolnshire a breed of superior trotting horses was attracting attention. These South Lincolnshire trotters were all descended from a horse known as SCOT or THE SCHALES’ HORSE, a son of the Thoroughbred BLAZE and born about 1755. BLAZE was foaled in 1733, his breeder being Thomas Panton of Newmarket, a great racing man who managed the Duke of Devonshire’s racehorses. The Duke was the owner of FLYING CHILDERS, the fastest horse of his day and he was the sire of BLAZE.

BLAZE won a few races and was then sold to Sir Henry Harpur of Calke Abbey in Derbyshire who sold the horse on to Major John Luck and Joseph Smith of Beverley, East Yorkshire in 1745. These two men owned the horse until he died in 1755, placing him at stud in a different place each season from North Yorkshire to South Lincolnshire. Luck and Smith bought another well-bred stallion a few years later and this horse, named JOSEPH ANDREWS, had an even more significant role to play in the development of the roadster than had BLAZE. JOSEPH ANDREWS was bred by Leonard Hartley of Middleton Tyass near Richmond, Yorks. His sire was ROUNDHEAD, another son of FLYING CHILDERS whose dam was ROXANA, the dam of CADE, LATH and other good horses.
The dam of JOSEPH ANDREWS was an unnamed mare of Hartley’s by RIP out of HARTLEY’S LARGE MARE. JOSEPH ANDREWS won a few races including the King’s Plates at York and Lincoln. He was a big horse for a Thoroughbred of that time, he being a chestnut standing 15.2 hands and advertised as being "master of 18 stone weight a-hunting."

Christopher Wroot of Long Sutton in the Fens owned a horse named PRETENDER, a fast trotter foaled in 1787 and a most important foundation sire of both Norfolk and Yorkshire roadsters. PRETENDER was inbred to JOSEPH ANDREWS, and with the line of BLAZE through the SCHALES’S HORSE, he was also inbred to FLYING CHILDERS.

 At about the same time, a type of what today we might call ‘a warmblood" was appearing in the East Riding, mostly on the Wolds close to Bridlington and in Holderness. The Thoroughbred stallions mentioned in pedigrees of these horses, as given in newspaper advertisements and on stud cards, include Sir Matthew Pierson’s MERLIN by BUSTLER (the hero of a famous match at Newmarket about 1702); JALAP by REGULUS and his son, TROTTING JALAP; RULER, winner of the St. Leger in 1780; and TURK by REGULUS. The stallions of this breed were advertised as "likely to get Good Hunters, Coach Horses, Chapman Horses and Roadsters." Unfortunately, an excessive use of Thoroughbred horses by the East Yorkshire breeders over the years led to many of these horses becoming light of bone and lacking in substance generally. The South Lincolnshire trotters, on the other hand, were attracting attention much further afield. Shortly after Christopher Wroot’s death in 1806, PRETENDER was bought by Thomas Rotsey of Market Weighton and his services were then made available to roadster breeders in many parts of the East Riding. Other Lincolnshire Trotter stallions came to East Yorkshire not long afterwards, the most notable being Burgess’s FIREAWAY. This horse was bought in 1825 by Thomas Kirby of York, a well-known dealer in Thoroughbreds, who changed the horse’s name to WILDFIRE. Mated to the local half-bred mares, these stallions produced a very good type of roadster that had more quality and longer striding action than the contemporary Norfolk Trotters. Classes for "Stallions likely to produce Roadsters" were offered at the first Yorkshire Agricultural Show at York in 1838.

 Robert Ramsdale, mine host of the King’s Arms Inn at Market Weighton, was one of the leading roadster stallion owners in Yorkshire during the first half of the nineteenth century. His son, Philip of Goodmanham, also had some good stallions and it was he who brought the roan trotter NORFOLK PHENOMENON to Yorkshire in 1838.

 The most influential Yorkshire breeders of roadsters throughout the nineteenth century were members of the Cook family of Huggate arid Thixendale on the Yorkshire Wolds. The Cook’s had a most successful strain based on two foundation mares, one a black Thoroughbred, the other half-bred. The first notable stallion bred by Francis Cook in 1834 was Robert Ramsdale’s FIREA WAY, one of two important sons of Thomas Kirby’s WILDFIRE mentioned above. Three sons of Francis Cook were breeders of roadsters. Richard, the eldest, lived and farmed at Huggate. He bred a few good horses before he was killed in a fall from a horse in 1865 but his widow, continued breeding horses for a few more years. Another son, Francis, lived at Thixendale and was the breeder in 1849 of Cook’s WILDFIRE and in 1853 of a full brother also called WILDFIRE. These two became important progenitors of the Yorkshire Roadster and a son of the first WILDFIRE, namely NORTH STAR, a handsome black brown horse atanding 15.2 that was sold in 1860 to the Mezsohegyes state stud in Hungary. The following decription of this horse appeared in The Sporting Magazine THE NORTH STAR by Castor
... he has the long, strong, sloping shoulders of a hunter, the power of a dray-horse, and a clean flat leg that measures nine inches below the knee. His height is fifteen two. The crowning point, however, of all his excellence was his action. As the German Baron said when he saw the horse out at Hasketon [The Suffolk home of Colonel Barlow, NORTH STAR’S owner] -"Ahl Superbel One leetle run morel Magnifique! one run morel" until Mr Weatherby and his owner began to think the distinguished foreigner would never tire of seeing him go.
Probably the most famous of the many stallions bred by the second Francis Cook was STAR OF THE EAST. This horse was owned by the Stand Stud Company of Manchester who showed him extensively in this country and at least once overseas. Between 1876 and 1883 STAR won 35 first prizes at English shows and a gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition of 1878.

A registry for trotting horse was started by Henry F. Euren, the editor of the Norwich Mercury, in 1883 and a society that later became known as the Hackney Horse Society, was formed in the same year. The objects of the new society were "To improve the breed and promote the breeding of Hackneys, Roadsters, Cobs and Ponies and to compile a stud book of such horses." The name Hackney (spelled with a capital H) was adopted as the name of this new breed. However, the names "roadster" and "nag horse" continued to be used for a few more years.

 The new society started an annual show in London at the Agricultural Hall, Islington in 1885 which attracted widespread interest. During the ensuing quarter century, overseas demand for stallions and mares grew each year from governments seeking to improve the breed of military and light harness horses in their respective countries. These buyers wanted horses of the roadster type which was still being bred in fairly good numbers. They were looking for stallions measuring from 15.2 to 16 hands, with good limbs and ample bone, possessed of stylish, ground covering action and, above all, of that alert, willing and active character that distinguished them from most other breeds, One of the most successful stallions of this type during the 1890’s and a little later was Thomas Hall’s GARTON DUKE OF CONNAUGHT, a dark chestnut foaled in 1889 and inbred on his dam’s side to both of Cook’s foundation mares.

The rapid replacement of horses by automobiles ended this trade in a relatively short time and then the Hackney breed survived mostly as an attractive high-stepping show horse with a following of dedicated enthusiasts. This new role for the breed has produced a somewhat lighter type of horse with higher action and great nervous energy.

Fortunately, the old roadster type has been preserved by a few driving enthusiasts in Argentina and it is hoped that by bringing a few good specimens of this valuable pure breed back to its native country it can again take up its role as an improver of many types of light horses. The superiority of the old roadster over most of the European warmbloods is that it has been bred pure for more than 150 years, whereas the warmbloods are recent crosses produced by using thoroughbreds on different local types. For successful breeding from mares of mixed blood it has long been known that a pure-bred stallion is essential. Both the Thoroughbred and the Arabian have a long record of unmixed breeding, of course, and the Cleveland has a similar record to the roadster, but as a natural trotter the roadster has stronger and better balanced conformation than most modern racehorses. The well-formed hind legs and muscular quarters give the roadster the agility to change pace, to spin round, to spring forward or to leap almost on the instant. These special qualities make the Hackney of Roadster type an excellent cross for riding mares of mixed blood as well as for Thoroughbred mares.

For the breeders of show harness horses the Yorkshire Roadster type of Hackney should be of particular interest. As students of pedigree will know, modern show Hackney horses are all more or less closely inbred to the stallion MATHIAS. This horse flourished in the early years of this century and was succeeded by several of his sons. Most of the best show horses that MATHIAS sired came from mares of a decidedly "strong" type. Mares of the smaller, more refined sorts were much less successful. Some fairly recent examples of this include Modern Maid whose dam, Flash Clara, was once a leader in a coach team, and Erlegh Maiden whose dam, Allerthorpe Carnation, was the dam of several big and decidedly ‘coachy’ horses. Inbreeding to MATHIAS tends to produce stock lighter in bone and often lacking in substance generally. There is little demand for this sort if their action is not good enough to place them at or near the top, whereas a good stamp of horse with long striding action will find a ready sale for competition or pleasure driving or as a saddle horse. Hackney mares with good size and substance make good breeders of jumpers, event horses or hunters.

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