THE DECADENT HACK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 44, 15 November 1907, Page 2

THE DECADENT HACK.

A RACING MAN'S LAMENT. Mr. Joseph i Chadwick, the well-known liandicappor, and formerly "Spectator" of tho "Referee,", has apparently no great idea of the hack of the'present day. Speakirig to a former Press cdlloague on the' Show Grounds (says our Christchurch correspondent) ho said that the modern hacks,have not the fine riding shoulders, the gentlemanly bearing, and the ease of action for which the riding horses of, both island, and particularly of the North Island, were at one timo noted. . They arc all too, often heavy-headed, and of a stamp that tires when asked to travel over ' long distances day after day.' "There are," ho said, "exceptions, of course, but the tondency in the South Island is .to breed horses for the doublo purpose of riding and driving—for hunting and for the road. This being so, hacks with an easy-springy walk, and a freeswinging canter, untiring alike to themselves and to their riders, aro all too fow. Good cobs and heavy weight-carrying hunters are as well represented at Southern shows_ as over, hut the high-class, frictionless-gaited hack of former times is not nearly so much in evidence North or South. It is rarel> that more than two or three first-class ladies' hacks aro mot with at any of these expositions. Tho light harness horses of every description are, however, tho best in tho Dominion, and are believed by judges to bo unequalled in tho Australian States.