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The letters CLOP stand for "cod liver oil powder" as
well as imitating the sound of a horse's hoofs. This food supplement
is still well known and used today and it contains many more ingredients
than just cod liver oil. This and other "blood salts"
were added to the feed of working horses by their men.
Stories are still known of horsemen who would drill up through
the floor of the hayloft which the farmer had locked up once he
had doled out the feeds for the night. Then they were able to
"tap" the stored oats for their own favourite horses.
Some horses became over fresh on this extra corn, but the horsemen
liked their animals to gleam with good health and be a credit
to them.
They would go out an hour earlier in the dawn to feed and clean
them and plait their manes, even for ploughing. A carriage driving
competitor once said that the cleanliness of modern driving carriages
left a lot to be desired compared to the standards of the past:
"My father wouldn't even have gone carting muck in the state
some people go out on a marathon."
In 1794
Messrs Bailey and Culley surveyed Northumberland and Cumberland
for
the Board
of
Agriculture.
In Northumberland: "The
best draught horses used in this county are brought from Clydesdale,
in Scotland;
they are in general from 15 and a half to 16 hands high; strong,
hardy, remarkable good and true pullers; a restive horse being
rarely found among them."
In Cumberland: "The horses are middle sized, from fourteen to
fifteen and a half hands high, of various colours; but bays and
chestnuts seem the most prevalent; for a small farm, where horses
must answer for both draught and riding, they are probably most
suitable; but certainly might be improved, by stallions from
the North-Riding of Yorkshire, the best breed we know for the
double purpose above-mentioned."
In Westmorland, the 1794 survey was carried out by Anthony Pringle: "As
there is but a small portion of the county under crop, the horses
are not numerous, nor has any considerable
attempt been made to improve the breed of these useful animals. They
are small, not exceeding fourteen hands and a half in height, are said
to be hardy, but they are neither strong nor handsome; sixteen or seventeen
pounds are reckoned a good price for a horse at five years old. They
are often turned out upon the commons in the intervals of labour, which,
as the farmer very probably has neither turnips nor fallow, are very
frequent in the summer months."
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