The Devon Packhorse was once a recognised breed posessing its own Stud Book.

It was bred principally in South Devon, although it was also bred elsewhere in the region, and may have had affinities with the Goonhilly pony of the Lanivet Downs in Cornwall, some of the larger dun ponies bred on Exmoor, and of course the original stock roaming the wastes of Dartmoor, and Bodmin Moor.

It became extinct as a breed around 1900, principally because it had fallen victim to current fashions.

Although it bore the name 'Packhorse' (so proficient it had been at that particular task), it was in reality an 'all-purpose' horse that was well suited for the needs of the Devon farmer, industrial worker, or huntsman. It was capable of winning races against thoroughbreds, and was also a competent show-jumper.

Because Devon had roads of a notorious nature, the cart and waggon were late introductions, arriving only once sufficient road impovement allowed. The Devon Pack therefore persisted, even receiving injections of fresh blood from some of the founding members of the Thoroughbred. With the coming of the cart, waggon, and coach came a variety of specialist breeds, and even in the fields where the all-purpose Devon Packhorse had worked in harness, the heavier horse replaced it, and through outcrossing the Pack simply vanished.

In earlier posts I have dealt with both the history, and sad demise of this venerable old Devonian (including the remarkable fact that the Devon Pack was used to revive the Dartmoor Pony herd 200 years ago), as well as the attempts at reviving the breed from its ashes at the Duchy stud at Princetown, and Stoke Climsland.

But so little information regarding these Packhorse breeding experiments has come to light, so to find the following essay (itself a detailed criticism of these attempts, drawn from papers published at the time) is very revealing and remarkable to say the least.

One for the historian and entusiast. Enjoy:---

The Devon Packhorse.

(Livestock Journal 1918)

IN your issue of December 28th Mr. Ernest C. Pulbrook deals in an interesting manner with the old roads and tracks of Devon. May I deal this week with the horses chiefly associated with these highways and these byways in the public mind? And, first, may I protest as strongly as I can against the continual publication of the photographs of two hakney stallions (Findon Grey Shales and Monson's Black Shales), above descriptions which lead the layman to imagine and believe that they are Packhorses, when they are truly nothing of the kind? In the second place may I suggest that, while he was about it, the man who decorated Grey Shales for the portrate that you lately published might well have put the surcingle completely round the horses neck.

I scincerely trust that I should be the last of all men to run down any properly established and existing British breed or to throw cold water on the efforts of persons who happened to be trying to prevent the total eclipse and extinction of such breed if simply on the wane. But when a breed is totally extinct before it's partisans commence their operations in its cause, and when some of such partisans suggest the public should make grants in aid of their attempts to reproduce what is, at best, a counterfeit of something gone (armed cheifly with the late lamented's name and very little else in common with him), while other breeds as good in every way as (perhaps better than) the one they seek to imitate are most perfunctorily refused official recognition, I do consider it time to raise a mild demur.

In my opinion the much vaunted, but, nowadays, extinguished Devon Packhorse, whose virtues (some, perhaps, real, some imagined) are so constantly extolled, affords a case in point.

We are informed, ad nausam, how fine a fellow the West Countryman once was---a claim, so far as I know, undenied ; and that in his blood lies the sole salvation of the light horse stock of these isles---a sentiment which I, for one, do not endorse. We know full well the light horse situation in our midst requires attention, and we know as well (those of us who desire to know, that is) that we have the material at hand to help us---in the form of firmly fixed, prepotent, old-established British breeds. Yet there are those amongst us who persistently push forward claims upon behalf of a variety in the Devon Packhorse which, in their own demonstration, does not exist at all ! And, what is worse, it seems to be an item in their propaganda (or in that of some of them) to, if possible, procure Government assistance towards the attempted furtherance of a perfectly impracticable scheme : a scheme, they say, having for its object the resuscitation of the Packhorse, but which is actually in its effect none other than one for the manufacture a wholly counterfeit presentment of that creature and the offering of it to the public as infact that breed! This seems to favour a scandalous remark for me to make unless I can support it. Suppose we go a little further and enquire. Before doing this let me premise by saying frankly that I do not attribute any lack of faith at all to those who are so optimistic as to think they can revive the faded glories and build up anew the fallen fortunes of the Devon Packhorse. I think they are sincere enough in their beliefs, and my suggestion merely is that they much overrate their own capacity for doing good, and are the sufferers from misguided zeal. But, as a humble payer of a small quota of the nation's rates and taxes, I should much depreciate allotment of any portion of the public funds, however small, towards the subsidising of a cause so utterly forlorn as that which they espouse. And please remember that it is perhaps more than likely that our Government may vote funds for aiding Devon Packhorse breeding. As a nation we do striking and extraordinary things when we attempt to aid horse reproduction !

At one time I do not doubt there was a local type of horse---thick set, strong and wiry, capable of much hard work, peculiar in its way to Devon, and bred peculiarly for Devon's ways ; a type which was, once on a day, employed in carrying packs and possibly in aiding and abetting Devon smugglers in nefarious deeds. Judging principally by photographs of horses which have been presented to the public as pack animals, it would seem the breed (if really separate breed it ever was) was, more or less, a rough and unrefined variety of the Hackney in appearance. But whether the old denizen of Devon was, in reality and fact, more than a localised edition of the so-called "roadster"---tracing in the far-off and dim past to the same tap-root as that which gave us Hakneys---is a moot point, and a problem into which I will not enter here. Suffice it to say that the Devon Packhorse as a breed (as once known) is non-existent now. I will call upon some of its own supporters to prove this assertion.

First let me take one "C. R. S.," who (writing in Country Life on March 11th, 1916) claims to be "the originator of the revival of the Devon Packhorse."

What does he say ? This:---

"At this time (1905?) The remainder of breeding mares and possible stallions had been traced, and the Buckland Stud was started. For the first year Pride of the Dart was used for the best mares purchased and leased. The following year the Welsh Pack stallion the Welshman, was secured from Mr. Lort Philips and used for the season ; but unfortunately, in the winter he died of colic. The following season Grey Shales, by Findon Shales, was purchased. . . . The stallion Buller was also secured, though twenty-two years old. This South Devon celebrity was at the time pulling the village cab and scavenging cart alternately in South Brent. Well known throughout the Dartmoor hunt as the winner of innumerable jumping competitions and farmers' races, often he had been 'jobbed' for hunting, and saw the end of many great runs. Yet after this eventful, all-round life he was still sound at twenty-two when purchased. After a winter's rest he served a few selected mares the following summer, some of which had foals, but at the end of the season he died of old age (of old age ye Hakney men, at twenty-three). This horse was by Sportsman (who was exported to Australia), a son of Triumph II., so that he was in-bred, and of Giles-Cottager strain. The following year the Squire purchased Black Shales. . . ."

Now, as the auctioneer would ask of his awe stricken audience, "How much for this little lot!" Pride of the Dart, I have no particulars of by me as I write. He may have been a Packhorse pure and simple. We have recently been told, on what seems good authority, that the last pure Pack stallion (Triumph II.) died about twelve years ago, and this would be about the era of "The Pride." The "Welsh Pack" stallion was, no doubt, what most of us would be content to term a Welsh cob sire. The celebrated Buller appears to have had a goodly dose of the Packhorse un his make-up, but (as he died inside of the twelve years referred to) he was presumably not absolutely pure. Incidentally a Cottager 169 appears in an early volume of the Hakney Stud Book as a brown, bred and owned by Robert Giles, foaled in 1862, and Giles' Cottager, dam Darling, by Pasbye, information which is "middlin' vague." Presumably his sire is the Giles' Cottager so often quoted by Devonian enthusiasts. When we approach the next two stallions we are on the firmest of firm ground, as we know all there is to know of them. The animal described as Grey Shales, by Findon Grey Shales, is (unless I am mistaken very much) in reality Findon Grey Shales 11421 H.H.S.S.B.,---himself a grey, 15.2 h, by Monson's Walpole Shales 7193 ex 21557 Mirabella, by Monson's Cadet 6483, by Cadet 1251, of Burn Butts breeding---and Black Shales (Monson's Black Shales 12687, H.S.B.) is his full brother. These two, despite all efforts to palm them off as something else, are undeniable and unadulterated Hakneys of the best descent---so there is no "if" or "but" or mystery of any kind attached to them.

It has been said "In the dearth of stallions of pure Packhorse blood, he (Grey Shales) and his brother (Black Shales) are probably the very best stamp of sire which could be found to mate with mares of Packhorse descent. [ ] With the opinion expressed I see no cause at all to quarrel. Packhorse men who feign dislike of Hakneys must come to them for help !

Now in "C. R. S.'s" scheme of things it will be noticed no prominence is given to, and little said, about the mares. "The remainder of the mares" which had been traced and which were destined to rebuild the ruins of the Packhorse edifice. Is it that, unlike most breeders, "C. R. S." does not attach importance to the dam, or is it just that as there are no pure male Packhorses left, neither were (nor are) there any pure bred females either ? I think the answer to the latter query solves the lack of detailed reference to them in the scheme outlined.

No, "C. R. S.'s" scheme lacked promise from the start. The stallions were miscellaneous and doubtful, and the mare material, apparently, involved in quite an impenetrable fog of mystery.

And, by the way, was not the Devon Packhorse in a somewhat parlous state long (sixty to sixty-five) years prior to "C. R. S.'s" efforts in his favour ? For we are informed :---"The old Norfolk roadster blood was introduced between 1840 and 1850 by Mr. Huxham Watson, who imported the bay stallion Phenomenon 1034 (H.S.B.)"

If the West Country Packhorse was such a paragon, even in those days, as we are asked to think, may not one well be forgiven for enquiring why Hakney blood was introduced into his ranks? For this horse Phenomenon was a son of Norfolk Phenomenon 524, H.S.B. Was there a fly in the ointment even then, a "something" not quite right which needed just a little help, a little alteration.

Now, coming to the Duchy of Cornwall scheme, so recently reviewed by you, sir. At the outset of my comments let me say the I approach the operations of the Royal owner with the utmost diffidence, the greatest loyalty, and the fullest possible appreciation of the very worlds of good our Royal House has ever done for breeders of all kind of stock. I am loth to deal with this stud at all, and if I appear to criticise, I do so only in an abstract sense, and from the point of view of one considering a very interesting livestock problem, of which the practical examples are so few that none can be excluded---and the Duchy stud affords the last word in the Packhorse cause. I simply cristisise the material in use of being incapable of reincarnating a breed now, I say, utterly extinct. How does the Duchy stock support me? Quoting from your pages from a day in August last:---

"The last pure bred pack stallion, Triumph II., died about twelve years ago, but there are still living a sufficient number of half and three-quarter Pack mares to justify an attempt being made to improve back to the original breed."

Note: "to improve back to the original breed." And note, too, that it is purposed to carry out this very curious operation withput the aid of Packhorse sires and through the media of mares admittedly impure! Here be it remarked, we start almost the opposite way round to "C. R. S."---with impure mares and sires confessedly devoid of Packhorse blood in any form!

As to the Duchy mares, it is stated that:---"Several mares of Pack type and one three-quarter-bred mare have been bought by the Duchy. In these cases where the pedigree could not be ascertained the mares have been chosen for their performances, for it is not unreasonable to suppose that mares found and known to have been bred in South Devon, and possessing the conformation and ability to maintain condition on [unreadable] keep of the Packhorse, possess some of the genuine old blood.

One of the mares, Sweet Marie, who in jumping competitions has beaten some of the crack jumpers in England, and easily won a match against an American trotter in a nine mile course along the Plymouth road, ran out day and night the whole of the winter 1916-17 at an altitude of 1,400 feet, and, despite the ground having been covered with snow for more than a month, maintained her condition. Her sire was by a Hunter sire out of a pure Packmare, and her dam was by Triumph II. out of a Dartmoor Pony. In breeding she is, with the exception of two mares not belonging to the Duchy, as nearly pure Pack as it is now possible to find."

Efforts have here obviously been made to trace the antecedants of the mare material in use, but the results do not imbue one with enthusiastic confidence, but rather strengthen one in the belief (if one needs strengthening) that the Packhorse has now passed considerably beyond the stage when it can be retrieved.

Surely it is very dangerous to assume because a mare was bred in Devon, and bears some resemblance to reputed Packhorse type, she must perforce, be Packhorse-bred.

If Sweet Marie---one quarter "Hunter" (whatever that may be : I much fear a "Hunter" as a breeding proposition), one half Pack, and the remaining quarter Dartmoor Pony---is (with two exceptions of which information is not given) "as nearly pure Pack as it is possible to find," then is not the Devon Packhorse cause, in very truth, a lost one?

Regarding the Duchy stallions:---"As no pure bred Pack stallion was known to exist, it was decided to revert to the Norfolk Roadster of the old type, which in the past had been found to nick well with the Packhorse."

In consequence of this decision we find out two old Hackney friends, the brothers Shales (referred to higher up), again before the footlights, delivering their "turn" of pushing on the good and valiant work which Phenomenon (an instance of an agent in the happy Roadster-Packer union just spoken of) commenced three-quarters of a century ago. But can this be called reviving, or resuscitating, a variety which ages since first fell upon bad times and then expired? I fear that, even by abnormal elasticity of one's imagination, it can not. The Hakney matron 21557 Mirabella (dam of the brothers Shales) has gone, with her two noble sons, to Cornwall, where it is scincerely to be hoped that she, as well as they, will not be sacrificed upon the altar of a hopeless cause. She is deserving of an ininitely better fate.

I have not, so far, seen the Devon Packhorse Stud Book, but it must be the most extraordinary collection of heterogeneous equine data ever placed on record in book form.

No, the Packhorse is, most obviously, extinct and, totally unlike the Pheonix of mythological renown, he cannot be prevailed upon to-day to do the ashes trick---that magic art is lost forever.

An imitation (no matter with what subtlety and skill compunded) can never be the real thing. Were some great masters finest work to be destroyed, and someone were to paint another picture in its image (more or less), and to bestow upon it the same name, would anyone accept it as the masterpiece destroyed? Can, then, an imitation Packhorse, full of weird blood mixtures, ever be the Simon Pure because his sponsors chose to dub him "Devon Packhorse"?

No, the old Devonian has gone beyond redemption, and much though we, who love old British breeds (or sub-breeds), may deplore the fact, it is much better to accept it as a fact, and to devote attention to some living breed of equal, or perhaps greater, worth than to attempt a task beyond all human power.

Let Devon Packhorse men admit in words, as by their actions they have done long years ago, and are still doing now, that the Hakney is the horse they really want. Cast prejudice aside, select the type which suits their needs---for they can find it---and get on with something useful. Let them ever hear in mind the old-known adage is to the supreme futility of flogging a dead equine in the hope of getting something further out of him. It is particularly apt. LANCASTRIAN.

[Photograps are:--- 1. Triumph II, the last Packstallion. 2. Findon Grey Shales, the Hakney used in the revival experiments. 3. Two of the 'Packmares' being used in the revival, here pictured collecting sphagnum moss for use in the war effort.]