Hackney Pony

Origin: England.

Height: 12.2-14.2hh.

Color: Usually bay, brown, chestnut, black.

Character: Active, honest, courageous, and possessed of great endurance.Physique: True pony type. Pony head with prick ears, long neck, compactbody with good shoulders and quarters, iron-hard legs and good feet.Action highly dramatic, the knees raised as high as they can go and the feetflung forward with an extravagant, rounded motion. Hocks brought uphigh under the body, with movement on all four feet straight and true. Theeffect of a hackney at the trot is one of flamboyance and brilliance.

The word hackney comes from the Norman French haquenai, which wasapplied in the Middle Ages to riding animals of the humblest caste ("Hewened have repreved be Of theft or mordre if that he Had in his stable anyHakenay" - Chaucer, being rude about them). Quite why this derogatoryword, which worked its way into hack = hireling in the sense of a wretchloaned out for a small sum, came to be applied to the highly-prized breeddeveloped during the 19th century from the famous old Norfolk Roadstertrotting horse by way of the Arab and Thoroughbred with help from Fell andWelsh ponies is not clear; but by the mid-19th century the Hackney washeld in great esteem not only in the British Isles but also on the Continent,to which many of the best Hackneys were exported.

It is exclusively a harness pony, trotting with a wonderful, airy grace whichmakes it seem to fly over the ground. In the days before motorization it wasvery popular as a carriage pony, and because of its high price and smartappearance was valued as a prestige delivery pony by tradesmen whowanted to show their customers that they were successful. Fears that thecar and truck would render it extinct have proved baseless. Although itsnumbers are much reduced, and only the best show types now have muchvalue, the modern Hackney has become one of the most consistent crowd-drawers in the show ring.

Hackneys are also popular throughout North America, where they appeari 11 the show ring with tails nicked to give an artificially high carriage.The smaller American Hackneys of ponytype, sometimes called "Bantam" Hackneys (some are bred as small as11 hh), must have definite pony character. Aside from harness work they arealso used for riding and for showjumping, at which sport they were oncemuch in demand in Great Britain because of the powerful muscular develop-ment of the hindquarters and legs.