The Hackney Horse/Pony Into America
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The Hackney Horse/Pony Into America
The seas were being crossed regularly during the 1800s, by ships bearing both Hackney horses and the smaller ponies which certain breeders were selectively encouraging.
Vast improvement in British roadways in the mid-1800s also contributed to the development of the swift trotting horse. These roads did not always demand dray animals which could tug carts from deep ruts. Now, a man could say 'Trot On' and really go! These new and better roads fairly invited competition between farmers, both riding and driving swift trotting horses on the to market.
The breeding of Hackneys in England was formalized by the founding of the Hackney Stud Book Society in 1883.
This was the Golden Age of Driving, when automobiles were not even a dream. The Hackney was the ultimate driving machine of the 1880s both in America and in Britain. The first Hackney pony imported to America was 239 Stella, brought to Philadelphia by Mr. A. J. Cossatt in 1878.
In 1891 Mr. Cossatt and other Hackney enthusiasts founded the American Hackney Horse Society, an organization and registry which thrives today. From 1890 until the Depression, wealthy Americans brought boatload after boatload of horses and ponies of the most noted strains.
