The Heavy Horse: Its Harness And Harness Decoration

Dust jacket notes: "The Clydesdale, the Suffolk Punch, the Shire, the Percheron - these are the heavy horses of England. Much has been written about the lighter carriage horse and how to harness and drive him, and possibly for this reason much of the working of the lighter driven horse became standard practice. Not so the heavy draught horse, where harness and working practices varied, not only from county to county, but often from one district to another within those counties. A number of writers have covered the working of the heavy horse in England within a limited area, but there is no book to be found comparing the different ways of working the horses over the country as a whole. The information was there to be gathered, and the horsemen were so wiling to pass it on that Terry Keegan felt that a need for such a book was very great. As the old harness about the farms gets destroyed, so more and more people are beginning to take an interest in it, not only from the decorative point of view, but also as a part of social history. Harness has begun to appear in the antique shops, and it is being scattered far beyond its place of origin, so that in the future there is going to be a problem tracing the original area in which it was made. Already the museums are faced with this problem, and unless the harness-maker's name-plate is attached, there is difficulty in finding the area of its origin. It is hoped that this book will go some way toward helping to identify the chief characteristics of the harness patterns and the areas in which they were found. The Heavy Horse: Its Harness and Harness Decorations is an essential aid in recording the history of the heavy horse in England, and in establishing the place of origin of the now much-prized harness equipment. This fully illustrated volume will be treasured by horsemen, historians, and collectors alike."