Hackney Horses

Not thoroughbred, but nearly so. They make the best roadsters, hunters, and carriage horses; their action is showy, and their pace good. A first-class roadster will trot a mile in 2 1/2 minutes. Some American trotters will even exceed this record. The best hackneys are produced from thorough-bred sires mated with half-bred mares. (French, haquenéc; the Romance word haque = the Latin equus; Spanish, hacanéa.)

⁂ In ordinary parlance, a hackney, hackney-horse, or hack, means a horse “hacked out” for hire. These horses are sometimes vicious private horses sold for “hacks,” or worn-out coach-horses, and cheap animals with broken wind, broken knees, or some other defect.

“The knights are well horsed, and the common people and others on litell hakeneys and geldynges.”—Froissart.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.