Don Stacy has written a great bio of Bertram Mills on circopedia
Bertram Mills - Circopedia
with some great information about his horse interest's, which I have found to be as interesting as his circus interests. I have been able to find nothing about the breed or kind of horse that Bertram preferred or used for his various hitch's. Does anyone one know or have any idea what was his favored breed? It appears to be hackney's from photo's that are available. In the painting above they are depicted as chestnut's with the lead horse being a grey. In the photo's below they appear to be blacks, possibly bay's with the lead horse being a roan. It also look's like one of the photo negatives was revered, or the lead horse was switched, which doesn't make too much sense. In the photo below, they do look like hackney's moving and they appear to be a matched set of blacks when used for exhibition purposes.
Bertram's London-Brighton stage coach, year unknown
Bertram Mills' London-Brighton stage coach (1925) Don Stacey Collection circopedia
Bertram Mills driving a four-in-hand coach at the Richmond Horse Show (1931) Don Stacey collection
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You were curious if a horse, or a photo, has been flipped left to right. The photo is printed correctly, as you can see the driver always sits on the right hand side of the coach. You need to remember that these long coach runs required many teams of horses in order to do it at any speed- fresh horses would be stabled at stops along the route and switched. Even in the course of a few hours- that coach will have several teams of different horses pulling it. So even if photos were marked from the very same day- it would be no mystery that the horses were not the same individuals.
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