610 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



give as favorable results as it so far has given, there can be no 

 doubt that within a year or two it will be used very wideh' and with 

 great profit. 



PROFITABLE TYPES OF LIGHT HORSES. 



By DR. GEO. M. ROMMELL, Bttreau 0/ Ajiimaf Industry, U. S. Dept. of AijrUulture, Washington, D. C. 



Mr. President and Members of the Pennsylvania Livestock Breed- 

 ers' Association: In discussing profitable types of light horses, I 

 want to speak on those types or classes of horses that are profitable 

 from the standpoint of the man that takes them to the market and 

 sells them. By a profitable light horse we understand then a horse 

 that will pay the breeder for producing him when he takes him down 

 to the place where the horse buyers congregate and pay good money 

 for good animals. 



There are three general classes of light horses on most markets: 

 The roadster class, the carriage class and the saddle class. They 

 are known under different names. The roadsters are known as driv- 

 ers, gentlemen's drivers, light drivers or roadsters, as the case may 

 be. Carriage horses are known under such names as carriage horses, 

 carriage teams, coach horses, coachers and actors, etc. Under the 

 class of carriage horses there are two general sub-classes: Cobs 

 and harness ponies — neither one of them very numerous in any of 

 our markets, but both profitable classes. Under saddlers, there are 

 a number of sub-classes, but those classes are of importance prin- 

 cipally as matters of general information than as actual sub-divi- 

 sions of the market. Before going into the characteristics of these 

 different classes, I want to speak briefly on the character 

 istics that are common to all classes of light horses which, speak- 

 ing broadly, may be applied to all classes of horses, regardless of 

 whether they are light or heavy, by means of which you can build 

 up in the mind's eye the perfect horse. The variations from this 

 make the characteristics of the different classes. 



Perhaps the first and most important essential in a market horse 

 is soundness. It is absolutely useless to expect to sell a horse that 

 is unsound for a good price on any critical market. Unsoundnesses 

 that are most common are those of the limbs and the respiratory 

 organs. A marketable horse should not have a splint so high up 

 on the leg that it interferes with the articulation of the knee joint. 

 A splint may be small and low down and not seriously affect the 

 selling price of the animal. Understand, however, that where you 

 have to consider the highest type of equine beauty you w^ant to avoid 

 blemishes just as much as possible, A splint at best is a blemish, 

 and naturally will result in a discrimination being made against 

 a horse possessing one when he is sold. With light horses every 

 thing that is an offense to the eye must be avoided. The more beauti- 



