420 FARM HORSES SHIRES 



buy horses at any price with white legs ; it is every day 

 becoming more important, therefore I would caution breeders 

 to avoid it as much as possible." 



Shire breeders have not followed the sound advice as to 

 colour of the first Secretary of their Horse Society, but have 

 allowed fashion to override discretion. The prevalence of 

 white legs and feet is so detrimental to the usefulness of 

 work animals in countries where the sun is hot, that it forms 

 one of the cogent reasons why the two great breeds of 

 English and Scotch heavy-legged horses have been worsted 

 in competition with the French Percheron, in the United 

 States and other foreign countries. 



The differences in the ordinary workaday form of 

 Shire horse, which, within its own numbers, differs greatly in 

 different localities, as compared with the common Clydesdale, 

 are : Lower and more sluggish action ; the ends bulky ; the 

 belly or middle larger (the animal being a greater feeder) ; 

 the quarters shorter (more like the Belgian horse), and the 

 plates consequently steeper and flatter ; the hocks wider 

 between than in the Clydesdale, in which they usually incline 

 slightly inwards ; the leg-bones and joints rougher and 

 rounder, indicating a gross constitution and a tendency to 

 grease ; the pasterns shorter, and the hoofs more upright, 

 giving a stilted look. Long pasterns are now sought for in 

 the best horses, no doubt to counteract the weakness in the 

 mares. The space between the eyes is frequently not so wide 

 and the eyes are not so prominent as in the Clydesdale. 

 There is more long hair or feathering on the back parts of 

 the legs : this also extends round in front, and may include a 

 tassel from the knee of the stallion. James Howard's paper 

 in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal for 1884 points 

 to much hair as a defect, being more or less detrimental to 

 the animal in certain kinds of work, and especially so in a 

 heavy-land district. But it is argued by the advocates of 

 hair, that abundance of hair and great strength of bone go 

 together, and if the one is discarded the other is lost. 



The average English work-horse might be much improved 

 if a greater number of Farmers' Clubs would make efforts to 

 secure the services of good horses in special districts, and not 

 leave this extremely important matter so much to chance 

 individual enterprise. 



