FORM AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 427 



croup to the tail down to the back of the quarter by the 

 stifle bone and up to the hips. The tail is thin, usually set 

 on low, but the high hip, drooping rump and angular quarter 

 are never found in a true bred Suffolk, nor the square rump 

 with the tail on the top. 



"The height averages 16^ hands, but varies up to 17 and 

 below 1 6 hands. The girth behind the shoulders is about 8 

 feet. One Royal winner taped 8 ft. 2 ins., and Garrett's 

 ' Cupbearer III.' gave \ in. more. 



" The legs are straight, with fair sloping pasterns, big knees, 

 and long clean hocks on short cannon bones free from coarse 

 hair. Elbows that are turned in are regarded as a serious 

 defect. The bone of the Suffolk horse is at times objected to 

 by foreign buyers as too fine, but it is after the texture of the 

 thoroughbred, and does not require to be heavy to the eye 

 a girth of loj inches below the knee being considered ample. 

 One Royal prize-winner measured \\\ ins., and had no more 

 hairs than a thoroughbred. 



"The feet are particularly sound, having plenty of size 

 with good circular form protecting the foot, hard and well 

 formed, as a result of the stringent regulations against un- 

 soundness introduced by the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England and the Suffolk Agricultural Association during the 

 third quarter of last century. Early in that period the 

 Suffolk horse suffered, like other heavy horses, from side- 

 bones and various other diseases and defects of the foot, but 

 by stringently eliminating such animals from breeding, the 

 tendency to disease was almost obliterated. 



"General Characteristics. For power of endurance, 

 constitution, and longevity, the Suffolk horse has long been 

 famous. Arthur Young records the case of Wright of Rock- 

 ford Hall, who with seventeen horses at work in ten years 

 never changed or added one to these teams, except a stallion. 

 Stallions have been known to travel sixteen and twenty-one 

 years and one even twenty-five years in succession, while a 

 mare has been known to breed till she was 37 years old. In 

 temper they are docile, and they can work exceptionally long 

 hours without food. Continental armies use them for artillery 

 purposes. Some of the cleverest cobs in existence are bred 

 out of light active mares of the Suffolk breed. Many excellent 

 hunters in the field, and still more in the showyard, have 

 been the produce of pure Suffolk mares and a thoroughbred 

 stallion. The Suffolk horse is exported to Canada, the 

 United States; to South America and Australia; to Spain, 

 France, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. The breed 

 is to be best seen at the shows of the Suffolk Agricultural 



