574 TO SELECT A DBAUQHT HORSE. 



excellence in a horse which have general application to all classes: 

 these are those of health and symmetry. The former is indicated 

 by a bright clear eye, a clean muzzle, and general ease and freedom 

 of action. This requirement is common for horses for all purposes. 

 The characteristic of symmetry is governed by the harmony of the 

 proportions, and may safely be left to the eye of the purchaser after 

 he has become familiar with the requirements of perfection in the 

 different classes of horses. The general character of American 

 horses has been raised to a high standard by breeders within the 

 past half a century, and as the importance of breeding has now be- 

 come generally recognized and appreciated, the mongrel, ill-bred 

 and unprofitable kinds of horses are fast disappearing from our 

 stables and farms, and on the general subject of breed in purchasing 

 a horse, the buyer will be pretty certain not to go astray, if the ani- 

 mal is bred from stock with a pedigree in any of the classes. For 

 convenience then we may divide horses into four classes, viz.: 

 draught horses, roadsters, trotting horses, and running horses, and 

 these we may consider seriatim. 



TO SELECT A DRAUGHT HORSE. 



By draught horse, as here distinguished, we do not mean the 

 enormously heavy horse, used for dray purposes in the tew great 

 cities of the world. These are of the pure Flanders, or crossed with 

 Suffolk breed, and do not ordinarily enter into the requirements of 

 those for whom this information is compiled. The draught horse 

 treated under our heading is the animal heavy enough to be used 

 for plowing and the manipulation of heavy agricultural implements, 

 and with a certain degree of speed in addition for the marketing of 

 produce and the hancfling of heavy loads. The best horses for this 

 purpose are those procured by the crossing of the Clydesdale or 

 tercheron horses with native mares of good average breeding. 



Marks of a Good Draft Horse A good draught horse 

 will have broad breast and deep chest, with strong, somewhat up- 

 right shoulders, giving great power under the collar; deep and long 

 barrel; loins broad and high ; croup round, fleshy and muscular; 

 ample quarters for fore-arms and thighs; short legs, with round 

 hoofs, broad at the heels, and heels not too flat; bone broad 

 and flat; sinews big and nervous. The head should be rather 

 large and long; nostrils, large and well dilated; eyes, large and 

 expressive; forehead, broad; ears, not too large; neck, short and 

 rather massive with high, strong withers. In saying that the 

 shoulders should be somewhat upright, the object is to distin- 

 guish from the sloping shoulders, which are a mark both of 

 oeauty and swiftness in horses required for other purposes. The 



