198 VARIETIES OF THE HORSE 



to any farm upon which he is employed. Unlike many chestnuts, too, 

 the natural gameneas of the Punches is not neutralized by hot-headedness 

 or vice of any kind; on the contrary, they are a somewhat phlegmatic - 

 dispositioned variety, though they possess an amount of courage which 

 enables them to face and endure the hardest of work. The Suffolk, 

 moreover, possesses another great recommendation; he is an animal that 

 requires very little breaking, as he takes to work almost as naturally 

 as a duckling faces water. Above all things he is an agricultural 

 horse, but where pace and strength combined are required, as in the 

 case of town work, he is equally at home. Beyond all doubt, he is the 

 most nimble and active of all the so-called heavy varieties; whilst, as 

 has been stated before, the Suffolk, for his size, is a very small feeder, 

 and will flourish and look well upon an amount of food that would be 

 totally insufficient for many other big horses. As an instance of the 

 longevity of the Suffolk horse, it is stated in the Society's Stud-book, 

 that at one of the earliest exhibitions held by the Suffolk Agricultural 

 Society, a brood mare aged thirty -seven years was amongst the com- 

 petitors, and at that time she was accompanied by a sucking foal. So 

 far back, too, as the year 1813, Arthur Young, in writing of this variety 

 of horse, alluded to the fact that Mr. Wright, of Rockfort Hall, had 

 seventeen of them in his possession, and that during the space of ten 

 years he had not added one to his stud except a stallion. Julian's Boxer 

 travelled as a stallion for twenty-five seasons; the dam of Lofft's Cup- 

 bearer, owned by the Rev. 0. Reynolds of Leabach, was one of the six- 

 teen foals which her owner had bred from her dam in sixteen successive 

 years; and the mare from which Rising Star, the first -prize horse at 

 Leeds in 1861, was bred, was twenty-two years old when the colt was 

 foaled. The above are a few instances of the longevity and vitality of 

 the Suffolk horse, and these could be multiplied many times were it 

 necessary to do so; but enough has probably been written to convince the 

 reader, if he were unacquainted with the fact before, that the variety now 

 under consideration is a very remarkably long-lived and fruitful one, in 

 addition to being a very willing worker. 



The head of the Suffolk Punch shows more breeding and quality 

 about it than that of any other heavy horse, a very conspicuous feature 

 being the eye, which is full of expression, yet mild and intelligent-looking 

 to a degree. The neck is powerful and well formed, and the crest beauti- 

 fully turned. The head-piece is well carried, the shoulders, which are very 

 long, lie rather forward, this being desirable for the purposes of draught. 

 The chest is wide and deep, the girth of the middle -piece being very 

 considerable, whilst the body as a whole is long and substantially built. 



