200 VARIETIES OF THE HOESE 



will be almost down on his knees in a moment, and will not be beaten 

 by any reasonable load. 



No doubt the weight and size of the modern Suffolk have been increased 

 to meet the requirements of the market, but they still continue to retain the 

 activity and action which distinguished their ancestors in the past. With 

 so much to recommend them, therefore, it is not surprising that, in spite of 

 the obstacles that oppose them owing to the established popularity of other 

 heavy breeds, the Punches are steadily, though perhaps slowly, making 

 headway amongst agriculturists both at home and abroad. The parcels 

 delivery companies, which require active yet powerful wear-and-tear animals 

 of robust constitutions for their trade, are always glad if they can get 

 possession of any of the lighter specimens of the breed. Whether the 

 Suffolk will ever reach the position of the most favoured heavy horse is 

 perhaps a matter of considerable doubt, but to those who require for their 

 work a fast, active, good-tempered, and good-constitutioned draught-horse, 

 there is no gainsaying the fact that they might do far worse for themselves 

 than by giving a chance to the handsome and long-lived Suffolk Punch, 

 whose antiquity alone may commend him to their consideration. 



FOREIGN BREEDS 



The Arab. — There is unfortunately no room left for doubting that the 

 Arab horse has suffered much through the mistaken and excessive partisan- 

 ship of over-zealous friends. The lavish — one might almost adopt the 

 expression fulsome— flattery of which he has been the victim has certainly 

 alienated from him the sympathies of many a practical man; whilst the 

 hysterical and childish allusions to this, in very many respects, most 

 valuable horse as the "courser of the desert", the "Arab's faithful steed", 

 and such like sentimentalities, are, though possibly welcomed by the 

 readers of improving works for the young, very far from calculated to 

 attract a business man who wants his horse to use and not to gush over. 

 In fact, had it not been for the existence of a small body of practical 

 supporters of the breed, who have laboured in a serious manner to benefit 

 the horse, there is good reason to believe that the Arab would have been 

 to all intents and purposes non-existent in this country by now; but even 

 as matters are, the position occupied by him is very different from that 

 which should be occupied by the horse to which the Thoroughbred is 

 indebted for many of his excellencies. 



This admission is not exactly complimentary to the gratitude of English 

 breeders, but a very reasonable excuse exists for their desertion of the Arab 

 in the fact that the majority of his supporters appear to be so perfectly 



