TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 385 



strength, (3) true, snappy action, (4) endurance and durability, 

 (5) feeding capacity, and (6) good disposition. 



Weight. This is decidedly essential. The heavier the 

 horse, the more adhesion he has to the ground. When a horse 

 is working in harness, the traces tend to lift the fore feet off 

 the ground, and for this reason a heavy horse is able to use 

 his weight to good advantage. In stage-coach days it was a 

 common trick for the driver to throw a bag of meal across a 

 horses' back, or get upon a horse himself, in case the coach got 

 into a place where a hard pull was necessary. By so doing, his 

 team was often able to start the load without other assistance. 

 The added weight produced more adhesion between the feet 

 and the ground, thus enabling the animal to exert all his strength 

 at a pull, instead of uselessly "scratching gravel" when trying 

 to start. 



Standing on a hard surface, a man of 200 pounds weight 

 can easily outpull a man of 150 pounds in a tug-of-war, for the 

 reason just explained. If the 150-pound man take another man 

 upon his shoulders and back, however, he can defeat his opponent 

 who outweighs him by 50 pounds. The man on the shoulders 

 of the 150-pound contestant adds nothing to the muscular power 

 at that end of the rope, but rather lessens it; but the added 

 weight and the increase in adhesion permit the full strength of 

 muscles to be more nearly exerted, and the 200-pound man is 

 readily defeated. 



The horse moves a load by (1) simply leaning against the 

 collar, and (2) by muscular strength. Thus, weight has a sec- 

 ond advantage in that it takes the place of some of the mus- 

 cular energy, for the weight of a heavy horse more nearly off- 

 sets the weight of the load than does the weight of a smaller 

 horse, and every extra pound thrown against the collar means 

 a corresponding reduction in muscular force required in moving 

 the load. Then, too, as a rule, the larger the horse, the stronger 

 he will be. 



To sum up, weight in the draft horse has three values 

 (1) It gives the feet more adhesion with the pavement or ground, 

 so that the muscular power may be applied to the collar, (2) by 

 offsetting some of the weight of the load, it lessens the amount 

 of muscular exertion required, and (3) as a rule, the heavier 

 the horse, the stronger he will be. Some horses make up for a 

 lack of weight by their superior ambition and courage. 



