TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 461 



familiar enough with the type and the methods of its production 

 to know what I am striving to produce and how to produce it? 

 2. Provided I can produce the type successfully, how can I dis- 

 pose of my animals, and what are the chances of realizing full 

 value for my stock? 3. Are my buildings, fences, land, and 

 crops adapted to the production of horses, and if not, can I 

 remedy the shortcomings? 



Advantages of draft type. In the majority of cases, the 

 best type for the farmer to produce is the draft horse. It has 

 many advantages. The brood mares are much better suited 

 to do the work of the farm than are any of the light horse types. 

 Practically no special training is needed to make the drafter 

 ready for market, and he is marketable at a younger age than is 

 ordinarily true of the types of light horses. If he is kept free 

 from wire cuts and other blemishes, and is fat and well groomed 

 when offered for sale, he should realize full value. The carriage 

 horse or saddler, on the other hand, requires months of handling 

 in order to give him a good mouth and develop his action or 

 gaits, as the case may be. Furthermore, a wire cut or other 

 blemish is much more serious with these types than with the 

 drafter. They require more care and attention from birth to 

 selling time, and require a greater age to finish them for market. 

 It is also true that there are fewer misfits in breeding draft 

 horses than with any other type of horse, in other words, re- 

 sults are more certain and sure. The production of draft horses 

 fits into general farming better than the production of any of 

 the light horse types. For these various reasons, the draft 

 horse is of greatest interest to most farmers, and is most fre- 

 quently selected by farmers who take up horse breeding. 



Light types require greater skill. Let it be understood, 

 however, that the foregoing arguments are not intended to 

 discourage the breeding of types other than the drafter. The 

 point is that carriage, saddle, and roadster horses are more 

 difficult to produce than drafters, and but few persons, com- 

 paratively, are qualified to breed them successfully. The pro- 

 duction of light horses requires a higher order of skill both in 

 breeding and salesmanship than does the production of the 

 draft horse, and when this is supplied, light horse breeding is 

 a profitable enterprise. Hence the selection of the type to 

 breed should be governed largely by the ability of the man who 

 is to supervise the breeding, provided, of course, he is to work 

 under conditions not unfavorable to the type he is best qualified 



