86 Management and Feeding of Heavy Horses 



almost perfect, or at least greatly improved, horse of the present 

 day. For many centuries the ox was recognized as being the best 

 and most useful of the lower animals for helping man in the work 

 of cultivating the land, and of moving heavy weights from place 

 to place. It is not many years since teams of oxen were quite 

 frequently to be seen at work in some of the counties of England, 

 and are even up to the present day used for timber hauling and 

 other heavy work in some of our colonies. In countries where 

 roads are yet unmade, and wagons have to be dragged through 

 the forest and across a rough country, a span of oxen is considered 

 preferable to a team of horses. 



Although we now consider the anatomy of an ox far inferior 

 to that of the heavy horse for draught purposes, yet there must 

 have been special characteristics in the ox which qualified him to 

 be retained and used for so many centuries in the service of man — 

 characteristics which man must have appreciated not only in the 

 working of the ox, but as possible or desirable characteristics to be 

 introduced into the heavy horse during the process of development. 



THE HEAVY HORSE 



It is almost impossible to say with certainty now from what 

 foundation our heavy horses have been evolved, or of what materials 

 they have been built. It may be conjectured, however, that in his 

 efforts to produce a horse for draught purposes, man kept his eye 

 on the special attributes of the ox, attributes which so long re- 

 tained him in the service of man in preference to the horse. One 

 may conjecture that the quiet, patient temper of the ox, his power 

 of steady pulling, his readiness to work together or co-operate 

 as a team, the inexpensive nature of his food, his value as human 

 food when his working days were over, and his freedom from 

 serious ailments, all must have contributed to the retention of his 

 services on the farm and on the road, as being the superior 

 animal for draught purposes, compared with the horses of old 

 times. 



The Romans were renowned for their skill in agriculture as 

 well as for their valour in war, and we have glimpses in their his- 

 tory of horses being used in the cultivation of the soil. Is it too 

 much to suppose that they tried to select the horses for that work 

 that they considered the best qualified for the performance of it, 

 and that in their horse breeding they aimed at producing a type of 

 horse suitable for the work? Is it too much to suppose that they 

 tried to combine as far as they could the patient temper, steadiness, 



