114 LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 



The kind of a horse a farmer should adopt for his farm will 

 depend somewhat upon the farm and the farmer. A small 

 hilly farm might be able to use light horses to the best ad- 

 vantage but as a rule a farmer ought to grow horses to sell 

 as well as to use on his own farm. And the larger and heavier 

 they are the more they will bring on the market. 



In selecting a horse either for work or for breeding purposes, 

 it should be selected for conformation, quality, soundness, 

 ambition, etc. 



DRAFT HORSE CONFORMATION 



The main points to be given special consideration are length 

 of back, length and position of croup, width of body, depth of 

 chest, thickness of muscles, slope and shape of shoulder, depth 

 of body, length of leg, cleanness of limbs, slope of pasterns, 

 character of feet, and head and neck. 



Back. The back of a horse, that is, from the rear of the 

 shoulder to the front of the hip joints, should be short. The 

 reason for this is to give it strength. The horse is a pulling 

 machine which has considerable strain on the back and the 

 longer the back is the more likely it is to give away. A long 

 bridge span or a long joist will not carry as heavy a load as a 

 short one. So a horse with a short back is stronger than a 

 horse with a long back. 



While the back should be short to assure strength, the 

 underline of the body or belly should be comparatively long. 

 This will give more room for the internal organs and feed and 

 also prevent the hind feet from coming into contact with the 

 front feet while the horse is in motion. 



Croup. The croup is the upper part of the horse's body 

 from the points of the hips to the root of the tail and the pin 

 bones. This should be well muscled and not too steep. 

 That is the rear end should not be too low. There should be 

 a nice gradual curve from the back up over the croup back to 

 the tail. The horse should not look as if it had been flattened 

 out at this part. 



The croup should be well muscled because here are located 

 some of the principal muscles that have to do with locomo- 

 tion. These are attached by means of cords and tendons to 



