TYPES OF HORSES— CARRIAGE HORSES. 123 



service are greater with a good seven or eight year old horse 

 than with a healthy four or five year old, whose bones and 

 muscles are soft and weak, making the development of 

 temporary or permanent lameness a likely possibility. 



TYPES OF HORSES. 



The division of horses competing at horse shows into 

 different classes has taught the onlooker to realize that the 

 various purposes for which horses are employed demand ani- 

 mals especially adapted to their respective labors. Those 

 persons who have made a study of the subject know that 

 heavy carriages require large, powerful horses which in a 

 smaller and lighter vehicle would produce the effect of " a 

 man doing a boy's work," and that a saddle horse should 

 be of a size and build proportionate to the weight he is to 

 carry. Hence it may be said that the division of horses 

 into classes is the result of an endeavor to establish a bal- 

 ance of proportion between the horse and his work. With 

 this end in view various types of horses have been bred with 

 the greatest care and attention to the development of those 

 qualifications w^hich render them particularly adaptable, in 

 the combination of strength, symmetry, disposition and man- 

 ners, for some specific work. The result is that the well 

 bred horse of the present day represents one of the several 

 distinct types having an inherent aptitude for performing a 

 limited range of work. 



CARRIAGE HORSES. 



The best carriage horses are of two general types : 

 First, the small, compact, quick stepping animals. They 

 range in height between fourteen two and fifteen hands two 

 inches. When well bred and carefully selected they combine 



