HORSES. 21 1 



ing a horse for the road, we would notice the skin and hair. 

 The skin should be thin, and the hair fine, soft, and silky ; the 

 eye should be large, full and clear, with a pleasant expression ; 

 the ear should be small, clean, sharp and movable ; the eyes 

 and ears should be set wide apart ; the forehead should be 

 broad, the muzzle small, the lips thin ; the neck thin and not 

 too long, as this denotes a stumbler, nor yet too short, or he 

 will be hard-mouthed, and should be slightly arched ; the collar 

 bones should be oblique, and the withers thin and slightly 

 higher than the rump ; the back should be nearly straight ; the 

 chest should be deep and roomy ; the barrel round ; the ribs 

 should come out nearly at right angles from the spine ; the 

 hindmost one should be very near the hip ; the legs should not 

 be too small in the bone, but flat and wide, the tendons standing 

 well out from the bones ; the joints should be full and compact ; 

 the hoofs round and firm, but not large. These marks indicate 

 good temper, easy action, good spirits and endurance. Appro- 

 priate training and feeding must do the rest. Upon these 

 subjects we will not undertake to enlighten our brother 

 farmers. 



An animal that can do us the service and afford us the 

 pleasure which a good roadster can and does, is surely entitled 

 to great care and attention. He may be easily ruined by over 

 driving, by neglect of his feet, by injudicious feeding, and by 

 exposure, when heated, to cold winds and storms. Hence we 

 see so many fine roadsters with windgalls, cracked hoofs, swelled 

 joints, breasts foundered and stiff, their courage lost and their 

 tempers spoiled by cruelty and neglect. A man who has so 

 hard a heart and so little manhood that he will neglect and 

 abuse a fine hor'^e, ought not only to suffer the pecuniary loss 

 that necessarily follows, but also to be doomed to trudge on foot 

 through the remaining journey of his life. Among the ajjpall- 

 ing effects of the terrible war in which our country is engaged, 

 this is one : that the army destroys, every day, hundreds, if not 

 thousands, of the very class of horses of which we have l)een 

 speaking. This consumption must necessarily keep up the 

 price of horses for years to come. Farmers, whose circum- 

 stances will warrant it, will draw from this fact encouragement 

 to engage in the business of breeding horses. We have no 

 doubt that as good horses may be raised, and are raised, in 



