THE 



PRACTICAL HORSE KEEPER. 



CHAPTER I. 



BREEDS OF HORSES : THEIR POINTS, PROBABLE COST, etc. 



The great variety in the breeds of horses in this country is 

 always an intricate and difficult study, so much is it compli- 

 cated by " cross-breeding," which, though sometimes conducted 

 on reasonable and well-established principles, is only too often 

 carried out on no principle at all, but in a sort of haphazard 

 fashion that may result in something good and definite, but 

 more frequently produces an undefinable and unsatisfactory 

 progeny, the special adaptability of which for special work 

 cannot easily be arrived at. 



But for classification or grouping, according to the services 

 which they are best adapted to render, horses are conveniently 

 classed in two divisions — saddle and draught ; and these 

 divisions are again subdivided into (1) racer, hunter, hack, or 

 roadster; and (2) carriage and light draught horses, and 

 agricultural and heavy draught horses. 



As race horses do not enter into the category of general 

 utility horses, we will not include them in our notice of these 

 subdivisions ; though it must not be inferred that they are 

 of no service. On the contrary, when race horses are bred 

 and reared with the object of improving the breed of the entire 

 first subdivision alluded to above, then their value can scarcely 

 B 



