134 A YEAR IN AGRICULTURE 



valuable as a roadster. Another may draw his share of a 

 load of one ton or more and be of service as a draft horse. 

 One may be just as useful to the owner as the other, each 

 performing the work to which he is best adapted. 



With horses as with men, work is the result of the action 

 of the muscles. About 40 per cent of the weight of the horse 

 is muscle. Muscles of locomotion are attached to tendons and 

 bones, and by contracting and expanding cause the bones to 

 move. The lower part of the horse's leg is nearly all bone, 

 but the muscles which move it are in the upper part of the 

 leg and in the body. The common idea about the muscles 

 of horses is often expressed, "Long muscles for speed; short 

 muscles for power." In buying horses to draw heavy loads, 

 we look for large and heavy muscles, while in driving horses 

 we attach greater importance to length of muscles. Most of 

 the horse's propelling muscles are in the hind quarters, and 

 if you watch a horse pulling a heavy load you may be sur- 

 prised to see that most of the work is being done with the 

 hind legs. It is very important that there be large, strong 

 hocks; the croup should be wide and straight; quarters and 

 thighs, deep and heavily muscled; the legs straight and 

 placed squarely under the body. 



It is very desirable, also, that a horse should have a rather 

 short back; that is, short from the hips to the withers. We 

 are to learn that the hind parts really push the rest of the 

 body along; therefore a long back would hinder easy and 

 rapid motion. Of course the front parts of the horse are 

 very important ; for no matter how strong the hind quarters 

 are, if there is anything seriously wrong with the forelegs, he 



