THE VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSB. 59 



said, that the size, the action, the color, the comparative free- 

 dom from hair on the limbs, the straightness of the longer hairs 

 of the mane and tail, and the quickness of movement, would at 

 once lead one to suspect a large cross, perhaps the largest of 

 any, on the original mixed country horse, of Cleveland Bay. 

 There are, however, some points in almost all of these horses, 

 which must be referred to some other foreign cross than the 

 Cleveland, not thorough bred, and certainly, as above remarked, 

 not Norman or Canadian, of which these animals do not exhibit 

 any characteristic. These ppints are, principally, the shortness 

 of the back, the roundness of the barrel, the closeness of the 

 ribbing-up, the general punchy or pony build of the animal, 

 and its form and size, larger and more massively muscular than 

 those of the Cleveland Bay, yet displaying fully as large, if not 

 a larger, share of blood than belongs to that animal in its un- 

 mixed form. 



The prevalent colors of this breed also appear to point to 

 an origin different, in part, from that of the pure Cleveland 

 Bays, which lean to the light or yellow bay variation, while 

 these New Englanders tend as decidedly to the blood bay, if 

 not to the brown bay, or pure brown. These latter are espe- 

 cially the dray-horse colors, and the points above specified are 

 those, in a great measure, of^the improved dray-horse. The 

 cross of this blood in the present animal, if there be one, is 

 doubtless very remote ; and, v/hether it may have come from a 

 single mixture of the dray stallion long since, or from some 

 half-bred imported stallion, perhaps got by a three-part tho- 

 rough bred and Clevelander from a dray mare, must, of course, 

 be doubtful. One need have little hesitancy in asserting that 

 the bay draught-horse of Vermont, has in its veins, principally 



