CHAPTER XX. 



SELECTING A HORSE. 



57G. — There is such a vast difference in horses, both 

 constitutionally, and educationally, that a proper selection is an 

 important and often a very difficult business. 



SIZE. 



577. — AVhere weight has to be moved the horse should be 

 large and heavy in proportion to it. Height does not give power 

 but weight does, and a horse cannot move great weights without 

 it. The little pair of horses we so often see at plough, must 

 necessitate either shallow ploughing or Hght land, and we have 

 far more faith in the crop of wheat or beans to follow, where we 

 see a pair of heavy Shire horses putting out all their strength, 

 on a single farrow, or four of them on a double furrow. The 

 light horses will travel over the soft ground at harrow better 

 than the heavy ones, but where a deep furrow of tenacious clay has 

 to be turned over we must have the weight to do it. 



578. — In horses, as in most other things, the utmost quality 

 never goes with the utmost size ; seventeen hands can seldom 

 gallop away from fifteen, and it is almost always a mistake to 

 select a large horse for fast work. Five feet two inches high, 

 and a thousand pounds weight, is the size beyond which you 

 need never go where speed is a principal object. When the 

 journeys are long, and the load light, a still smaller horse will be 

 better. Fashion and appearances may demand height or size, 

 but five feet high is all you want for daily hard work. 



COLOUR 



579.— Is more a matter of taste than anything else. There 



