HORSE. 



HORSE. 



was large-headed, low-shouldered, and thick 

 on the top, deep, and round-chested, long- 

 backed, high in the croup, large and strong in 

 the quarters, ull in the flanks, round in the 

 legs, and short in the pasterns. It was the very 

 horse to throw his whole weight into the collar, 

 with sufficient activity to do it effectually, and 

 hardihood to stand a long day's work. The 

 present breed possesses many of the peculiari- 

 ties and good qualities of its ancestors. It is 

 more or less inclined to a sorrel-brown : it is a 

 taller horse, higher, and finer in the shoulders, 

 and is a cross with the Yorkshire half or three- 

 fourths bred. The excellence, and a rare one, 

 of the old Suffolk (the new breed has not quite 

 lost it) consisted in nimbleness of action and 

 the honesty and continuance with which he 

 would exert himself at a dead pull even until 

 he dropped." 



The heavy black horse is chiefly bred in Lin- 

 colnshire, and the midland counties. PI. 13, e. 

 These are commonly sold by the breeders at 

 two years old to the farmers of Surrey, and 

 other metropolitan counties, who work them 

 till they are four years old, and then sell them 

 to the London merchants for brewers' drays, 

 and other heavy carriages. "This kind of 

 horse," says the same excellent authority I 

 have just quoted, " should have a broad chest, 

 and thick and upright shoulders (the more up- 

 right the collar stands on him the better), a low 

 forehead, deep and round barrel, loins broad 

 and high, ample quarters, thick fore-arms and 

 thighs, short legs, round hoofs, broad at the 

 heels, and soles not too flat. The great fault 

 of the large dray horse is his slowness. This 

 is so much in the breed, that even the disci- 

 plined ploughman who would be better pleased 

 to get through an additional rood in the day, 

 cannot permanently quicken him. The largest 

 of this heavy breed of black horses are used as 

 dray horses. The next in size are employed as 

 wagon horses; and a smaller variety, and with 

 more blood, constitutes a considerable part of 

 our cavalry ; and is likewise devoted to 

 undertakers' work." (Lib. of Useful Know. p. 

 46.) 



" The dray horse," says Mr. Wilson, "probably 

 results from a fine carriage horse, possessed 

 of a certain portion of blood, and a very strong 

 well-formed mare of the country breed. The 

 gigantic proportions and immense powers of 

 these horses are only equalled by their intelli- 

 gence and docility. It may safeiy be said that 

 this breed of horses is not to be paralleled on the 

 face of the earth." (Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. 

 ii. p. 34.) 



Besides these valuable kinds of English 

 draught horses, there are a variety of mongrel 

 breeds employed by the farmers, especially in 

 the neighbourhood of London, and other large 

 towns, which it is needless to name, and diffi- 

 cult to describe. Aged or lamed cab horses, 

 :he refuse of the London hackney coaches, &c. 

 may all be seen drawing the small farmers' 

 teams in the neighbourhood of London. An 

 English draught mare is represented at PI. 

 13, / reduced, from Stephens's Book of the 

 Farm. 



Too little attention is generally paid, in fact, 

 638 



to the breeding of superior cart horses by the 

 farmer. The soil and the food which the dis- 

 trict produces, has commonly more influence 

 upon the size of the animal than the choice of 

 the mare or the stallion ; and although by the 

 exertions of the Highland, and other Agricul- 

 tural Societies, the breed is now considerably 

 improved, yet still much more remains to be 

 effected in this way The Ayrshire Agricul- 

 tural Association, at a l? f e mepting, deter- 

 mined upon the purchase of a Flemish stal- 

 lion, for the purpose of improving the breed in 

 Scotland, the Society being convinced that there 

 is a much better breed of draught horses in 

 Flanders than in any part of Great Britain. 



"The most important circumstance," says a 

 well-known author, " which influences the pro- 

 fits of the farmer, is the cost of his team and 

 the wages of his labourers. These vary in 

 different situations. In some parts of the 

 country the horses are pampered and kept so 

 fat that they can scarcely do a day's work as 

 they ought. In others they are overworked and 

 badly fed. Either extreme must be a los*s to 

 the farmer. In the first case the horses cannot 

 do their work, and consume an unnecessary 

 quantity of provender, and, in the other, they 

 are soon worn out; and the loss in horses that 

 become useless, or die, is greater than the 

 saving in their food, or the extra work done 

 by them. A horse properly fed will work 8 or 

 10 hours every day in the week, resting only 

 on Sundays. By a judicious division of the 

 work of the horses, they are never over-worked, 

 and an average value of a day's work is easily 

 ascertained. This, in a well-regulated farm, 

 will be found much less than the common 

 valuations give it." 



The labour of a horse is commonly reckoned 

 equal to that of 5 men; he works, however, 

 only 8 hours, while a man works 10. It has 

 often been asserted that the powers of endu- 

 rance of a man are considerably greater than 

 that of a horse ; and in a hurdle race at Ips- 

 wich, in 1841, between a capital hunter carry- 

 ing 10 stones, and Townshend, a celebrated 

 runner, over 6 miles of ground, and 100 hurdle 

 leaps, the horse was easily beaten. In a 

 second trial, however, the horse came off the 

 winner. The power of a horse in pulling sel- 

 dom exceeds 144 Ibs. ; but he will carry from 

 500 Ibs. to 1000 Ibs. The power of a horse in 

 pulling, if equal to 144 Ibs. at a rate of 2 

 miles an hour, would be reduced to 64 Ibs. at 4 

 miles an hour, and to 36 Ibs. at 6 miles. In 

 wheel carriages, on level roads, a horse will 

 draw easily about 15 times the power exerted. 

 A horse, in a single-horse cart, seems capable 

 of drawing his load to the greatest advantage, 

 and of late several improved single-horse carts 

 have been suggested. (See CAHTS ; and Jour. 

 of Roy. Jlgr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 73.) The single- 

 horse carts, both of London and Liverpool, 

 convey enormous weights over the paved 

 streets ; and at Paris a single horse draws 2 

 tons. The carriers between Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow, in carts weighing 7 cwt., convey a 

 ton of goods 22 miles a day with one hofse. 

 The carriers of Normandy, with 4 horses, in 

 2-wheeled carts, weighing 11 cwt., convey from 



