HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSES 45 



reasonable to assume that the average price a farmer pays 

 for a horse, barring war conditions, is 70 guineas, and a 

 fairly good type of horse should be obtained, but very often 

 it is quite the converse. A poorly built horse, that is 

 one which is flat-sided, weak in the forearm, narrow and 

 slack in the loins, light on the body, weedy about the neck, 

 and deficient in bone will never, no matter how good the 

 horse mastership, make up into a decent type of animal. 

 A badly built horse always remains so, but a horse in 

 poor condition, provided that Nature has been kind 

 enough to construct it upon good lines, will, with few 

 exceptions, soon repay the farmer or the owner for the 

 extra attention which it is necessary to bestow upon it. 

 It is not every farmer that knows a good horse when he 

 sees one, yet there are plenty who do, and it is fortunate 

 that this is so. The degeneracy of the farm horse has 

 been an ever-present drawback, but by careful selection 

 and an increasing interest in the general welfare of the 

 work horse upon the farm there is good prospect of a 

 steady improvement taking place. 



The Vanner and the Tradesman's Horse 



Van horses are divisible into those required for work in 

 light vans and those which are employed in the heavier 

 work of ordinary railway vans. Both classes of horses 

 should be constructed upon sound lines, stoutly built, 

 have fairly good action, good feet, and above all good 

 manners. The quahfica.tion last named is very essential, 

 because the majority of horses required for this work 

 have frequently to be left wholly unattended, a remark 

 which applies with equal force to the tradesman's horse. 

 The butcher, the baker, the corn chandler, the dairyman, 

 the grocer, and others delivering their goods by cart or 

 van require an animal which can do its work and remain 

 sound at any odd time, and it may be for twelve hours or 

 more with little or no rest meanwhile. The tradesman's 

 horse ranges from a pony of 12 or 13 hands up to an animal 



