CHAPTER V 



BREEDING HEAVY HORSES AND THE SELECTION OF THE 

 SIRE AND THE DAM FOR THIS PURPOSE 



The breeding of heavy horses is hkely to prove more 

 remunerative than that of breeding those of a hghter 

 class, unless it be hunters and polo ponies, both of which 

 are certain to be in demand for an indefinite period. 

 The heavy draught horse has been, still is, and is likely 

 to be for generations a marketable asset, provided that 

 the right stamp of animals are produced. The farmer's 

 horse has been produced without the care which should 

 have been bestowed upon its production. Most of the 

 best Clydesdales, Shires, and Suffolks produced by 

 breeders do not find their way into the hands of the 

 general farming community, but are exported or else 

 sold to the largest contractors. The average type of 

 agricultural horse, bred on the farm, and worked on the 

 land up to four or five years of age, is not, as a rule, of 

 the best type of conformation, owing to the fact that the 

 mare has not been bred from the right class of stock in 

 order to breed a good type. We have the Clydesdale, 

 the Shire, the Suffolk, and the Percheron to breed heavy 

 horses from. The two first-named are those to select for 

 the production of animals capable of dealing with the 

 heaviest class of haulage, and the work has to be done at 

 a walking pace. The Clydesdale can be mated with the 

 Clydesdale and the Shire with the Shire for the pro- 

 duction of pure-bred stock. A Clydesdale sire and a 

 Shire-bred mare makes an excellent cross, probably better 

 than Vv'hen this is reversed. As the Clydesdale and the 



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