130 THE FAMILY HORSE. 



CHAPTER XIL 

 HOW TO SELECT A HORSE AND KEEP IT. 



BY A. F. COLWELL, RHODE ISLAND. 



The horse best adapted for family use ought certainly be o! 

 good weight. A small horse cannot do well the work about an 

 ordinary farm or gentleman's place. To haul wood from the lots in 

 winter, and manure from the barn-cellar in spring, to plow, harrow, 

 etc., in the preparation of land, and to take the " democrat" wagon 

 or carryall, with the family, to the city or along the country roads, 

 requires something more than eight or nine hundred pounds of 

 horse-flesh, however willing the animal may be to do all it can. As 

 near eleven hundred pounds as possible should be the rule, for an 

 animal of that weight will be more satisfactory than one lighter. 

 As for blood, there is none perhaps better for general use than the 

 Morgan. Such horses as Hiram Beers drove, when he carried Dr. 

 Wentworth's family to see Barton Cathcart graduate, could hardly 

 be improved on. The late Henry Ward Beecher knew a good horse 

 and described one well. The one owned by the writer is of Hamble- 

 tonian stock, and is possessed of nearly all the good qualities usually 

 sought for. Of course there are hundreds of horses of native stock 

 in New York, and throughout the Central and Western States, that 

 are almost faultless. The two families above are simply mentioned 

 because they are best known. 



Among the good points to be noticed in the selection of the family 

 horse, docility and gentleness must be kept well in front. If the 

 women and children are to share in the use and care of the horse, 

 nothing vicious should be tolerated. If sound and previously well 

 cared for, a horse eight, ten, or even twelve years old, may be bought 

 with no fear of disability on account of old age. Mr. John Russel, 

 who recently delivered a series of lectures in Boston on the care of the 

 horse, said that " old wine, old friends, and old horses" — and by that 

 meaning those from eight to fourteen—" should always be preferred 

 to young ones." The horse does not come to maturity as early as 

 some think, as the record of the trotting horse of America shows. 

 A horse ten years old, that has no defect of body or limb, is practi- 

 cally safe from the ordinary horse diseases. So far as outward 

 appearance, color, etc., are concerned, no general directions can be 

 given ; but if the buyer is iiiexperienced, it is better to go to some 



