96 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



or defects in any part of the animal machinery 

 should always be rejected. Breeders of trotting 

 horses have been especially neglectful of these 

 sound principles, and thousands of mares with 

 some speed, but with legs and feet so unsound 

 as to cause them to break down under very 

 slight training, have been used for breeding 

 purposes. 



And so with any other form or type of horse 

 that may be mentioned. If draft horses are 

 desired select breeding stock from some of the 

 best-established draft breeds. The distinguish- 

 ing characteristics of weight and strength 

 which are the chief essentials in a cart or draft 

 horse are quite firmly fixed in the Clydesdale, 

 the English Cart horse, the Suffolk Punch, the 

 Percheron, and the Boulonnais, imported to 

 this country from Europe, however much they 

 may differ in other particulars ; and they all 

 may be relied upon, with a good degree of cer- 

 tainty, to reproduce their kind when judiciously 

 coupled. But to this must be added docility, 

 soundness and endurance. Given all these qual- 

 ities, and then the more of action and style the 

 animal possesses the better. He may be in 

 possession of all these characteristics except 

 the first, but being deficient in that he is not 

 a good draft horse. On the other hand, he may 

 weigh a ton, but if he be ill-tempered, unsound, 

 or lacking in endurance his value is materially^ . 



