HORSES OF LUXURY. 



835 



short flank, a muscular 



thigh, a descending buttock ; strong, clean 



members without defect ; small feet, etc. If slender, he does not prop- 

 erly fill the harness and appears disproportionate with the vehicle to 



Fig. 337. — Large coach-horse. 



Lahore, half-thoroughbred Anglo-Norman, belonging to the Marquis d'Aligre. Grand prize at the 



horse exposition of 1868. (Reproduced from a photograph belonging to M. Delton.) 



which he is harnessed ; too stout, he becomes heavy, massive, wanting in 

 suppleness and grace ; he must be fine and well proportioned (Fig. 337). 

 Origin. — The most valuable large coach-horses are half-breeds 

 (^metises) more or less resembling the horses which come from England, 

 particularly from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire ; the largest among them 

 are bred in Suffolk. Normandy, especially the plain of Caen, fur- 

 nishes some very handsome ones, but they are second to the English. 

 Then come the German and the Dutch coach-horses, the former raised 

 principally in Hanover and Mecklenburg, the latter in Friesland. 

 Both are very numerous in the Paris market. They are brilliant, have 

 considerable style, and are sometimes from very good ancestry. How- 

 ever, their conformation is sometimes inferior to the English and 

 the Norman coach-horses ; they often lack something to be desired. 



