1858.] SENATE— No. 4. 85 



general utility. If lie is compact, and possessing strength and 

 endurance, lie may be well adapted for general purposes, though 

 deficient in weight. Many small horses unite " as much good- 

 ness and strength as possible in a little space." 



A good roadster may have great power and endurance, but 

 his style, action, or mode of going are important, much more so 

 than in the horse for general utility. " In harness," says the 

 intelligent writer on the Morgan horse, " when the reins are up, 

 and he is told to go, (he should not start before,) he should, 

 raise his head a little above its position when at rest, keep it 

 there steadily and quietly, and move off nimbly, with a light 

 but steady and yielding pressure upon the bit. His feet shoiild 

 be raised only enough to clear the ordinary inequalities of the 

 ground, carried well forward in straiglit lines, swinging neither 

 out nor in, and be set down evenly, so that the entire sole comes 

 upon the ground at the same time. If tlie heel is set down 

 first, it is liable to injury from the tenderness of the parts ; and 

 if the toe is set down first, the horse will almost always prove a 

 Btumbler. The forelegs should bend well at the knee, instead 

 of the legs being raised principally by the movement of the 

 shoulder joints and the leg carried stifly forward, causing an 

 unsteadiness of motion and a sort of rolling from side to side. 

 The hind legs should take up light and quick, be carried well 

 forward under the body, and should have a peculiar, nervous, 

 springy ' pick-up,' but without any hitching or twitching of 

 tlie muscles of the haunches. The step should not be long, and 

 yet it may be too short ; observation can alone determine when 

 tliis is right." 



The good roadster moves off lightly and easily without urg- 

 ing, and if necessary will keep up his speed hour after hour 

 without flagging. His favorite pace is the trot, and in this he 

 excels all other horses. Low, in his history of Domestic Animals, 

 says of the people of this country : " They prefer the trot to the 

 paces more admired in the old continent, and having directed 

 attention to the conformation which consists with this character, 

 the fastest trotting horses in the world are to be found in the 

 United States." Among the changes which have been effected 

 in our horses within the last half century, none is more marked 

 than the increase of speed. Fast trotting was scarcely known 

 at the time of the old Justin Morgan, nor was the speed of the 



