HORSES. 281 



HORSES. 



MIDDLESEX. 



From the Report of the Committee on Stallions. 



Your committee would strenuously insist that the class of 

 " Stallions " should be five years old and over. The observance 

 of this suggestion would relieve the committee of embarrass-, 

 ments that they have labored under the past, as well as the 

 present year, and would allow of proper justice being done to 

 four year old stallions when classed by themselves, which obvi- 

 ously they cannot receive under the present improper classifica- 

 tion ; and owners of the four-year-olds that were presented, 

 will at once perceive the force of the above remarks, and see 

 that their animals could not, under the existing rules, receive 

 such notice as they were evidently entitled to under proper 

 regulations. 



A stallion, for a stock horse, should possess quahfications of 

 the highest order. He should be sound and without a blemish, 

 and of good constitution, with capacious and prominent chest 

 and hind parts to match — of fair size, say from 950 to 1,000 

 pounds weight, and with good limb and muscle ; with a good 

 open countenance, a fine ear, an intelligent eye, a clean head 

 nicely set upon a graceful neck, and that well fitted to a good 

 sized body, well proportioned in all its parts, — all supported by 

 smooth limbs of sufficient bone and muscle, terminating in good 

 sound hoofs, with accompanying style and action, and in con- 

 nection with a decided blood to transmit and impress these 

 qualifications on the foal. Then we have a stallion to which 

 we can take a mare of corresponding or even inferior develop- 

 ments, and with reasonable certainty look for a colt of equal 

 merit with the sire and dam. 



If it is speed that we wish, we must take families of a trot- 

 ting race to accomplish that object. The tendency to speed 

 alone, in trotting, to the sacrifice to many indispensable qualifi- 

 cations to the farmer, should not receive the sanction of a 

 farming community. A good walker, however, can justly 

 receive the approbation of every farmer in Middlesex, wlio has 

 to travel the hard and wearisome journey from the distant towns 

 to Boston, say from three to five times the week, with his 



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