THE HORSE. 13 



sorrel cart horses, the truest and most forceful pullers 

 ever yet known ; they were the only breed, collec- 

 tively, that would draw dead pulls, that is to say, 

 would continue repeated pulls, going down upon their 

 knees, at an immovable object; for example, a tree. 

 This, draught horses in general, even the most power- 

 ful and the best, as the writer has witnessed, cannot 

 be brought to do, with whatever severity ; at the 

 second or third pull, gibbing, as it is called, and 

 turning their heads, as if to point with their eyes, 

 towards their failing loins. Such was the rage in 

 former days, among the Suffolk farmers' men, for 

 wagering on this sport of dead pulls, that many valu- 

 able teams of horses were annually strained and 

 ruined thereby. This, in all probability, was the 

 chief cause, that so extremely active and valuable 

 a breed was relinquished. Sixty years since consi- 

 derable progress was making in Suffolk, to cross 

 their breed with large Yorkshire horses, still adher- 

 ing to the chestnut colour; and between the last 

 twenty and thirty years, only several solitary indi- 

 viduals of the old breed remained. The new Suffolks 

 have proved a long, heavy, leggy, dull looking breed, 

 yet useful; more resembling in form and size pro- 

 bably the Cleveland bays than any other. The pre- 

 sent Norfolk breed of cart horses bears resemblance 

 in size and activitv to the old Suffolk ; but the former 

 are not celebrated for drawing dead pulls. It used 

 to be matter of question with the knowing ones 

 whether drawing with those extraordinary and vain 

 repetitions, were a natural qualification, consequent 

 on the peculiar form of the Suffolk horse, or whether 

 it were the mere result of training to that habit ? 



