VARIETIES OF BREEDS OF HORSES. 61^ 



domestic animals for various purposes, led to a gradual 

 increase of size in the horse, in order to procure the 

 greatest results compatible with convenience, and to save 

 trouble and expense by reducing the number needed to 

 draw a heavy load by at least one-half or one -third. 

 That this result has been achieved, I need only point to 

 the size and weight of the London dray-horse — or per- 

 haps, better still, to the massive elephantine proportions 

 of the Manchester or Liverpool waggon-horse, and the 

 enormous power it can exert in moving and transporting 

 loads which would have required two, three, or even four 

 horses of the middle ages to stir. And this transform- 

 ation could not have been brought about had the art of 

 shoeing been unknown. The hoofs of these mammoth 

 creatures, thick and large though they be, are not nearly 

 strong enough to support their ponderous weight for very 

 long, even when not in draught. But when their great 

 strength is put forth in propelling some five or six tons 

 in one of our streets, and halting and backing repeatedly 

 with this load, it is easy to see that the unshod hoofs 

 must quickly succumb to the strain imposed upon them, 

 and the excessively developed animal would be then only a 

 helpless mass of bone and muscle, and as useless as a rail- 

 way engine off the rails, or with its wheels broken. Some 

 idea of the great weight and attrition imposed upon the 

 extremities of a horse of this description may be inferred 

 from the fact, that shoes weighing from four to six pounds 

 each are sometimes quite worn out within a month. 



Intermediate between these tardy giants of busy cities, 

 whose utility, nay, even existence, depends upon shoeing, 

 and the original small-sized horse, the breeders display 



