CHAP. nr. POINTS OF CART STALLION. 423 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF CART STALLIONS AND MARES. 



IN our observations on breeding, we have already considered so 

 fully the requisite qualifications of horses intended to propagate 

 their respective breeds, that it only remains to particularise the points 

 that are peculiar to our heavy draught horses of various descriptions. 



The cart stallion should possess all the properties of vigour and 

 constitution, strength of muscle, and just proportion of bone, which 

 other breeds have ; but there are certain points considered essential 

 to the symmetry of one breed of horse, that may be and are deemed 

 imperfections in another. Thus, one of the most important points in 

 a hunter, and more especially in a good hack, is, that he be high in 

 the fore-hand, with a shoulder thrown back, so that the saddle may 

 rest behind his fore-legs, and the weight of the rider may not impede 

 his action. In the English draught horse, the shoulder can scarcely 

 stand too upright, so that the collar may bear equally upon it, without 

 pressing too much on the withers. A low fore-hand is here found 

 advantageous, inasmuch as it brings the traces more upon a level with the 

 line of draught. Thus, also, the small head, the expanded nostril, and 

 the fiery eye, so much admired in blood horses, are indications of spirit 

 and impatience very ill suited to an animal that is required to obey the 

 voice of the driver, and whose steadiness is one of its greatest merits. 

 The cart stallion should undoubtedly have a moderately large head, 

 with a full but placid eye, a muscular neck, a broad, deep chest, and 

 an upright shoulder. His back should be broad, and rather short, and 

 somewhat curved upwards over the loins, that being a sure sign of 

 strength. His barrel should be round and deep, and well ribbed up to 

 the haunch-bones, which should never stand prominently out. His 

 quarters and thighs should be thick, the arms sinewy and strong, the 

 legs short, and the hoofs round, but wide at the heels, and of a dark 

 appearance and tough substance. His colour must depend upon the 

 breed, and although it has often been remarked that " a good horse is 

 never of a bad colour," yet the darkest are generally found to be the 

 hardiest. Blacks are proverbially steady pullers ; and experience has 

 proved that they and the greys are less subject to become blind. His 

 size is a most material consideration, for, even in the heaviest breeds, 

 very large bones are not always an indication of proportionate strength ; 

 16| hands should be the least of his height, and he should look smaller 

 than he really is : a horse that looks his full size, or larger, is seldom 

 symmetrically formed. Compactness is better adapted to hard work 

 and lasting spirit, and it should be remembered that the greatest 

 improvements in our stock of blood horses have been effected by the 

 smaller breeds of Barbary and Arabia. 



In the admirable essa} r which Mr. Richard S. Reynolds contributed 



