HANDBOOK OF THE TUKF. 213 



Roadster. A carriage horse as distinguished from a 

 speed or draft horse ; a gent's driver ; a horse used in driving 

 for pleasure. He should weigh 1100 pounds, be handsome in 

 every outline and point ; showy ; sound. He should have his 

 nose above the line of his back; be well proportioned; well 

 " set up " ; kind ; fast. The best color is bay. 



The ideal roadster starts slowly, fjradually warms np to his work, and 

 after ten miles or so, (just as the inferior liorse lias had enouKh), 

 bejiins to be full of play. Such pre-eminently is the habit of the 

 Morgan family.— Road, Track, and Stable, H. C. Merwin. 



It requires a combination of qualities rarely met with in any animal to 

 make a perfect road horse. I find it much easier to select and 

 buy a first-class race horse than a road horse which would please 

 the ordinary road driver. It will be impossible to find one that will 

 be perfect in three or four different positions, or in other words you 

 cannot expect to use your horse in the ordinary family carriage 

 five days in a week anil then have him able to go at a high rate of 

 speed the other two. In picking out a road horse, alwavs be sure 

 and buy one that is perfectly sound. Test the horse thorougldy as 

 to kindness and ability to draw weight at a high rate of speed.— Life 

 with the Trotters, John Splan. 



Roaring". A wheezing, or hoarse rasping sound made 

 in the upper part of the windpipe, (larynx), in breathing, and 

 especially when excited, or galloped up a steep hill, or put to 

 rapid work. It is generally due to paralysis and wasting of 

 the muscles on the left side of the larnyx, which opens the 

 channel for the air, and in such cases the roaring is only pro- 

 duced in drawing air in. Roaring is an unsoundness. 



An animal that is a roarer should not be used for breeding purposes, 

 no matter how valuable the stock. The taint is transmissible in 

 many instances, and there is not the least doubt in the minds of 

 those who know best that the offspring whose sire or dam is a 

 roarer, is born with an hereditary predisposition to the affection. — 

 W. H. Harbaugh, V. S. 



RoUs. Devices used upon the ankle of the horse for 

 various preventive purposes. The calking roll is to prevent 

 him from standing in the stable with one foot on another ; the 

 shoe-boil roll is to prevent the horse from getting the calk of 

 the shoe under the arm while lying down, causing a shoe-boil ; 

 the shin roll is used as a protection to the legs between the 

 knee and ankle. They are made of buckskin or enameled 

 leather, web or kid, and often stuffed with hair to render them 

 soft. 



Roning-inotion Shoe. A shoe specially fitted for 

 horses inclined to stumble, or for those having a peculiar 

 motion of the fore legs, to assist them in a more balanced 

 action. The shoe has four calks, and is of great convexity on 

 the ground surface. It is designed to give the horse more 

 action and make him raise his feet high, so that, in placing 

 them down, there is nothing to impede his movements or 

 cause him to stumble, as is often the case with horses shod 

 with shoes having the ordinary toe-calk. 



