QUALITY IN WORK-HORSES 



Our judges are instructed not to award 

 blue ribbons or first prizes to any horse, no 

 matter how good his condition, unless he is 

 a horse of good type and quality. Quality, 

 it need not be said, is just as important in 

 a work-horse as in a race-horse. Quality 

 might perhaps be described as that fineness 

 of texture which good breeding produces. 



It means a head and limbs free from 

 "meat," tendons well defined, a close-fitting, 

 glove-like skin, hair fine and silky, and a 

 general clean-cut, high-bred appearance. 



The bone in a well-bred horse is more 

 dense and less brittle than the bone of a 

 coarse-bred animal. It is true, of course, 

 that well-bred horses are sometimes defi- 

 cient in quality, but no horse has quality 

 unless he is well-bred. The horse with 

 quality has more endurance, and he is less 

 subject to disease and to unsoundness of 

 feet and legs than is the low-bred horse. 

 Consequently it is more humane to use 

 horses with quality than those without 

 quality. 



Quality and beauty are usually found 

 together, and yet, as all horsemen know, 

 one may exist without the other. A horse 

 may have quality without being in the 

 least beautiful. For example, he may have 

 a ewe neck, a large head, long ears, a 



Roman nose, a sway back, flat sides, slack 

 loins, calf-knees, cow hocks and a rat tail; 

 and yet if his coat is short and silky, if his 

 head though large is bony and well-cut, if 

 his ears though long are well-shaped, if his 

 legs are flat and clean, and if his hoofs are 

 of fine, close texture, then the horse has 

 quality. Horses of the Shire and Clyde 

 breeds often look coarse at first sight on 

 account of their Roman noses and hairy 

 legs, but in the best specimens of these 

 breeds, the long hair about the fetlock is 

 fine and silky, and their heads, though not 

 handsome, are clean-cut. 



In many large stables, where horses 

 have been bought without much judg- 

 ment, all the horses may be divided into 

 two distinct types: first, the well-bred, 

 smooth-hipped, fine-coated type; and sec- 

 ond, the low-bred, ragged-hipped, coarse- 

 haired type. The horses of the first class 

 will look fat and sleek, whereas the horses 

 of the second type will look thin and jaded, 

 although all the horses do the same amount 

 of work. The Old Horse Class is another 

 illustration. The veteran steeds shown in 

 that class are almost invariably horses of 

 quality. They represent the survival of 

 the fittest; and the fittest are the well-bred 

 ones. 



If); 



