126 THE HORSE 



it should be deep in the collar, tapering gracefully towards 

 the setting on of the head. The straight ewe neck is rarely 

 seen in a Suffolk horse, and is always rejected as a serious 

 detriment. The enormously heavy neck and crest runs in 

 certain families . . . and is mostly accompanied by a hollow 

 back. 



" The sons of Catlin's Duke '296 were all short in the 

 neck — a formation which is mostly accompanied by a hardy 

 constitution. It was so in this case. The Newcastle Cap- 

 tains 89 were very thin in the crest, had beautiful hair, but 

 were a little deficient in muscle. . . . 



" Whatever the shoulders of the Suffolk horse might have 

 been in years gone by, there can be little doubt that a mus- 

 cular shoulder, well thrown back at the top, prevails in the 

 present race, and much of the comely appearance of the 

 best Suffolks now in existence is the result of such a forma- 

 tion. The smart step came in with the oblique shoulder, 

 but the power of lifting, the facility for going from end to 

 end on the plough in a stiff clay twenty-acre field was not 

 increased by the 'improved' fore-end. 



" The well-rounded rib, deep all the way from shoulder 

 to flank, is a decided point in the build of a Suffolk horse. 

 The inordinately deep mid-rib and light girth behind the 

 shoulder, which in years past disfigured the breed, has been 

 gradually worked out, and a better, rounder middle sub- 

 stituted. The deep carcase is, or should be, a sine qua non 

 with a Suffolk horse. The long hours without food, which 

 seems a rooted practice all over the county, render a roomy 

 carcase a positive necessity. A Clydesdale or Shire-bred 

 with a light middle and short rib may do in London, where 

 the nose-bag is always at hand, but the long day and the 

 short rations, from 6.30 to 3 o'clock on the plough, in 

 Suffolk, would soon reduce a horse of this form to a 

 skeleton. The graceful outline of the back, loin, and 

 hindquarter is rarely absent in a Suffolk horse. . . . 



" The bone of the Suffolk horse is not large ; it is more 

 of the texture of the blood-horse, and does not require to be 

 heavy to the eye. A girth of lOA inches below the knee 

 is ample for any Suffolk horse, nor is his value increased by 



