22 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



and mares on his farm for every purpose that he can 

 require ; he therefore sells them to a person nearer to the 

 metropolis, by whom they are gradual!}^ trained and pre- 

 pared. The traveller has probably wondered to see four 

 of these enormous animals in a line before a plough, on no 

 very heavy soil, and where two lighter horses would have 

 been quite sufficient. The farmer is training them for 

 their future destiny ; and he does right in not requiring 

 the exertion of all their strength ; for their bones are not 

 yet perfectly formed, nor their joints knit, and were he to 

 urge them too severely, he w^ould probably injure and 

 deform them. By the gentle and constant exercise of the 

 plough, he is preparing them for that continued and 

 equable pull at the collar which is afterwards so necessary. 



The true Suftblk Punch, which did much for our best 

 short-legged dray-horses, is not found now in its purity. 

 It stood from fifteen to sixteen hands high, of a sorrel 

 colour ; was large-headed, low-shouldered, and thick on the 

 withers; deep and round chested, long backed, high in the 

 croup, large and strong in the quarters, full in the flanks, 

 round in the legs, and short in the pasterns. It was the 

 very horse to throw his whole weight into the collar, with 

 sufficient activity to do it effectually, and hardihood to 

 stand a long day's work. 



The present breed possesses ma.ny of the peculiarities and 

 good qualities of its ancestors. It is more or less inclined 

 to a sorrel colour ; it is a taller horse, higher and finer in 

 the shoulders, and is a cross with the Yorkshire half or 

 three-fourths bred. 



The excellence, and a rare one, of the old Suffolk — the 

 new breed has not quite lost it — consisted in nimbleness of 

 action, and the honesty and continuance with which he 

 would exert himself at a dead pull. Many a good draught- 

 horse knows well what he can effect ; and, after he has 

 attempted it and failed, no torture of the whip will induce 

 him to strain his powers beyond their natural extent. The 

 Suffolk, however, would tug at a dead pall until he dropped. 

 It was beautiful to see a team of true Suffolks, at a signal 

 from the driver, and without the whip, down on their knees 

 in a moment, and drag everything before them. The 

 immense powder of the Suffolk is accounted for by the low 

 position of the shoulder, which enables him to throw so 

 much of his weight into the collar. 



