THE SUFFOLK 



143 



fact with stallions this is very pronounced, — with not too much 

 heaviness at the crest. The neck sometimes joins the head a bit 

 heavily, but at the shoulders, as a rule, it is well placed. The 

 shoulder should be long but not extremely oblique. A race-horse 

 placing of shoulder is not desired among Suffolk breeders, a 

 straighter shoulder being better suited to draft work. The body 

 of this breed is one of its notable features. It has long been 

 characterized by great depth and circumference, considering the 

 size of the horse. The ribs have an unusual spring and depth, 

 thus giving the body a very round, full form. Formerly this was 

 unnecessarily deep and round, giving it a paunchiness from which 

 the term "Punch" was evolved and given as a part of the breed 

 name. Modern breeders object to heaviness of belly. For size 

 the body girths unusually well. A girth of about eight feet back 

 of the shoulders is recommended. The rump is full and well 

 carried out, the tendency to steepness being slight. 



Strong quarters and hocks are a feature of the breed, but there 

 has been some criticism of weak hocks. One family, Catlin's Boxer 

 299, has had this feature of bent hind legs and weak hocks, and 

 Crisp's Conqueror 413 and Cupbearer 416, famous sires as they 

 were, had a tendency to this trouble. The legs of the Suffolk are 

 very free from superfluous hair, and while they have been criticised 

 as lacking in bone, the breeders insist that this is not so. If fairly 

 compared with the long-haired breeds, they maintain that plenty 

 of bone will be manifest. Yet the bone is not large, but of supe- 

 rior texture. A girth of 10^ inches below the knee is given by 

 Mr. Biddell as ample, more being thought unnecessary. The feet 

 of this breed have been criticised much in the past. The middle 

 of the last century it was claimed that the feet were flat and the 

 hoofs brittle, and that side bones were common. Now for years, 

 however, by rules of the Suffolk society, all horses shown must 

 be submitted to a veterinarian's examination, which has resulted 

 in a great improvement. In 1880 A. B. Allen wrote : 



The. reason why they have not long since been imported and bred exten- 

 sively in our country is undoubtedly owing to their possessing almost unu- 

 sually too small legs for their bodies, their bad hoofs, and shelly feet. I 

 examined this breed very attentively when I first visited England in 1841, 

 . . . but finding them so deficient in the feet and legs, I made up my mind 

 not to recommend their importation to this country. 



