NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



■ •■-^KTM L*W*.^J*I 



?ublishcd every Saturday, by THOMAS VV. SHEPARU, Roji is' Rnililing, Coii'iiss Street, Basloii ; at '^'2,M per ami. in advar,ce, or •53,00 at the close of the year. 



VOT,. I. 



BOSTON. SATURDAY, AUGUST 31. 1822. 



No. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FAP-JIER. 



POLVTS OF A HORSE. 

 Ma. Editor., 



A good horse is a desirable acquisition, and 

 lie wlio finds one, in the course of liis life, may 

 ihink himself lucky. The points, or marks, of 

 I good horse, are perhaps not i^enerally known, 

 imong your readers, though to many they nny 

 je familiar. A person who is well acquainted 

 tvith tiie marks indicative of a good horse, is 

 !iot very likely to be deceived in regard to his 

 physical powers, though he may be, with res- 

 pect to the character of the animal. A horse 

 may possess all the points, or marks, character- 

 istic of power, and at the same time, have some 

 vice, that will render the use of him unpleas- 

 ant, or dangerovis. It is therefore advisable, 

 before purchasing a horse, to give him a thor- 

 augh trial, and in a variety of ways. 



A particular quality, in a horse, is sometimes 

 in desirable to the purchaser, that he is \Villing 

 to dispense with many good points, for the sake 

 of it. For instance, the ditficnlty and inconve 



attached to it thick and large. When the hand j cles attached to the os calcis 

 is passed down the neck and the slinulder blade ! bone projects backward, the 



The further thi.s 

 nger is the lever 

 cannot he felt, it amounts to a certainty that ' by which tlie muscles act, and the greater will 

 that horse has good action. The a[iparent be their propelling power. 



thickness of the shoulder depends upon the j The legs of a horse ought to be flat— tiid 

 obli(|iiity of the shoulder blade, and in propor- bones small and the muscles large. Bones do 



tion as it is oblique, so is its motion limited. 



The carcass of a horse ought to be a subject 

 of particular attention. This cannot be too cir- 

 cular. A cylinder gives the greatest possible 

 capacity. A horse, therefore, with a round 

 chest, has more room for the expansion of his 

 lungs than a horse with a chest otherwise form- 

 ed. His wind must therefore be better ; be- 

 sides he fats much easier ; he requires less food. 

 A horse w ilh a round chest will keep fat upon 

 almost any thing, whereas it is almost impossi- 

 ble to I'at a horse with a narrow or flat chest. 

 A horse with a thin narrow chest cannot bear 

 heat, has bad ivind, is always lean, weak and 

 tender. 



The vigor of a horse depends more on the 

 formation of the carcass than on any other 

 point, and the reason must be obvious — the 



tiience of tying a horse, in the streets, are so carcass contains the heart and all tlie important 

 jreat, that many gentlemen content themselves and vital organs. 

 with inditTcrent horses, if they but possess the 



virtue of standing" well. Very much may be 

 known of a horse's character by his physiogno- 

 my ; but to describe the different expressions of 

 !he^ human countenance is difficult, and the less 

 Melinite one's of a horse, I shall not attempt — 

 my object is merely to give some of the most 



* prominent marks, or points of a good horse ; a 

 lescription of which may serve as n guide, in 



"llhe selection of this useful animal. I begin with 

 ihe head, which ought to be small and progres- 

 ively to diminish in weight, and size, as it ap- 

 proaches the nose. The neck ought to be 

 ihort and light. The head cannot he too small, 

 nor the neck too short and light. The reason 

 is obvious. The head and neck of the horse 

 are placed wholly anterior to ]iis points of sup- 

 port. The shorter the neck, therefore, and 

 ihe lighter the head, the less likely is the horse 

 to stumble and fall. The more weight there is 

 anterior to the lore legs of a horse the more 

 difficult it is for him to keep his balance, or to 

 recover himself on making a false step. This 

 can be explained upon the principles of the 

 lever, or by the steel-yards. Suppose a horse's 



ill neck ten feet long, and a head of a common 

 size, attached to its extremity — the weight of 

 the head, with this immense leverage, would 

 be so great, that the weight of the body woi;ld 

 not counterbalance it, and the horse would con- 

 stantly be tailing upon his nose. 



A horse with a long neck is not onl}' more 

 likely to fall, iiut cateris paribus his wind cannot 

 be so good. The longer the neck, the more 

 difficult is the access of air to the lungs. A 

 horse, therefore, with a long neck, will have 

 short wind ; and is only calculated for slow 

 draught. He will not answer for the turf. No 

 horse can run well ;vith a long neck. 



The next point is the shoulder, several cir- 

 cum-tances concerning which are important to 

 be considered. The scapula or shoulder Idade 

 ought to be broad and long, and the muscles 



it 



The spine, or back, which extends from the 

 (ore to the hind quarters, cannot be too short 

 for strength. A short, hump-back is indicative 

 of great strength, especially in carrying weights. 

 We arch bridges for the purpose o< adding to 

 their strength, and a horse's back may be com- 

 pared to a bridge, and the four legs the four 

 pillars of support. The shorter the arch, the 

 greater weight it will support, and lor the same 

 reasons, a horse with a short, curved of hump- 

 back (other things being equal) will carry the 

 greatest burthen. 



Although a short back rs indicative of strength, 

 it is not of speed and action. A long back must 

 obviously give grea'tcr room for action. The 

 Hare and Weasel have, in proportion to their 

 size, extremely^ long backs ; and "• to run like 

 a March Hare," is proverbial. A long back, 

 however, must be a weak back, and unable to 

 support heavy weights, in choosing a horse, 

 therelore, for common use, it will be best that 

 he should have a back of a medium length ; 

 neither too long nor too short. 



The hind quarters of a horse ought to be 

 long. I mean by hind quarters, the parts trom 

 the haunches backwards, the parts that lie be- 

 tween tlie ns Ilium and the os hchivm. 



The bock or gamhrel ought to be long an;; 

 broad. The os calcis, or heel bone of th.s 

 joint, corresponds to the same bone in' the hu- 

 man subject. The longer this bone is, and the 

 further it projects backwards, by so much the 

 greater length of lever, do the muscles act. 

 which are attached to it. It must be obvious, 

 therefore, that this is a very important point in 

 a horse, and one that ought never to be over- 

 looked. It is impossible to have a good horse, 

 without a good hock. A horse may be a goo<i 

 animal with bad fore legs, but he never can be 

 with a bad hock. The fore legs merely sup- 

 port the body — tho hind legs propel it forward. 

 The horse puts himself in motion and performs 

 all his functions soldi/ by the action of the mus- 



not give strength, and when the hones of tho 

 leg are sullicientiy large to support the weight 

 of the animal, all over this is superlluous, and 

 worse than superfluous; it is a dead weight 

 upon his motions. Bone.'; arc mere levers, and 

 the skeleton a Jnerc frame, on which the mus- 

 cles act. Bones are, in themselve?, inert sub- 

 stances. Muscles give strength. All the mc- 

 tions of the animal are performed by his mus- 

 cles. The relative position of the bones may 

 be such as to add very much to the power ol* 

 the muscles. When the bones are so placed 

 ivith regard to each other, as to give a long 

 leverage to the muscles, such muscles act with 

 increased ])ower ; and in ibis consists, in a great- 

 degree, the excellency in the mechanism of the 

 horse. 



The above are the most prominent marks or 

 points, as they are called, of a good horse. In 

 the purchase of a horse, how ever, many other 

 circumstances are to be taken into considera- 

 tion. It is of immense consequence that he 

 should have perlect feet. It is obvious, that a 

 horse with bad feet, however good his points 

 may be, must be rather a useless animal. A 

 horse with bad feet, is always an unsafe horse ; 

 ho will always trip, and is very liable to fall. 

 .\ny tenderness or uneasiness about a horse's 

 feet, renders him unsafe. Even a shoe, that 

 does not set easy, will surely cause a horse 

 to trip. 



The following description of perfect and im- 

 perfect feet, is taken from Goodwin's New 

 System of shoeing horses — an ,\bridgment of 

 which has recently been published in this 



city- 



Perfect Hoofs. — " A perfect foot has the shap6 

 of a cone, except at the heel. The front, which 

 comprises the largest portion of the wall or 

 crust, is the most cone-like, and the quarters 

 arc less so. When the horse is standing on a 

 pavement, the foot, at its base or bottom, is 

 much larger than at the top or Coronet, and 

 ;!ie crust ilesccnds from the coronet to the bot- 

 tom in a regular slope, at an angle of about 45 

 degrees in front." 



" The hoof should be smooth and even on 

 ts surface, strong, tough and vigorous in its 

 appearance ; tli* heels should be well back, 

 uid the nearer they approach to the back part 

 of tlic frog the better, and the more the quar- 

 ters and heels approach to a perpendicular po- 

 silicni, the more thev are calculated to support 

 (he weight above : the .space appropriated lor 

 the (Vog shouUl be wide and open." 



'• Having described as much of a perfect fool 

 as can be seen when tho horse is standing, 1 

 proceed to describe the appearance and shape 

 of a pcrtect hoof, when the foot is taken up. 

 Tlio (Irst circumstance that deserves attention 

 is the uniform box of hern, which being divest- 



