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CHAPTER XXVI. 



REMARKS ON VARIOUS BREEDS OF HORSES. 



English and Irish Horses — Australasian Horses —South-African Horses — South- 

 American Horses — Arab Horses — East Indian Horses — Burma and Manipuri 

 Ponies — Sumatra and Java Ponies— Mongolian Ponies — Corean Ponies — 

 Japanese Ponies. 



In this chapter, I shall confine my observations on conforma- 

 tion to those breeds of horses with which I have had some 

 personal experience. 



English and Irish Horses. — The great beauty about 

 English and Irish half-bred and cart-horses is that they are 

 generally " well topped ; " their chief defect, that they are 

 inclined to be poor below the knees and hocks. Lack of 

 substance in the bone of the legs, and undue uprightness of 

 pasterns is but too apparent. " Weediness " is probably the 

 greatest fault of our thoroughbreds. Good carriage of head 

 and neck, well rounded and well ribbed up barrel, powerful 

 loins, more or less horizontal croup, and muscular thighs are 

 certainly characteristics of the horses of these islands, and are 

 the products, to a certain extent, of good feeding and careful 

 management. The large majority of our hunters and saddle 

 hacks are disfigured by cart blood, and consequently have too 

 thick shoulders. The Shire horse is a model of gigantic 



