THE FARMER'S HORSE. 91 



miles an hour. The author saw this pony, a few months afterward, strained, 

 ringboned, and foundered-^a lamentable picture of the ingratitude of some 

 human brutes towards a willing and faithful servant. 



THE FARMER'S HORSE. 



The Farmer's Horse is an animal of all work ; to be ridden occasionally to 

 market or for pleasure, but to be principally employed for draught. He should 

 be higher than the road-horse. About fifteen hands and two inches may be 

 taken as the best standard. A horse with a shoulder thicker, lower and less 

 slanting than would be chosen in a hackney, will better suit the collar ; and 

 collar-work will be chiefly required of him. A stout compact animal should be 

 selected, yet not a heavy cloddy one. Some blood will be desirable ; but the 

 half-bred horse will generally best suit the farmer's purpose. He should have 

 weight enough to throw into the collar, and sufficient activity to get over the 

 ground. 



Farmers are now beginning to be aware of the superiority of the moderately- 

 sized, strong, active horse, over the bulkier and slower animal of former days. 

 It is not only in harvest, and when a frosty morning must be seized to cart 

 manure, that this is perceived, but in the every-day work of the farm the saving 

 of time, and the saving of provender too, will be very considerable in the course 

 of a year. 



It has often been said, that a horse used much for draught is neither pleasant 

 nor safe for the saddle. The little farmer does not want a showy, complete 

 hackney. He should be content if he is tolerably well carried ; and — if he has 

 taken a little care in the choice of his horse — if he has selected one with sound 

 feet, shoulders not too thick, and legs not too much under him ; and if he keeps 

 him in good condition, and does not scandalously overweight him, the five 

 days' carting or harrow work will not, to any material degree, unfit him for the 

 saddle ; especially if the rider bears in mind, what we have termed the golden 

 rule of horsemanship, always a little to feel the mouth of the animal he is upon. 



A farmer, and more particularly a small farmer, will prefer a mare to a 

 gelding, both for riding and driving. She will not cost him so much at first ; 

 and he will get a great deal more work out of her. There can be no doubt 

 that, taking bulk for bulk, a mare is stronger and more lasting than a gelding ; 

 and, in addition to this, the farmer has her to breed from. This, and the profit 

 which is attached to it, is well known in the breeding counties ; but why the 

 breeding of horses for sale should be almost exclusively confined to a few 

 northern districts, it is not easy to explain. Wherever there are good horses, 

 with convenience for rearing the colts, the farmer may start as a breeder with 

 a fair chance of success. 



If he has a few useful cart-mares, and crosses them with a well-knit, half- 

 bred horse, he will certainly have colts useful for every purpose of agriculture, 

 and some of them sufficiently light for the van, post-chaise, or coach. If he 

 has a superior mare, one of the old Cleveland breed, and puts her to a bony, 

 three -fourths-bred horse, or, if he can find one stout and compact enough, a 

 seven-eighths or a thorough-bred one, he will have a fair chance to rear a colt 

 that will amply repay him as a hunter or carriage-horse. 



The mare needs not to be idle while she is breeding. She may be worked 

 moderately almost to the period of her foaling, and with benefit rather than 

 otherwise ; nor is there occasion that much of her time should be lost even 

 while she is suckling. If she is put to horse in June, the foaling-time will fall, 

 and the loss of labour will occur, in the most leisure time of the year. 



There are two rocks on which the fanner often strikes— he pays little 

 attention to the kind of mare, and less to the proper nourishment of the foal. 



