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THE DIFFERENT BREEDS OF ENGLISH HORSES. 



HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSES. 



The Cleveland horses have been known to carry more than seven hundred 

 pounds sixty miles in twenty-four hours, and to perform this journey four 

 times in a week ; and mill- horses have carried nine hundred and ten pounds two 

 or three miles. 



Horses for slower draught, and sometimes even for the carriage, are produced 

 from the Suffolk Punch, so called on account of his round punchy form. He is 

 descended from the Norman stallion and the Suffolk cart mare. The true Suffolk, 



THE SUFFOLK PUNCH. 



like the Cleveland, is now nearly extinct. 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 many 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 pull 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 every thing before 

 them. Brutal wagers were frequently laid as to their power in this respect, and 



