88 DRAUGHT HORSES. 



lightish chestnut colour, or sorrel, as it used 

 to be called, often with a blaze and white 

 foot or two, though I have seen some hand- 

 some specimens of a whole colour, generally- 

 then of a darker shade of chestnut. They 

 are very docile and willing, and extra- 

 ordinarily staunch in the collar, a whole 

 team of them having been known to 

 pull at a dead weight till they went on 

 their knees together. Their chief defects 

 are that they are apt to be rounder in the 

 bone than is thought desirable, to stand a 

 little back at the knee, and to have shelly 

 and brittle feet. 



And now we come to the latest develop- 

 ment of the heavy draught horse — the cart- 

 horse par excellence — the so-called Shire- 

 bred, the chief characteristics of which 

 admirable breed are a smallish head, a 

 short, straight neck, with powerful shoulders 

 springing out of a short, broad back, great 

 depth of girth, full quarters, short cannon 



