252 
JSIanagement of Farm-Horses. 
of cart-stallions in their walk, for I hold it as a point of the 
utmost importance that a prize should never be awarded to a bad 
or slow walker, however great his strength or perfect his symmetry 
may otherwise be. 
With these preliminary observations I proceed to consider the 
various breeds of cart-horses. 
The cart-horse is not an aboriginal breed in this country, but 
was imported from the neighbouring continent since the Norman 
Conquest. Indeed we have reason to believe that the horses 
employed in the army of William the Conqueror were little better, 
as respects breeding, than the cart-horse of the present day. As 
long as armour was in fashion a large massive animal was required 
to support the enormous weight of the steel-clad knight, and to 
withstand the ponderous attack of a similar opponent. The 
half-bred horse was then unknown, and the Barb and the 
Spanish horse were insufficient in size, so that recourse was had 
to the large black horse which had been known throughout the 
fertile plains of Europe from time immemorial, and from which 
no doubt the greater portion of our cart-horses are descended, for 
we find that during the reign of the Edwards, repeated import- 
ations of these animals took place, and in the time of the Duke 
of Newcastle, who wrote a work on horses in 1667, there was in 
this country an established breed of cart-horses. 
The most prevailing colour amongst these animals is black, so 
much so that we recognize a distinct breed under the appellation 
of the old black cart-horse. We scarcely ever find that the tho- 
rough-bred horse is of a black colour, whilst it prevails very much 
amongst the coarser kind of horses. The black cart-horse is 
pretty generally distributed throughout England, and may indeed 
be divided into three kinds : — First, the large massive animal 
reared in the rich marshes and plains of the Midland Counties 
expressly for the London brewers ; secondly, the smaller sized, 
but still tolerably heavy, kind of horse generally employed for 
agricultural purposes (a strong compact animal, but slow in his 
action) ; and thirdly, a lighter and more active animal, possessing 
in fact either some admixture of blood of a lighter breed, or being 
the descendants of the Flanders coach-horses discarded from the 
carriage to make room for the Cleveland, and welconied in their 
more legitimate sphere at the plough-tail. 
The dray hovse can only be reared in the richest pastures, and 
is found in the fens of Lincolnshire in the greatest perfection. 
The breeders usually sell them as two year-old colts, retaining as 
much as possible mares for their own work and for the purpose of 
breeding. The purchasers of these colts work them moderately 
till they are four years old, feeding them well during this period, 
and indeed, previous to their resale, they are often taken out of 
