3U 
Notes on Cart Horses, 
money, but they are wanted in greater numbers than the more 
ponderous horse of seventeen hands and upwards, and cost some- 
what less to produce. I was fortunate enough to take the first 
prize at the Royal Agricultural Meeting at Bedford for a 
magnificent pair of Shire bays, which stood 17'3; neither 
Avas better at a big load, if as good, than other horses in my 
possession standing a hand-and-a-half lower. At the present 
time I have two remarkably powerful Shire-bred mares wdiich 
stand rather under than over sixteen hands. 
By the foregoing remarks it must not be inferred that I 
wish to discourage the breeding of horses of great size ; on the 
contrary, I aim at producing such animals myself. My object 
is rather to suggest a classification of the breed, for assuredly 
both a home and a foreign demand exist for each description. 
Conformation, 
In the selection of horses for breeding purposes, it has 
often occurred to me that sufficient importance is not usually 
assigned to the osseous structure of the animals ; nor is this a 
point which has been prominently dealt with in the numerous 
essays upon the subject of horse-breeding, which have appeared 
in the Royal Agricultural Society's ' Journal ' and elsewhere. 
Yet the external form and the great point, now-a-days, of 
action are almost entirely dependent upon the proportions and 
position of parts of the framework of the animal. 
The first point to which I would direct attention has re- 
ference to action. Most writers on the horse attach great 
importance to a sloping shoulder-blade or scapula, without 
paying adequate attention to the position of the bone jointed 
to it, the humerus. 
In the accompanying drawing (Fig. 1) the humenis (^b) is 
shown in the best position ; and in Fig. 2 it is displayed in a 
worse position. It will be observed that, in Fig. 1, the centre 
line of the shoulder-blade (a) and the humerus form together an 
obtuse angle ; the humerus bone being at the same time in a 
position more approaching the perpendicular, relatively to the 
ground, than in Fig. 2. It follows from this position that the 
fore leg is put into the shoulder well forward ; and conse- 
quently that there is less loading " at the shoulder-points, 
and therefore less to impede action. In the purchase of 
draught-horses, as well as riding-horses, I have, for many years, 
paid greater attention to the angle of the humerus than to that 
of the shoulder-blade ; for I have been convinced by experience 
that the fore action of a horse, apart from the question of 
muscles, is governed almost entirely by the position of this 
