Breeding and Management of Horses on a Farm. 
521 
beyond a perpendicular line dropped from the point of the 
shoulder, he is decidedly a slow and bad walker ; and as the walk 
is the only pace in which a good cart-horse should excel, a mode- 
rate slope of the shoulder^ sufficient to ensure free action of the 
fore-legs, is desirable, though not by any means equal to the 
obliquity of the same part necessary to the proper form of the 
horse required for fast work. The wither of the cart-horse should 
not be high ; the fore-hand broad and roomy ; the carcass well 
let down (in which respect he should to a certain extent differ 
from the nearly or quite thorough-bred horse of any great speed, 
and who is formed more after the model of the greyhound) ; and 
the hind-quarters short, wide, and particularly well clothed with 
muscle from the hip to the hock. The length of the hind- 
quarter in the well-bred horse confers upon him the advantage of 
a great stride ; but as, in the cart-horse, we look more to power 
than very quick action, the quarters from the hip-bone to the 
point below the insertion of the tail should be somewhat short in 
proportion to those of the hunter, short muscles being the most 
powerful. In most other important respects, as in the width and 
formation of the loins, the strength and closeness of the joints, the 
soundness of the feet, &c. &c., the good points of a well-foi-med 
cart-horse should correspond with those of the better-bred ani- 
mal, Avith the exception of such as are merely indicative of breed, 
as the fine ear, the tapering head, the dilating nostril, &c. 
The farmer who is really desirous of impro^dng his breed of 
cart-horses should never breed from any mare before the age of 
five years. With proper food and care she v.ill then have arrived 
at matmity, and be possessed of sufficient vigour of constitution 
to enable her frame to afford due nourishment for the proper 
growth of the foetus ; whereas if, as is frequently the case, she be 
put to the horse at a younger age, and while she is herself 
growing, the efforts of Nature being principally directed towards 
the development of the foal, -will cease to be applied to the 
nourishment of the dam, whose frame consequently must suffer 
from this deprivation of those particles which, under different cir- 
cumstances, would have been applied to the general increase of 
her growth. Even after birth a very young mare will still con- 
tinue to be stinted in her proportions by a large portion of the 
chyle, or nutritious particles of her food, being contained in the 
milk which is sucked from her by the foal, and as the debilitating 
effects of gestation and parturition may prevent her from subse- 
quently acquiring that bulk and stature which she would other- 
wise have possessed, her future progeny may possibly be thereby 
greatly deteriorated. 
The age of the stallion should certainly not be less than seven 
or eight years ; and the more compact his form, the more likely 
