426 
MANUAL OP MODERN FARRIERY 
physical force. For ordinary purposes they should not be 
above sixteen hands high, with a light, well-shaped head 
and neck, short pricked ears, and brisk, sparkling eyes; the 
nostrils large and wide, to allow freedom in breathing ; 
their chests should be full and deep, with large, strong, 
muscular shoulders, but rather lower in front than other¬ 
wise ; that is, with a large and round rump, which should be 
higher than the forehand ; the tail firm, strong, and well 
furnished with hair ; the back straight and tolerably long, 
but not too much so, as that is found to impair the general 
strength of the animal; the legs should be rather long, flat, 
and broad ; the fillets large and swelling, the joints closely 
knit ; they should stand wide on all their legs, the hind¬ 
quarters being wider than the fore. 
Large horses are better adapted for waggons, and have 
frequently been bred seventeen hands high, and even more, 
with elevated forehands, and deep counters. The great 
object in the breeding of draught-horses is to increase 
strength, activity, and power ; to remove weight as much as 
possible, and procure them of the height of sixteen hands 
for general utility. Indeed it has been proved that horses 
of this size have performed feats of strength of greater 
magnitude than those of elephantine proportions. I re¬ 
member to have seen a black cart-horse, of sixteen hands, 
draw thirty-six hundred weight of baggage, from Glasgow to 
Stirling, a distance of twenty-seven miles, in about eleven 
hours. Instances have been known where a single horse 
has drawn a weight of three tons for a short distance. In 
former times, when burdens were removed from one locality 
to another by horses without carts, the pack-horses of York¬ 
shire were accustomed to carry the weight of four hundred 
and twenty pounds over the old roads, which usually tra¬ 
versed high and precipitous hills. 
