BREEDING CITY HORSES. 
213 
( From the Breeders' Gazette.) 
BREEDING CITY HORSES. 
Illinois reader submits the following - 1 
In your issue just at hand you tell us the kind of horses to 
breed for mty uses five years hence; now will you please go a 
little further and tell us how to produce them ? ” 
This is { a horse of another color.” It is comoaratively easy 
to indicate the types of harness horses most in demand, but 
opinion varies widely as-to how they can best be produced. Let 
us get a clear understanding of the problem by defining the 
types of hoises under consideration. By general usage aniono- 
the best-informed, city horses for pleasure purposes are divided 
into two general classes—light-harness and heavy-harness. This 
is not an especially distinct classification, but convenient and 
reasonably accurate. A light-harness horse is a roadster or 
buggy horse. He wears a breast-collar (Dutch collar) harness 
made of light leather throughout, and the bridle to this harness 
. lias an overdraw check, with or without blinders. By heavy 
larness is not meant draft or truck harness, but the heavy- 
strapped collar and hame harness used for traps, gigs, broug¬ 
hams, victorias, coaches and all the various other types of vehi¬ 
cles built in much heavier style than road wagons, top buo-o-ies 
and phoetons. With this harness side-checks or bearino- reins 
are used. The difference is not merely in the collars, but also 
m the size of the straps and weight of the harness throuo-hout 
Horses large enough and rotund enough to fit these heavier ve¬ 
hicles and harness are called heavy-harness horses. They are 
also termed carriage horses, coach horses and higli-steppers. 
Let us first consider the light-harness horse. The cheapest 
horse on the market (aside from “plugs ”) is the ordinary driver 
the buggy horse. This type without speed and with only a 
small amount of good looks has been produced in such vast 
numbers that they are a drug on the market. They are useful 
for buggy purposes. They will draw vehicles (even as heavy 
as a light surrey) at six to eight miles an hour and do excellent 
service as family horses in towns or villages, and are worth 
much more m actual service than their present price, but the 
city will not pay good prices for them. They lack two quali¬ 
ties of a high-priced horse of their class—beauty of form and 
speed.. In breeding the light-harness horse farmers should there¬ 
fore aim at more than an ordinary driver. They should seek 
shapeliness and speed—not two-minute speed, but something 
