Draught Horses.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 157, 12 November 1872, Page 7

Draught Horses.

A writer in the Timam Herald says We have been breeding draught stock these last twenty years in the colonies from the very best sires and dams Great Britian can send us, but we have only a few yet among us equal to what we get from home ; why should such be the case ? We have good climate, good pasture, good water, in fact, all the elements required for rearing young horses and yet we find ourselves far behind the home breeders in a great many essential points. It has been the fashion hitherto to breed horses with a great lot of hair about their legs; if they have a great profusion of the afore-men-tioned appendage, they are reckoned within the circle of perfection; for with many judges, hair covers a great many deformities —defective loin and barrel, narrow chest and greasy _ heels, which they quite overlook. What is the use of such superfluous quantity of hair about a horse's leg ? It is shnply an excresence, like horns on some breeds of sheep or cattle. We don’t see it helps the horse any way in the duties he has to perform. Thus hair whicli is dry and coarse in character, growing in a thick mass on the sides, front as well as behind, indicates round bone, and gummy, gouty, diseased legs, full of grease and swellings. The right sort of hair may be long, but tine, with a soft glossy appearance, growing only on the back of the (leg, .and only as far as the knee or hock joint no further. A\ hen viewed sideway, it gives the leg an appearance of increased width. Legs with this kind of hair will bo found to bo both flat and thin below the joints, having both tendon and sinews well defined. The joints should lie well-knit, short, slightly leaning back and spreading out where they join the hoof, which itself should be broad and open, but not flat. All that a horse is fitted for is work, whether in saddle, or light or heavy draught, and in every purpose for which lie is used, his legs and feet are brought into prominent requisition ; it is of great impel tance, then, that these should be as perfect as possible, with no defective parts about them, as his strength and durability greatly depend on the structure of bis limbs. Men who breed or use draught stock, and who are conversant with their qualities, know well that horses possessing legs and hair of the character I have tried to define, are more serviceable, more active and durable, than those with the fleshy and hairy legs I have described as to be avoided. In Scotland, horses with large quantities of hair were never thought much of, and now they arc universally condemned throughout Great Baitain. If objectionable there, they are doubly so hi this Colony, with its muddy and dusty roads.