WHAT IS A STOCK-HORSE?

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 48, 25 September 1880, Page 3

WHAT IS A STOCK-HORSE?

At a recent meeting of the committee ot the Patea Pastoral Association, an informal discussion was raised upon the above question. The proprietors of this journal had ofiered a special prize for the best stock-horse, and strange to say the members of the ' committee wanted a de-

finition of then* meaning. The givers of the prize desire to explain what their object is, and in order to place it beyond all doubt, submit the following : — A Yorksbireman's definition of a good hack used to be " a nag that can trot a mile in five minutes, and walk it back in ten," and substantially this is the sort of animal a man requires as a good roadster. He must have good paces in the walk and trot, and is all the better if he can canter - 'fairly. But he may be a bit long in the back, and not over strong in the hocks or pasterns, without much impairing his usefulness simply as a hack. But if a man wishes for an animal to carry him well and safely after stock, he certainly needs something of a higher stamp than the above. He must more especially look out for a horse with good shoulders and good understandings. "No hocks, no hunter," is an old adage, and it is at least as true of a stock- horse as of a hunter. Then again, a stock-horse must have bis legs well under him, and must be well-coupled (i.e., have a strong back and loins), if he is to be fairly safe and active in rough places, and is to withstand the constant jars and twists to which he will be submitted. As to height, I think there is a limit ; hi fact, with one or two exceptions, I never remember to have seen a good stock-horse in New Zealand standing over 16 hands. There are no doubt many good horses with a - great deal of thoroughbred blood in their veins, which exceed that height, but scarcely one in a hundred will stand hard work after stock. Many a grand horse in a steeplechase or after hounds would be

as much out of place in rough ground after stock, as a thoroughbred Leicestershire hunter would be among the high banks and deep ditches, cramped fields and hilly country of South Wales or Devonshire.

Very few thoroughbred horses make good stock-horses ; they are apt to be too Hot blooded, and are generally built rather for speed than for strength and activity. Nevertheless, if a man can get hold of a well-bred youngster, standing' about 15.1 or 15.2, up to weight, and with good manners, it is well worth while to go to some trouble to break such a colt . in to stock ; his breeding will tell strongly in his favor at the end of a long spell of hard work, because you can generally depend upon his heart being in the right place. In conclusion, if I we're called upon to go into a yard containing say a hundred newly broken-in colts, and to select, say twenty colts suitable for stock-horses over ordinary New Zealand country, P. should try to piok out first those with the :best shoulders, good quarters, straight lefea, and strong backs. Reject any that did not move in good form at a gallop, avoiding A daisy-cutter, and choosing rather those which lifted their legs well. It is a great boon to have a stock-horse that is a good walker, and it is a well established tact that nine horses out of ten, that walk well are, or can be made, good in other paces ; consequently I should be loth to refuse any oolt that could walk more tfa*a 4$ miles an hour. One might have xaHher a short neck, another a roach-back, or a goose-rump, or ragged hips, or an ugly head, and yetnot be rejected, if they came up to the standard in other respects. I should not care much whether they could or could not trot or canter.

I believe that the above is the sort of horse which fanners in a stock-breeding district need; and it was with the object of encouraging the breeding and exhibition of ftwinndn of the above description, that die proprietors of this journal offered a small special prize. In my opinion, the Pastoral Association would do well to supplement it. The offer would perhaps have been less open to misconstruction if it had been worded thus: " For the best cross-country hack, suitable for a stock•Jiorse." •• ■ ' . . • •• v