ESSENTIAL POINTS IN CLYDESDALES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 2 August 1913, Page 10

ESSENTIAL POINTS IN CLYDESDALES.

SOUNDNESS OF FEET ESSENTIAL. (By A. MacNeilaje, editor of the I Scottish Farmer.) ■ The first and indispensable point in a J draught horse is soundness in foot, in joints, and in wind. No breeder desires to produce an unsound horse. If a breeder should use a sire which he knows to be unsound in some particular, he does so, not because he wishes to reproduce that characteristic in his stock, but because he hopes it may not appear, and that good points in the sire which he does wish to reproduce ( may appear. It is needful to emphasise this point, because in recent , speeches there was manifested a tendency to belittle unsoundness in sires. It must be a first principle with breeders that unsoundness is a bad thing, and that no man desires to reproduce it, but quite the reverse. Breeders, in arguing with respect to official control of horse breeding, should be careful to distinguish between two things: the fact that good 6ires of the past have in some particulars been unsound, and 1 the theory that it was their unsoundness which made them good sires. Such horaes were good sires, in spite of their unsoundness: they would have been still better sires if they had been free from their defects. Clydesdales as a breed are declared by dealers wlio handle large numbers of all breeds of horses to be the soundest in respect of feet and limbs of any bre_"d in the British Isles;

3-ut in recent years these gentlemen declare they have found an increasing tendency to unsoundness in wind. One large dealer in Lancashire who bought aeu.ily tor a large brewery firm, In- . formed us that in his experience two j Ulyuesdaie geldings were equal to three Smre geldings; they could be purchased at about the same money; tney | lasted longer on the road on account of their superiority in feet and limos; and when sold out they made a higher salvage price to farmers, who were always eager to get them for farm work. To maintain tnis prestige, and to improve on it, ought to be the aim of e^'ery breeder ot Ulydesdales. The second point to be aimed at is the development of that formation in ( feet and limbs, in body and quarters, and in depth and width of chest, which ensures the minimum of mechanical effort with the maximum of mechanical result in draught, and the best staying j power .when engaged in a day's toil. In icspect to meenanism the Clydesdale aim or ideal in the formation of feet and pasterns aud the set of the limbs, scarcely admits of improvement. It has been formulated not by theoretical standard of points, but to a large extent intuitively as the result of observation and working trial. With a sound foot and open hoot head to begin with, a pastern of medium length, and oblique set, relieves the pressure on the foot, and enables the horse to step out freely, with a spring in his movement and a minimum of concussion when his foot conies to the ground. AVhen the points of the hocks are naturally turned towards each other, rather than away from each other, there is no waste of mechanical energy, and the horse has himself well under control. The staying power has, in the Clydesdale, had less attention paid to it than the means of mechanical propulsion and draught. Hence the present general complaint among Clydesdale patrons, both at Home and abroad, with respect to shortness of back rib, lack of muscular development in the thighs, and narnowness of chest. The avowed ideal of an American patron of the Shire, that what he wanted was a horse as wide as a "waggon with a leg at each corner," is the one extreme; the other is the nar-row-chested, wasp-waisted, herringribbed, and defective hind-quartered specimen, sometimes decorated in the Clydesdale show ring. Hind legs shaving one another, aud forelegs so planted that a currycomb can scarcely be plied j between them, do not make an ideal draught horse. What Clydesdale breedj ers need to guard against is not so much neglect of the right formation of ' feet and limbs, of which there is little ' danger, as overlooking the characteris- ! tics which are essential to the production of weight and staying power. A growthy-looking head, as distinguished from a neat, pony-shaped head, with small ear, a colour which agrees with the fancy of the best customers, and action both at the walking and the trotting gait which admits of soundness and activity being tested, are points of essential importance, but not relatively equal to those embraced under particulars first and c.econd. A good horse can never really be of a bad colour, but he may be -of a colour which lowers his value in the markets of the world. Colour is very much a matter of fancy, but when it comes to selling an animal of commercial value for the export trade a gaudy colour may narrow the circle of customers, and so depreciate the price. Hence it may be worth while for Clydesdale breeders to call a halt in the production of colours which enhance values in Hengler's Circus, but not in the world's draught horse market. The best Clydesdale sires of the past were all good walkers, but some prominent horses of more recent years were very poor walkers. This is a defect in a draught horse, and judges should bestow mo' 6 attention on this essential point.