DRAUGHT HORSES.

Lake County Press, Issue 77, 22 November 1872, Page 2

DRAUGHT HORSES.

A writer in the Timaru Herald says: We have been breeding draught stock these 1 ist twenty years In the colonies from the very best sires and dams Great Britain can send us, but we have only a few yet among us equal to what we get from home j why should such be the ease ? We have pood climate, good pasture, go-.nl water, in fact, all the elements required for rearing young horses, and yet we find ourselves far b -hind the home breeders in a great 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 afo,e-m«ntioned apuenda-jes, they ate reokoned within the circle of perfection ; for with many judges, hair covers a great nvmy deformities —defective loin and barrel, narrow ch st and greasy heels, which they quite overlo k. What is the u«e of such superfluous quantity of hair about a horde's leg? It is simply an exeresence, 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. This hair which is dryand coarse in character, growing in a thick mas* on the sides, front as well as behind, indicates round hone, and gummy, gouty, diseased legs, full of grease and swelling. The right sort of hair may he long, but fine, with a soft glossy api«»«>ranf>o. trowine onlv on the hae.lt of th P leg. and on fy as tar as tne knee or hock joint—no further. When viewed sideways, it gives the leg an appearance of increased width. L"gs with this kind of hair will be found tobe both flat and thin below the joints, having both tendon and sinews well defined. The joints should he wellknit, short, slightiy leaning back and spreading out where they join the hoof, which itself should be broad ana open, but n>t flat. All that a horse is fitted for is work, whether in saddle, or light or heavy draught, and in every purpose for which h-iis u*ed, his legs avd feet are brought into prominent requisition; it is of great importance, then, that these should he as perfect a-* po>sible, with no defective parts about them, as his strength and durability '.•really d< pend on the structure of his limbs. Men who breed or use draught stock, and who are conversant with their qualities, know w< 11 that horses possessing 1 gs and hair of the character 1 have tried to define, are more serviceable, more activ.and durable, than »hose wirli the fleshy aud hairy legs I have described as to be 'ivoided. In.Scotland, horses with large quantities of hair were never thought much of, and now they are universal I v condemned throughout Great Britain. If objectionable there, they are doubly so in this Colony, with iU muddy and dusty roads.